Florida man trying to oust Liz Cheney says he was deliberately lying when he pushed QAnon

A Florida neighbor of Donald Trump who is working to oust Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) is claiming that he was not dumb enough to believe the QAnon conspiracy theory, but was actually just publicly lying.

"A Florida resident who has become an odd player in the campaign to replace Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney says controversial statements he made in the past, like those related to the QAnon conspiracy theory, were part of an effort to discredit a liberal media that was poised against him," Wyoming News reported Friday.

"In an interview with WyoFile, Karl 'K.W.' Miller, who recently moderated a candidate forum in Casper featuring all but two participants in the 2022 Republican primary for Congress, downplayed his past statements seemingly showing support for the conspiracy theory. Miller said his social media activity during his independent 2020 bid for U.S. Congress in the Sunshine State (in which he received 2% of the vote) was an effort to demonstrate bias by social media giants like Twitter and Facebook," the publication explained.

Republicans Denton Knapp, Marissa Selvig, Chuck Gray, Bryan Miller, Robyn Belinskey and Darrin Smith took part in the "America First" forum.

"A resident of Palm Beach, Miller has recently gotten involved in Wyoming's 2022 Wyoming's Republican primary race for Cheney's seat through his America First Political Committee. The group is "mobilizing to remove liberals and socialist [sic] from political office in 2022," according to its website. Miller comes to Wyoming with a checkered past in politics that includes criminal charges and social media posts promoting bizarre conspiracy theories," Wyoming News reported. "The America First Political Committee is an unregistered organization with the Federal Elections Committee with a name similar to Trump's 'America First PAC.' It raises no money, but works to help embolden candidates in their campaigns against candidates who oppose Trump."

Miller offered a fascinating defense for his QAnon activism.

"On July 4 of last year, Miller tweeted that pop musician Beyoncé is "not even African American," writing she faked her ethnicity for exposure and to assist "the Soros Deep State agenda for the Black Lives Matter movement." He added hashtags to the tweet alluding to the QAnon conspiracy theory," the publicatiion noted. "Miller said the tweets, which sparked a firestorm of media attention in South Florida, were part of a ruse crafted by his campaign team to expose a media apparatus out to get him from the start. 'I have no knowledge of [QAnon], no affiliation,' Miller said. 'That is part of the leftist hit pieces they write, they always want to go after anybody who's a hardcore conservative or anybody as a leader in the party. They try to tag you as a QAnon conspiracy theorist.'"

Read the full report.