New Hampshire state Rep. Ken Weyler (R) is facing bipartisan criticism after he shared wild conspiracy theories about the coronavirus involving Satan, the pope and 5G as well as tentacled creatures lurking in the COVID-19 vaccine.
The lengthy document that the 79-year-old chair of the House finance committee sent to his colleagues claims the vaccine is part of a plot “to gain 100% control over the minds of all of humanity.”
As WMUR-TV in Manchester notes, the document is also full of anti-Catholic bigotry, claiming the Vatican is ruled by multiple popes, including a “grey pope” who is the “supreme puppet master.”
“We must understand that this criminal network is highly spiritual in nature, and all who are at the top are involved in dark ancient spiritual practices,” the report claims. “To put it bluntly, they are satanists, also called luciferians.”
The document also claims that both the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines were examined under a microscope, which revealed a tentacled creature in each vial that “moves around, lifts itself up, and even seems to be self aware.”
State Rep. Suzanne Vail (D) called it “52 pages of lies.”
“Do not listen to him or believe anything he says,” she wrote on Twitter. “It’s a sad day, and I’m sorry to make this request.”
Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican, said Weyler should lose his committee chair.
“I have repeatedly expressed directly to Speaker [Sherman] Packard about the need to remove Weyler from this position of leadership,” Sununu said in a statement cited by InDepthNH. “These latest absurd emails have accelerated the urgency that the Speaker needs to take action.”
Rep. Mary Jane Wallner, the ranking Democrat on the committee, agreed.
“The continued dissemination of disinformation on COVID from Rep. Weyler is a danger to public health in New Hampshire and to the credibility of the legislature as a whole,” she said in a statement cited by New Hampshire Public Radio.
Weyler told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he had no comment.
Packard initially downplayed the incident, telling NHPR that it was “not uncommon, whether one agrees or disagrees with the content, for a committee chair to share constituent information with committee members.”
He later sent a revised statement to WMUR calling it an “internal matter” and stating that he is “reviewing the situation.”