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Tulsa County Sheriff Vic Regalado Defends Appearance At Convention Featuring Conspiracy Theorists

Youtube / Patriot News Network
Tulsa County Sheriff Vic Regalado speaking at Rhema Bible Church in Broken Arrow on Friday during the "Health and Freedom Conference" streamed on Youtube by the Patriot News Network channel.

Tulsa County Sheriff Vic Regalado on Monday defended his participation in a convention rife with conspiracy theorists held Friday and Saturday in Broken Arrow.

The "Health and Freedom Conference" at Rhema Bible Church featured speakers including Regalado; disgraced general and former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, a confessed felon convicted of lying to the FBI; Mike Lindell of the pillow company MyPillow, who has spread false claims about the 2020 election and supported efforts to overturn President Joe Biden's legitimate victory; Lin Wood, an attorney who incorrectly claims Donald Trump is still the sitting President of the United States and has called for the execution of former Vice President Mike Pence; and Simone Gold, a California doctor who has spoken out against COVID-19 vaccines and was arrested on federal charges of allegedly participating in the storming of the U.S. Capitol during the January 6th insurrection.

Regalado said he was invited to speak by the organizers "to talk about peoples' rights, constitutionally speaking," and does not necessarily endorse the views of other speakers. Asked about comments about firing squads and QAnon made by Wood during the conference, as well as remarks by actor Jim Caviezel in which he purported as true a QAnon conspiracy theory about a cabal that tortures children in order to extract a chemical from their blood, Regalado said he could only speak for himself.

"It was a very big conference with different folks speaking on different subjects," Regalado said. "My part, as you heard, was pretty standard in regards to what I believe and what I think millions of Americans believe, and I think thousands of citizens from Tulsa County believe. So, in regards to what anybody else said, I don't know. I mean, you know, I don't really have an opinion on what they say. Some of it might be out there, some of it might be valid. It's not for me to say."

Regalado did say he considers Flynn a "great guy."

Regalado's Friday speech was critical of gun control proposals, the concept of defunding police, and "the radical left."

"I'm really grateful to be on the stage here today, especially with all the talented speakers that have been up here," Regalado said, appearing on the schedule after Flynn and Gold.

"I truly believe that the soul of this country is at stake and that the road will be long in getting this country back to where it needs to be," the sheriff said. "Because the left has the national media in their pocket. They have professional sports and celebrities singing their praises. They have big corporations who have sold their soul to them. And they have big tech that is censoring anything not left-of-center."

"You know what they don't have? They don't have you," Regalado said, to applause. "They don't have the millions of Americans who love this country, who appreciate this country. They don't have ... the spirit of the men and women who, from the beginning, have defended this country from tyranny with the Good Book in one hand and a gun in the other."

The conference schedule listed an event on Saturday evening titled "It's Time to Burn Those Masks," but Regalado said he was not aware of such an event and did not participate, as he did not attend the second day of the conference.

In a Facebook post, speaker Jackson Lahmeyer, pastor at Tulsa's Sheridan Church and Republican primary challenger to Okla. Sen. James Lankford, said there was no mask burning, as "there wasn’t a single mask present to burn" and "the media didn’t get invited to the party and when they entered they were kicked out so it’s hard to report something accurately that you were not present for."

Chris joined Public Radio Tulsa as a news anchor and reporter in April 2020. He’s a graduate of Hunter College and the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, both at the City University of New York.
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