GOP official defends post blaming George Soros for 'staged' killing of George Floyd: I wanted to 'get people to think for themselves'

The chairman of the Harrison County Republican Party in Texas is under fire after he shared a conspiracy theory on his party's Facebook page claiming that the death of George Floyd "staged" by George Soros, CBS19 reports.

The post shared by Lee Lester was also previously shared by Bexar County GOP Chairwoman CynthiaBrehm -- which prompted Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to call for her resignation.

"These officers were involved with something, I’m not sure exactly what, but something is just not adding up," the post read. "I think there is at the very least the 'possibility', that this was a filmed public execution of a black man by a white cop, with the purpose of creating racial tensions and driving a wedge in the growing group of anti deep state sentiment from common people, that have already been psychologically traumatized by Covid 19 fears."

In the wake of the fallout, Lester edited the post to say that he didn't necessarily believe the claims.

"I am editing this post to say that I didn’t say I believed all this," he wrote in the updated version. "What my intentions are is to say that I wasn’t there to witness any of this to be able to say what happened. I do believe we need to discuss the protocol of our police, but I know that they can now make movies to show anything. The officers have been charged. We have a Judicial system to get the facts. Let’s see what that system comes up with before we decide what we believe."

Speaking to the Marshall News Messenger, Lester said he shared the post to "get people to think for themselves."