ReAwaken America Tour

The ReAwaken American tour, begun in the summer of 2021, is a political protest movement against COVID-19 mitigation measures and in support of the far-right conspiracy theory that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump.[1]

Founder

The ReAwaken America tour was founded by Clark Clark, a business coach and entrepreneur and former mayoral candidate in Tulsa, Oklahoma.[2][3][4] In August 2020, Clark initiated a lawsuit against the city of Tulsa for its mask mandate to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. The lawsuit alleged that wearing masks caused oxygen deprivation, leading to "migraine headaches, shortness of breath and dizziness."[5] The lawsuit was dropped in March 2021.[6]

Clark has publicly espoused his belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories. When he spoke at the January 5, 2021, rally held at Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., in support of Donald Trump's protest of the outcome of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, Clark told attendees that the coronavirus pandemic was a hoax and instructed them to "turn to the person next to you and give them a hug, someone you don't know. Go hug somebody. Go ahead and spread it out, mass spreader. It's a mass-spreader event!"[7][8]

On a June 2021 episode of The Stew Peters Show, he argued that the COVID-19 vaccine contained luceiferase, which he believed was a cryptocurrency technology associated with the Mark of the Beast prophesied in Revelation 13:16-18.[9] This conspiracy, according to Clark, included Bill Gates (under the influence of performance artist and alleged Satanist Marina Abramović), and Jeffrey Epstein. Clark accused Gates and Epstein of attempting to create a new race of humans by combining luciferase and Epstein's DNA into the COVID-19 vaccine.[9][10]

At an October 2021 rally in Salt Lake City, Utah, Clark made the unproven claim that "COVID-19 is 100 percent treatable using budesonide, hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin." He also accused George Soros of funding remdesivir, a drug used to treat severe cases of COVID-19 but which Clark said was "killing COVID-19 patients in the hospital because it causes renal failure."[11]

The Tour

Origins

According to Clark, as the COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020, he asked God, "What can I do to stop the quarantines, the curfews, the mandates, the lockdowns?" The answer he received, Clark said, with "100% of God-ordained clarity . . . was to begin reawakening America."[12] Despite the religious origins of the tour, it was has been criticised by major Christian leaders.[13]

In the spring of 2021, Clark inaugurated the "Health and Freedom" events to protest COVID-19 mitigation measures such as masking and vaccinations.[14] According to Clark, he was inspired to undertake the tour by a 1963 prophecy by Charismatic minister Kenneth E. Hagin, who predicted that "there would be an atheistic, communist, Marxist and racially divisive spirit that would descend upon America" and that "the spark of the revival would start from Tulsa, Oklahoma."[12] Clark also stated that he received confirmation of his importance from a 2013 prophecy by the South-African Charismatic evangelist Kim Clement, who identified a "Mr. Clark" about whom he believed God said: "You have been determined through your prayers to influence this nation. You're watching me; you're an influential person. The Spirit of God says, 'Hear the word of the prophet to you as a king, I will open that door that you prayed about.'"[15][12]

Perhaps because of the alleged supernatural origins of the tour or maybe because the tour's themes appeal to a subset of evangelical Christians, all but one of the ReAwaken America events have been held at churches.[16][17]

2021

In the summer of 2021, these "Health and Freedom" events were rebranded the ReAwaken America Tour, sponsored by Charisma News.[18] While the events (under both names) initially received attention for their opposition to COVID-19 mitigation measures, from the beginning, they also focused significant attention on supporting conspiracy theories related to the 2020 presidential election, including those espoused by Qanon followers.[19][20]

During the November event held at Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, Clark reportedly led attendees in the "Let's Go Brandon!" chant, a euphemism used in place of the more explicit "Fuck Joe Biden!"[21][22][23] At the same event, Michael Flynn stated, "If we are going to have one nation under God, which we must, we have to have one religion. One nation under God, and one religion under God."[24]

At the December event held at Elevate Life Church in Dallas, Texas, several speakers, including Joe Oltmann and Jovan Hutton Pulitzer, became ill. Oltmann claimed that he was "99%" sure that his symptoms were from contact with anthrax. Clark denied the accusation, saying that what some people believed was an anthrax attack was actually just a fog machine. He also denied being part of the Illuminati.[25][26][27]

