Forest Flashbacks: Forest Spreads More Misinformation about COVID-19, Throws His Own Advice Out the Window

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Friday, October 23, 2020
CONTACT: Liz Doherty

RALEIGH — Forest Flashbacks aims to provide a snapshot of Dan Forest’s week in review. Here are the toplines from this week:

PolitiFact Rates Dan Forest’s Claim that “85% of COVID-19 Patients Wore Masks” FALSE

At the gubernatorial debate last week, Forest continued to disregard science and data, claiming that “85% of the positive cases in America are from people who say they wore the mask everyday, all the time, or at least almost all the time. 85% of the positive cases.” PolitiFact rates this claim “false.”
Spreading misinformation has come to define Forest’s campaign. Over the last few months, Forest falsely claimed that “masks do not work with viruses,” called for schools to reopen immediately with no safety precautions, and said he’d lift the mask mandate if elected.

Forest Throws His Own Advice Out the Window

In April, Dan Forest advised that during flu season, “it’s best not to be shaking each other’s hands and best not be doing things we probably shouldn’t do in groups where the flu is prevalent.”
Mid-pandemic and mid- flu season, Forest has thrown his own advice out the window. He’s ignored his own advice, holding numerous indoor campaign events where his goal is to “shake as many hands as we can.”

Will Forest Denounce Mark Robinson’s Unhinged Comments?

The News & Observer reported that Dan Forest’s running mate, Republican candidate for Lt. Governor, Mark Robinson made homophobic unhinged posts and comments in a 2019 interview. When discussing homosexuality in the church, Robinson agreed with comments that “the wage for sin is death.” Forest has stayed silent on these comments.
A spokesperson for the N.C. Democratic Party stated, “Mark Robinson’s posts and comments are homophobic, anti-Semitic, and downright unhinged. He is clearly not fit to serve in elected office, and the same goes for his running mate Dan Forest who has refused to denounce his comments. The fact that the NCGOP doesn’t have the guts to denounce this kind of fringe behavior shows just how out of touch they’ve become.”

Forest’s Biggest Donor Goes to Jail for Political Bribery

Forest’s biggest donor Greg Lindberg is headed to federal prison for his role in one of North Carolina’s biggest political bribery scandals. Lindberg has contributed $2.4 million to committees which back Forest’s run.
While Lindberg and his associates were sentenced to jail for political bribery, it isn’t that much of a surprise that Forest calls them “good guys” and friends of his… they are his biggest donors after all.

Unsurprisingly, Forest Has No Plan to Protect the Vulnerable From COVID-19

Dan Forest, again, has no plan for how he’d handle the pandemic. The article notes, “[Forest] didn’t drill down, leaving questions about how he’d keep the virus, thought to transmit through people who don’t show symptoms, from entering nursing homes and assisted living facilities.”
Cameron Wolfe, an infectious disease expert at Duke Health, said a plan to protect the elderly only and let everyone else go back to normal would “result in an incredibly large increase in mortality.”
Gov. Cooper made the same point at the debate, “But the problem is, Dan, you treat nursing homes like an island in that everybody can do what they want and you can still protect nursing homes. That is not the way it works. … It all works together. And we need strong measures to make sure we slow down the spread of this virus.”

CBC Editorial: Cooper Listens to Medical Experts, Forest Spreads Misinformation

A Capitol Broadcasting Company editorial contrasts Gov. Cooper and Forest’s approaches to the pandemic. “Gov. Roy Cooper has been taking his cues from medical and scientific experts like Dr. Mandy Cohen, the state Secretary of Health and Human Services.”
While Forest has spread misinformation and held dangerous in-person rallies, “In the face of misguided notions of freedom and partisanship, misinformed carping from politicians like Lt. Gov. Dan Forest and Senate leader Phil Berger, they’ve ignored Trump’s dangerous notions and lack of leadership.”