The Gallup-ing Conspiracy Theorist

WorldNetDaily wants its author Carl Gallups to be taken seriously, but his promotion of wild conspiracy theories (not to mention his birtherism) keep putting WND in cleanup mode.

By Terry Krepel
Posted 4/26/2016

Carl Gallups

That's the pseudonym Gallups used to post various religious and political videos on YouTube. A July 2009 WND article by Joe Kovacs promoted a PPSimmons video who claimed that an interpretation of various Bible verses by plucking out words and translating back into Hebrew indicates that Obama is the Antichrist. Gallups was not identified as the man behind PPSimmons, Kovacs stated that the creator was "a self-described Christian with a theological education and many years in the ministry" who wanted to remain anonymous "out of concern for members of his local church."

Kovacs and WND obviously liked what they saw -- WND signed Gallups to a book contract, and he has so far has produced four religious titles for WND: "The Magic Man in the Sky," "The Rabbi Who Found Messiah," "Final Warning" and "Be Thou Prepared."

These days, though, Gallups is best known for promoting conspiracy theories, and not just about Obama being the Antichrist. His Florida-based radio show is the go-to media outlet (now that WND has given up the birther ghost) for Mike Zullo -- the head of the Maricopa County, Arizona, "cold case posse" authorized by Sheriff Joe Arpaio that claims to be investigating the legitimacy of Barack Obama's birth certificate -- when he has some tidbit of information to share to string the birthers along and further the idea that the evidence proving once and for all that Obama is a Muslim from Kenya (or something) will be released any day now.

So enmeshed in such conspiracy-mongering is Gallups, in fact, that WND must clean up after to protect what little reputation he has.

Dishonest defenses

WND was already doing a pre-emptive defense of Gallups before his first WND book, "The Magic Man in the Sky," was released -- though at the time it could be considered promotion. A May 2012 WND article by Michael Thompson highlighting YouTube's suspension of "the immensely popular PPSimmons Ministry account" is dishonest in several ways.

First, there's the depiction of PPSimmons as "immensely popular," which Thompson backs up by claiming that it had "more than 23,000 subscribers, 530-plus videos and 21 million views." By comparison, PewDiePie's channel on YouTube has 43 million subscribers and a whopping 11 billion views -- that's what "immensely popular" actually looks like.

Second, Thompson pretended that PPSimmons has never done anything particularly controversial or offensive: He describes the channel's output as "videos on biblical commentary, startling biblical revelations and, perhaps most controversially, political revelations concerning Barack Obama and his birth certificate." And, Thompson failed to mention, that video arguing Obama is the Antichrist.

As ConWebWatch noted in 2011, Gallups' PPSimmons YouTube account included several videos it claimed to have "produced for WND" -- a relationship Thompson didn't disclose. And that wasn't the only bit of non-disclosure dishonesty here.

Twice in his article, Thompson noted that Gallups is the author of a "soon-to-be-released book on Christian apologetics," then let Gallups himself work in a plug:

“To make matters worse, the termination of the YouTube channel occurred two weeks prior to the release of my book, ‘The Magic Man in the Sky,’ and at the same time I was doing interviews across the nation on talk radio concerning the Sheriff Joe Arpaio investigation into President Obama’s birth certificate ordeal,” said Gallups.

Guess who was publishing Gallups' book? That's right -- WND Books. Guess how many times that disclosure of a conflict of interest appears in Thompson's story? That's right -- zero. Guess when this article appeared? Two weeks before the book's release date.

One wonders if Gallups deliberately uploaded an inflammatory video he knew would result in an automatic shutdown of his YouTube Account so he could exploit the controversy to promote his new book. This is WND we're talking about here, so such underhanded tactics are not exactly out of the question.

The "Antichrist" bailout

A February 2015 WND article by Leo Hohmann forwarded speculation that the new prime minister of Greece, Alexios Tsipras, is the Antichrist. This is dutifully followed by "prophecy experts," which Hohmann portrays Gallups as, shooting down the idea as well as such speculation about anyone:

However, in the 2,000 years since the time of Christ, Christians have attempted to identify many characters as “the antichrist.”

Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler, various popes, various U.S. presidents, and other powerful world leaders have made the list. And, it is no secret that many Christians claim to see “antichrist spirit” characteristics in any number of current world leaders. Again, their batting average has been abysmal and if these prophecy gurus were baseball players they would not even make it in the minor leagues.

“There can be little doubt that the ‘spirit of antichrist’ continues to grow stronger with the passing years and the continual degradation of the world’s attitude toward the Word of God and Jesus Christ,” Gallups said. “The advice I give to Christians who inquire upon this subject is: carefully discern the times, rightly divide the Word of truth, stay cognizant of the growing spirit of deception and deceit so that we might speak biblical truth and relevance to the decaying culture around us, and keep the main thing – the main thing. Winning souls, equipping the saints, and effectively advancing the Kingdom of Jesus Christ in hearts and lives.”

And who is one of those minor-league prophecy gurus with an abysmal batting average in identifying a certain U.S. president with Antichrist tendencies? Carl Gallups. Did Hohmann mention that fact, or that his employer is a chief promoter of the idea that Obama is the Antichrist? Nope.

In August 2015, Cheryl Chumley promoted one of WND's favorite conspiracy theories -- that President Obama is the Antichrist -- by altering it a bit. It's now citing random evangelists who say "President Obama isn’t the Antichrist – but he sure is 'paving the way' for him." Actually, it seems that the article was a platform for Gallups to whitewash his history on the subject. Note this bit of slippery wording from Chumley:

As Carl Gallups, author of the newly released “Final Warning: Understanding the Trumpet Days of Revelation,” and co-author with Charl Van Wyk of the upcoming “Be Thou Prepared: Equipping the Church for the Persecution and Times of Trouble,” told Fox News Radio host Alan Colmes in a past interview: An antichrist spirit can be present in many.

