Trump tweets video full of lies by his new favorite COVID doctor.

Trump defends hydroxychloroquine after doctor claims it will cure COVID. The doctor also blames witchcraft for illness and "people having sex in their dreams with demons."

VOX

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have taken down a video spreading false information about a coronavirus "cure" that was shared by  Trump. The clip was viewed millions of times before it was scrubbed from the social media platforms. 

Trump shared the video to 28 million users who have "liked" his page on Facebook and his 84 million followers on Twitter.

The video published by right-wing website Breitbart shows a news conference in front of the Supreme Court steps with South Carolina Republican Rep. Ralph Norman and several people claiming to be doctors who have worked with COVID-19 patients. Dr. Stella Immanuel, one member of the group calling itself "America's Frontline Doctors," said hydroxychloroquine, a drug that was touted by Mr. Trump, is a "cure" for coronavirus. "This virus has a cure, it's called hydroxychloroquine, zinc, and Zithromax," she said. "You don't need masks, there is a cure."

 

Mr. Trump also retweeted a podcast featuring former White House strategist Steve Bannon that claimed Fauci was misleading the American public on the drug. That tweet has not been taken down.
Asked about the disputed video at his White House briefing Tuesday, Mr. Trump said: "There was a group of doctors yesterday, a large group that were put on the internet, and for some reason the internet wanted to take them down. And took them off. I guess Twitter took them off, and I think Facebook took them off. I don't know why. I think they're very respected doctors. There was a woman who was spectacular in her statements about it and she's had tremendous success with it."

Another reporter pointed out, "The woman you said is a great doctor said masks don't work and there's a cure for COVID-19, both of which health experts say is not true. She's also made videos saying doctors make vaccines from DNA from aliens and that they're trying to create a vaccine to make you immune from becoming religious..."

The president replied, "I can tell you this — she was on air, along with many other doctors. They were big fans of hydroxychloroquine. And I thought she was very impressive in the sense that, from where she came, I don't know which country she comes from, but she said that she's had tremendous success with hundreds of different patients. And I thought her voice was an important voice. But I know nothing about her." The president's son, Donald Trump Jr., also shared the fake cure video. His Twitter account was temporarily suspended.

Andy Surabian, a spokesman for Donald Trump Jr., responded, "Twitter suspending Don Jr. for sharing a viral video of medical professionals discussing their views on Hydroxychloroquine is further proof that Big Tech is intent on killing free expression online and is another instance of them committing election interference to stifle Republican voices."

Similar to the conspiracy documentary-style video, "Plandemic," the clip has resurfaced on different websites and other social media platforms, illustrating the ongoing battle with misinformation. 

• The tweet was quickly removed by Twitter. However, VICE News was able to find multiple versions of the video still available on all platforms on Tuesday morning.Despite the high-profile nature of the video, Facebook took hours to remove it, highlighting once again that the company, which has over 2.5 billion users, simply cannot control the spread of disinformation on its network. [Vice / David Gilbert
• [The Daily Beast / Will Sommer]:
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• The conspiracy video that both Trumps chose to promote is objectively absurd: As the Daily Beast reported Tuesday, a doctor featured in the video has argued that the US government is run by “reptilians,” among other bizarre claims.
• Immanuel is a registered physician in Texas, according to a Texas Medical Board database, and operates a medical clinic out of a strip mall next to her church, Firepower Ministries.
• Immanuel was born in Cameroon and received her medical degree in Nigeria.In sermons posted on YouTube and articles on her website, Immanuel claims that medical issues like endometriosis, cysts, infertility, and impotence are caused by sex with “spirit husbands” and “spirit wives”—a phenomenon Immanuel describes essentially as witches and demons having sex with people in a dreamworld.
• “They are responsible for serious gynecological problems,” Immanuel said. “We call them all kinds of names—endometriosis, we call them molar pregnancies, we call them fibroids, we call them cysts, but most of them are evil deposits from the spirit husband,” Immanuel said of the medical issues in a 2013 sermon. “They are responsible for miscarriages, impotence—men that can’t get it up.”

Immanuel’s bizarre medical ideas don’t stop with demon sex in dreams. In a 2015 sermon that laid out a supposed Illuminati plan hatched by “a witch” to destroy the world using abortion, gay marriage, and children’s toys, among other things, Immanuel claimed that DNA from space aliens is currently being used in medicine.

 Dr. Immanuel has run the Fire Power Ministries in Houston, Texas, since 2002

Immanuel claimed in another 2015 sermon posted that scientists had plans to install microchips in people, and develop a “vaccine” to make it impossible to become religious. “They found the gene in somebody’s mind that makes you religious, so they can vaccinate against it,” Immanuel said.

Immanuel elaborated on her fascination with witchcraft in her 2015 Illuminati sermon, claiming that witches were intent on seizing control of children.

In her 2015 sermon on the Illuminati’s supposed agenda to bring down the United States, Immanuel argues that a wide variety of toys, books, and TV shows, from Pokémon—which she declares “Eastern demons”—to Harry Potter and the Disney Channel shows Wizards of Waverly Place and That’s So Raven were all part of a scheme to introduce children to spirits and witches.

Immanuel has seized on her newfound celebrity, tweeting a video demanding that CNN hosts and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases chief Anthony Fauci give her jars of their urine so she can test if they’re secretly taking hydroxychloroquine even as they caution against its use.  “I double dog dare y’all give me a urine sample,” Immanuel tweeted in her challenge. [The Daily Beast / Will Sommer]

• But the coronavirus misinformation problem isn’t just coming from the White House. Over the weekend, the right-wing Sinclair Broadcast Group came under fire for its plan — now abandoned — to air an interview with a conspiracy theorist featured in the Plandemic movie. [Vox / Zeeshan Aleem]
• The video that Trump shared on Monday was backed by the Tea Party Patriots, a fundraising group that has donated more than $24 million to Republicans since 2014. [NBC News / Brandy Zadrozny and Ben Collins]
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• And while Trump continues to amplify baseless coronavirus conspiracies, the pandemic is still running rampant in the US. More than 148,000 people have died of the virus, and a federal report from this past weekend urged 21 states to tighten measures aimed at controlling the virus. [New York Times]