Mike Lindell tied to 'pseudoscience' dark-money group pushing deadly plant toxin as COVID cure: report
Right-wing conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers have pushed a number of alternative COVID-19 cures ranging from useless to downright harmful — from an anti-malaria drug, to a dewormer, to liquid silver, to drinking antiseptic and bleach, to even taking powerful sex hormone suppressors used in transgender health care.
But one of the most potentially dangerous of these quack remedies was oleandrin, a toxin found in Oleander plants that can cause deadly disruptions of heart rhythm. And one of its biggest proponents has been Mike Lindell, the infamous CEO of MyPillow who has been on a Quixotic quest to overturn the 2020 presidential election and "reinstate" former President Donald Trump.
A new Daily Beast investigation reveals more details of Lindell's involvement with oleandrin — it turns out he has ties to a "pseudoscience" dark money group that has been pushing the deadly remedy.
"This story, which unfolded nearly 18 months ago, would have likely gone untold if it weren’t for one person: Kenneth Happel," reported Roger Sollenberger and William Bredderman. "Happel claims to have partnered with the group, Propter Strategies, in its secretive work. But eventually, he became another victim of it. To this day, Propter Strategies is a black hole, despite its high-profile connections and multimillion-dollar budget. Aside from Happel’s account, there is no evidence of Propter’s activities anywhere in the public record. And that might be with good reason: Those activities included hawking the snake-oil COVID treatment oleandrin at the highest levels of the government, as the pandemic’s lethal second wave peaked across the country."
READ: Trump White House docs had to be retrieved from Mar-a-Lago
Happel himself has lost his wife to COVID-19 and is currently ill with his second infection, but remains "unrepentant," according to the report.
"Happel — a former Tea Party activist with an entrepreneurial history that intersects with biotechnology — recounted working on oleandrin in 2020 with Propter board member Andrew Whitney," said the report. "A serial entrepreneur and former Bain Capital investor, Whitney was actually pulling oleandrin double-duty — he was on the board at the nonprofit Propter, as well as at Texas-based Phoenix Biotechnologies, whose research centered on the product. Happel also acknowledged the connection to Lindell, who, it turns out, also holds a financial stake in Phoenix Biotechnologies. And so, smack in the middle of that deadly second-wave summer, Whitney and Lindell paired up for a MAGA media parade, stumping for oleandrin as a neglected medical miracle on fringe conservative platforms from Newsmax to Diamond and Silk’s show on YouTube."
Despite the complete lack of science behind this treatment, and its potential dangers, Lindell still defends it, claiming, "I take it every day" and that he has a stockpile for his friends and family.
You can read more here.
IN OTHER NEWS: National Archives says Trump representatives are still looking for additional docs he smuggled to FL
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