In December 2021, Eric Coomer, a former executive at Dominion Voting Systems, filed a federal defamation lawsuit against Clark, his ThriveTime Show, and his ReAwaken America Tour for having "monetized a false election fraud narrative" that produced "a constant drumbeat of outright falsehoods intended to place [Eric] Coomer at the center of an imagined conspiracy to defraud the American people." The suit alleges that Clark began his attacks in December 2020 during a podcast interview when he told Joe Oltmann that Coomer "could/should be put to death" for treason.[28]

2022

In early 2022, Clay Clark began incorporating conspiracy theories about the "Great Reset" into the tour.[29][30]

At the March event in San Diego, Michael Flynn said, "We need you to charge the machine gun nest…. Maybe I'm just asking you to dig a little bit deeper there or hold this side of the line, or form up cause we're gonna counterattack over here, and that counterattack is, we're gonna go after school boards." This language led some commentators to charge Flynn with inciting violence against educators for allegedly teaching critical race theory.[31]

Event Dates and Locations

2021
Date Location City Type of event
April 16-17 Rhema Bible College[32] Broken Arrow, Oklahoma Regular
June 17-19 The River Church[33] Tampa, Florida Regular
July 17-18 Influence Church[34] Anaheim, California Regular
August 19-21 Deltaplex Arena & Conference Center[35] Grand Rapids, Michigan Regular
September 24-25 Charis Christian Center[36] Colorado Springs, Colorado Regular
November 11-13 Cornerstone Church San Antonio, Texas Regular
December 2-3 Tulsa, Oklahoma Business
December 9-11 Elevate Life Church Dallas, Texas Regular
December 16-17 Tulsa, Oklahoma Homeschool

2022
Date Location City Type of event
January 14-15 Dream City Church[37] Phoenix, Arizona Regular
February 18-19 Trinity Gospel Temple[38] Canton, Ohio Regular
March 3-4 Tulsa, Oklahoma Business
March 11-12 Awaken Church[39] San Marcos, California Regular
April 1-2 River Church Salem[40] Salem, Oregon Regular

List of speakers

The lineup of speakers at each tour event varies.[14][18] The following is a partial list of 2021-22 speakers:[41]

  • Ty Bollinger, American alternative medicine advocate
  • Mark Burns, American pastor and 2022 South Carolina congressional candidate[42]
  • Patrick M. Byrne, former CEO of Overstock.com
  • Jim Cavaziel, American actor
  • William Cook, American pastor and founder of America's Black Robe Regiment[43]
  • Sean Feucht, American activist and Christian singer-songwriter
  • Michael Flynn, U.S. Army general and former National Security Advisor
  • Simone Gold, anti-vaccine activist
  • Mark Victor Hansen, American motivational speaker and author
  • Gene Ho, Donald Trump's former photographer and unsuccessful 2021 candidate for mayor of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina[44]
  • Stella Immanuel, Cameroonian-American physician and pastor
  • Alex Jones, American radio host and conspiracy theorist
  • Robert F. Kennedy Jr., American environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine activist
  • Alan Keyes, American politician and former U.S. presidential candidate
  • Charlie Kirk, American political activist and radio talk show host
  • Mike Lindell, American businessman, conservative political activist, and conspiracy theorist
  • Greg Locke, Tennessee pastor and conspiracy theorist[45]
  • Lara Logan, South African journalist and war correspondent
  • Judy Mikovits, former American research scientist and COVID-19 conspiracy theorist
  • Ken Paxton, Texas attorney general (2015–present)
  • Sidney Powell, American attorney and conspiracy theorist
  • Chad Prather, American Internet personality
  • Wendy Rogers, Arizona state senator and conspiracy theorist
  • Owen Shroyer, Infowars show host and conspiracy theorist[46]
  • Roger Stone, American political consultant and lobbyist
  • Eric Trump, son of former U.S. president Donald J. Trump[47]
  • Carlo Maria Viganò, former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States (2011-16)[48]
  • Lin Wood, American attorney and conspiracy theorist

References
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  3. "29-year-old businessman Clay Clark says he's running for Tulsa mayor". Oklahoman.com. 2009-05-28. Retrieved 2021-12-12.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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