One surefire way to garner some extreme MAGA-cred nowadays is to get COVID-19, lie about it and say you just have pneumonia, and remain unrepentant as an avowed anti-vaxxer. But there’s at least one MAGA diehard—an associate of Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon—who has taken things a step further.
His name is Ben Bergquam, and he has recently been vlogging from his hospital bed—after being admitted for contracting the coronavirus. Bergquam has talked about how thrilled he is that he never got the COVID vaccine, and has—naturally—made sure to brag to his viewers about how in-shape he is.
Anyway, he ended up on oxygen, and has vlogged from the COVID ward about how much trouble he’s had breathing in the middle of the night.
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“He’s recording videos from his hospital bed about like, ‘I'm so glad I didn't get the vaccine,’” Fever Dreams co-host Will Sommer recounted to co-host Asawin Suebsaeng on this week’s episode of The Daily Beast’s Fever Dreams podcast. “He’s got the oxygen tube in his nose, and he’s saying, ‘Oh, you just gotta stay fit, you won’t die of COVID.’ And it’s like, buddy, if you’re in your thirties, and you’re getting hospitalized, and you’re in relatively good shape—that’s not a great outcome for you from having the virus.”
If you’re wondering whether Bergquam took the time to record some requisite MyPillow promos, yes. Yes, he did.
“He made the decision that with his potentially dying, gasping breaths, he was going to vlog,” Suebsaeng said, astonished. “Gotta be a part-time pillow salesman while I’m potentially on my deathbed.”
Elsewhere on the episode, Suebsaeng and Fever Dreams producer Jesse Cannon interviewed Abbie Richards, a TikTok “power user” who is also a leading expert on how conspiracy theories have wildly proliferated on the popular video service.
Sommer and Suebsaeng also discussed the former’s exclusive reporting on former U.S. House staffer Imran Awan—and how then-President Donald Trump and right-wing media outlets tore his and his family’s lives to shreds. Predictably, Trump and some of his media allies did this armed with nothing but a bonkers, utterly baseless conspiracy theory.
And if you want to learn more about the new group that Trumpist pillow mogul Mike Lindell started to help coordinate various elections crackdowns across the country, check out the latest Fever Dreams episode. Did we mention this particular group is actually run by two attendees of the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot?
Listen, and subscribe, to Fever Dreams on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher.