He told Colmes: “I have never claimed to believe that Obama is the antichrist. However, I have said that Obama certainly displays an alarmingly powerful antichrist spirit.”

Well, actually, by making and promoting the video, Mr. Gallups, you are in fact proclaiming that Obama is the antichrist.

In his Colmes interview, Gallups tried to distance himself further from that video he made, declaring that "All I did was made the video presentation of that linguistic presentation that other people had discovered because it's thought-provoking, that's all." When Colmes called Gallups out on spreading the idea of Obama as the Antichrist, Gallups again insisted that he never claimed Obama is the Antichrist, only an antichrist, and he again refused to apologize for making the video.

Given that Gallups is also a birther and buddy of cold case posse chief Mike Zullo, it's in his interest to denigrate the president at every opportunity.

Pushing Sandy Hook conspiracy

Gallups got into trouble again, and it was time for another (this time unbylined) bailout article on March 10:

Pastor, former law enforcement officer and talk show host Carl Gallups is firing back at an international smear campaign by liberal media outlets around the world claiming he denied the Sandy Hook school shooting took place.

“I am not a Sandy Hook ‘truther,'” Gallups told WND.

And he said people should consider the source and possible motive. After all, he’s endorsed GOP presidential primary front-runner Donald Trump, and a condemn-by-association strategy could be in play.

So what did Gallups do? From the article:

Gallups explained the media was focusing on an interview he did with a man who claimed a picture of the father of one of the victims looked remarkably similar to a picture of one of the FBI agents at the scene. It was in that context, Gallups said, he referred to Sandy Hook as a “hoax,” giving the perspective of his guest.

“I can state, right now, that not only have I never said categorically that the Sandy Hook tragedy is a complete fabrication or hoax, right now, I’m denying that it was a hoax,” Gallups said.

“That doesn’t prevent me from asking questions. That doesn’t prevent me from saying, ‘Here’s a part of that whole scenario that is odd.’ When I’m behind that microphone interviewing people, I’m a radio host and an investigative reporter and so I make no apologies for asking those questions.”

As a former law enforcement officer, Gallups said he is used to examining all aspects of a case. He said several aspects of the case in Sandy Hook were unusual in his own professional experience. However, he does not deny the attacks took place, nor does he say it was simply made up.

“No one will find anywhere in writing or any audio clip taken in context, that I have ever claimed Sandy Hook is a complete hoax from top to bottom,” Gallups told WND. “I have always said, from the beginning, as many people were saying, that there are many things about the case that are strange."

As he did with the Obama-Antichrist claim, he's complaining because he got busted for promoting a crazy conspiracy theory.

The WND article is marvelously vague on what exactly Gallups did and said, since it doesn't link to the interview in question. In fact, he did much more than conduct an interview; Gallup's PPSIMMONS website posted at least five articles by the pseudonymous "Barry Soetoro, Esq." -- a couple of which proclaim themselves as a "PNN News and Ministry Network EXCLUSIVE" -- claiming the Sandy Hook massacre was a "gun-grab HOAX." He followed that up with the interview with "Soetoro" in which he clearly agrees with with the conspiracy theory and doesn't challenge it. Media Matters points out that Gallups has also said that the evidence showing Sandy Hook was staged is "indisputable" and a "smoking gun" and that that the whole thing "stinks to high heaven."

So, yes, Gallups did say Sandy Hook was made up, making his denial a lie. If you are uncritically promoting the idea that Sandy Hook was a hoax, you are, in fact, a hoaxster yourself.

Naturally, Gallups tried to build a conspiracy theory out of getting busted for promoting a conspiracy theory:

“I’m a small cog in the wheel but I am a cog,” Gallups said. “So they went after me. What they are trying to do now is put pressure on him [Trump] to denounce me, like I’m some David Duke kind of guy.”

Gallups believes there is an agenda at work.

“As I said to the one reporter who bothered to interview me, ‘Does you interviewing me make you a Sandy Hook truther?'” Gallups asked rhetorically.

Despite being the subject of a deeply hostile international media campaign, Gallups said he is undaunted.

“It truly doesn’t bother me on a personal level and I won’t back down,” he said. “Consider the source – we are dealing with liberal media sources trying to marginalize an evangelical pastor and Donald Trump. Who can possibly say they are surprised?

“It’s extremely disappointing because none of those people bothered to call me and ask me what I thought about Sandy Hook or whatever else they wanted to talk about. They just made up a narrative because they couldn’t find anything else and they wanted it to stick.”

There's also one more thing this article throws in that, while trying to build Gallups' credibility, actually does the opposite:

Gallups recently met with fellow lawman and Trump supporter Joe Arpaio, the Maricopa County, Arizona, sheriff. At the meeting, he was sworn in as a “Special Deputy for the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.”

Gallups says he takes his past as a law enforcement officer very seriously and uses his experience to inform everything he says.

His experiences are part of the reason Gallups has endorsed Trump.

Huh? Actually, that "special deputy" designation appears to be Arpaio's reward to Gallups for being a birther dead-ender.

Gallups' deputization coincided with a meeting with Arpaio, where he apparently got just enough to keep the birther propaganda machine going a little longer. As Dr. Conspiracy notes, it's likely more of the same nothing that's been promulgated by Arpaio, Zullo and Gallups for years.

Now that WND has forsaken birtherism to support Ted Cruz, Gallups is, after Donald Trump, the most prominent active birther. Funny that WND doesn't want to tell its readers about that.

Gallups is a dishonest man who has no problem deceiving and lying to promote his particular brand of hate. No wonder WND loves him.