Carlo Maria Viganò, who used to be a far-right full-on MAGA Catholic archbishop, is now a far-right full-on MAGA former archbishop, having been excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church in July. Viganò has been one of the most frenzied right-wing critics of Pope Francis, who he called a “servant of Satan.”
Viganò apparently intends to continue using his platform to rile up right-wing activists. He released a raving rant against the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games, which set off more than a few religious-right activists. Viganò’s statement went much further than claims of blasphemy, anti-Christian bias, and “wokeism.” He also promoted false far-right conspiracy theories claiming that the wife of French President Emanuel Macron and former U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama are actually men:
It is no coincidence that the one sponsoring this revolting carnival is an emissary of the World Economic Forum, Emanuel Macron, who passes off a transvestite as his own wife with impunity, just as Barack Obama is accompanied by a muscular man in a wig. It is the reign of mystification, of falsehood, of fiction erected as a totem, in which man is disfigured precisely because he was created in the image and likeness of God.
Viganò’s statement was irresistible to BlazeTV’s Sara Gonzales, who called it “the take that everyone needs to be talking about.” She called attention to Viganò’s remarks in the Monday episode of her “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered” show. “He brings up both Big Mike [the snide term used by far-right activists who claim Michelle Obama is a man] and Macron, the president of France’s ‘wife,’ question mark?”
The ridiculous claims about Michelle Obama, often accompanied by falsified documents and faked photos, were featured in a Teen Vogue investigation into such misogynist and anti-trans disinformation in March, which noted that “baseless, lurid, purposely rude theories about Michelle Obama being ‘a man’” have been circulating online for at least a decade as “part of an attempt to discredit both her and President Obama.”
The thoroughly debunked claim about Macron’s wife has been given new life online this year by far-right pundit Candace Owens.
On her show, Gonzales showed a video clip of Michelle Obama dancing on The Ellen Show and claimed that the video shows something “shaking” in her pants—an obsession in some corners of the internet—with Gonzales repeatedly showing the clip and asking her producers to “zoom in.”
Asking why these conspiracy theories or drag queen performances matter, Gonzales returned to Viganò’s statement, which says “Tolerance cannot be the alibi for the systematic destruction of Christian society.” Responded Gonzales, “Well said.”
Viganò built a following in the MAGA movement with his near-religious devotion to Trump. In 2020, Vigano published an open letter praising Trump as a leader in the struggle between “the children of light and the children of darkness.” The letter was rife with conspiracy theories.
After Trump lost the election, Viganò appeared on the weekly prayer call of Stop the Steal activist Ed Martin on the eve of a Nov. 13 Stop the Steal rally. Vigano suggested that Trump’s opponents were “forces of evil” and that “the kingdom of darkness has sought to subvert the outcome of the presidential elections.” A month later, Vigano participated in an ecumenical pro-Trump rally at which Oath Keepers founder Stuart Rhodes threatened bloody civil war.
Reuters reported that after his excommunication, Viganò released a diatribe against Francis for representing an “inclusive, immigrationist, eco-sustainable, and gay-friendly” church, none of which Viganò means as a compliment.
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