Gowdy Didn’t Author Viral Conspiracy Theory

Quick Take: A viral Facebook post, spreading a political conspiracy theory about COVID-19, is wrongly attributed to former Rep. Trey Gowdy. Gowdy confirmed to us that he did not write the post in question.

Full Story: Former Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina has publicly weighed in on some issues concerning the novel coronavirus pandemic and the U.S. politics surrounding it.

But the former Republican congressman did not write a more than 400-word conspiracy theory circulating on Facebook that implies, without any proof, that the outbreak was planned to help Democrats in the 2020 election.

“From Trey Gowdy,” the post begins. “I’m not saying Covid-19 isn’t real… But Pay attention folks, there’s much more going on here than what meets the eye.”