Chris Johansen, Maine Lawmaker Whose Wife Cindy Johansen Died of COVID, Joins Anti-Vaxx Rally

A Republican legislator in Maine who misplaced his spouse to COVID-19 final week appeared at a rally on Tuesday that featured a GOP colleague who in contrast the state’s Democratic governor to a Nazi physician who carried out lethal experiments on Jews in the course of the Holocaust.

State Rep. Chris Johansen, who emerged within the early days of the pandemic as a fierce opponent of public health-related restrictions, joined a bunch of lawmakers on the occasion in Augusta. State Rep. Heidi Sampson delivered a speech to the gang that baselessly accused Gov. Janet Mills, who has launched a vaccine mandate for health-care employees, of working a authorities marketing campaign to check “experimental” vaccines on unknowing residents.

She described Mills because the “reincarnated” Nazi physician Josef Mengele, who carried out lethal experiments on Jewish individuals in Auschwitz dying camps in the course of the Holocaust.

“Do I have to remind you of the late Nineteen Thirties and into the 40s in Germany. And the experiments with Josef Mengele,” Sampson mentioned in line with a video from the event posted online. “What was it? A shot. And these have been crimes in opposition to humanity. And what got here out of that? The Nuremberg Code. The Nuremberg Trial. Knowledgeable consent is on the prime and violating that’s punishable by dying.”

She additionally in contrast vaccine mandates to the Tuskegee syphilis experiment on Black males. Sampson didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon Friday.

The rally got here in response to a current announcement that health-care employees can be required to get pictures as a part of a push to shore up vaccinations amongst state and federal workers and health-care employees with public-facing roles.

State Rep. Shelley Rudnicki, who recorded the rally on Facebook Live, advised The Day by day Beast on Friday that the occasion had been misunderstood and wasn’t a lot anti-vaccines because it was a “pro-freedom” rally.

“The vaccine was only a end result of every part,” Rudnicki contested. “It was a ‘proper to decide on’ rally.”

When requested a few pattern of comparisons being made between vaccine playing cards and Jews being compelled to hold the Star of David in the course of the Holocaust, she mentioned: “I believe what lots of people are saying is, asking for individuals’s papers, and that’s what it comes right down to.”

In line with the Bangor Daily News, neither Chris Johansen nor his spouse Cindy, who served as corresponding secretary for the Aroostook County Republicans, had been vaccinated in opposition to COVID when she first started describing her signs on Fb final month.

Whereas there’s little proof of her dying on the Fb web page of Aroostook County Republicans, the Aroostook County Democrats posted a condolence message on Facebook on Aug. 15. Her dying was later confirmed to The Day by day Beast by a spokesperson for the Maine Republican Celebration.

Cindy Johansen shared in a Facebook post on July 16 that her legs felt like rubber and she or he felt she was “going to go out.”

“It’s completely horrible to be alone,” Johansen wrote in a July 21 put up.

Chris Johansen shared updates about his spouse on his Facebook page earlier this month, reporting that medical doctors wanted to make sure that his spouse was “able to breath on her personal once they take away the vent.”

Not longer after Johansen’s spouse had shared details about her preliminary signs, a Maine journalist posted to Twitter what he mentioned was a recording of a brief interview with Chris Johansen who could be heard saying: “Hear up, I’ve acquired COVID and I’m actually, actually sick and I simply don’t have time to speak to you in the present day.”

Johansen, nonetheless, has since adamantly denied contracting the virus and dismissed the validity of reviews that prompt in any other case. He refused to substantiate if he’d examined constructive or to not native publications, reportedly hanging up when contacted by the Bangor Day by day Information late final month.

When reached by The Day by day Beast on Thursday and requested about his prognosis he mentioned: “All of those reviews are false.”

He declined to elaborate additional, saying: “We’re completed, thanks.”

In the meantime, Johansen’s activism in opposition to coronavirus restrictions and vaccines are well-documented.

In April and Could final 12 months, he was concerned in organizing rallies the place protestors at occasions wielded pro-Trump flags and hats whereas difficult Mills’ coronavirus-related restrictions.

In Could, Johansen was amongst seven lawmakers who flouted a masks requirement on the Maine State Home. He was later stripped of his committee assignment.

The transfer solely appeared to additional gasoline his efforts in railing in opposition to State Home guidelines. He later mentioned he would discover authorized motion in opposition to the state Home Speaker to forestall a masks mandate within the legislature.

He has additionally posted memes on Fb that seem to undermine the vaccines. In a single meme posted to his web page final month that includes two rats, one seems to show down a vaccine as a result of “they’re nonetheless testing it on the people.”

The dying of Johansen’s spouse comes after a rising variety of county-level officers and their spouses have fallen sick, and at occasions later died, from the virus whereas persevering with to rail in opposition to masks mandates.

Pressley Stutts, a GOP get together chief in South Carolina’s Greenville County, died on Thursday after an almost monthlong battle in opposition to COVID. His spouse had additionally been hospitalized.

On Aug. 12, Stutts had issued an update on Facebook, saying that his an infection had created “insidious double pneumonia.” A day later, he mentioned that he had opted to go on a ventilator.

Whilst Stutts reported that his oxygen ranges had dropped, he mentioned he believed that former President Donald Trump had “uncovered” what he known as depravity and corruption, whereas urging his constituents to make up their very own minds about COVID-19 security measures.

“In the event you really feel it is advisable to put on a masks, by all means, do. If not, don’t,” Stutts wrote on Aug. 1. “If after your entire prayerful and knowledgeable analysis, it is advisable to get a shot, by all means, be happy to take action, however NEVER demand that others be required to take action.”