GOP Candidate For Washington Governor Claims Wildfires Are 'Coordinated' Arson

UPDATE: Sept. 21 At a campaign rally over the weekend in Enumclaw, Washington, Loren Culps campaign manager Christopher Gergen explicitly claimed that antifa is involved in starting wildfires in the West.

I dont hear silence tonight, Gergen said before introducing Culp to the stage. I hear people that are ready to stand tall and be seen and speak loudly to be heard, to let the communists know and the antifa know and [Black Lives Matter] know that you cant just roll into our state and burn down our forests and destroy our cities.

PREVIOUSLY: Loren Culp, the Republican nominee running to unseat Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D), is pushing a conspiracy theory that many of the wildfires raging in the Pacific Northwest are the result of a coordinated arson campaign.

In a 13-minute campaign video posted to Culps YouTube late Wednesday, the gubernatorial candidate talks with two homeowners in a neighborhood that apparently was charred by the Cold Springs fire, near Omak.

I know statewide theres about 600,000 acres that have burned, Culp said. And a lot of them have apparently been set intentionally like this one. A couple people have been caught so far. Hopefully they investigate the heck out of this.

Its something bigger, one of the homeowners responded.

To have that many fires set all over the state, its gotta be coordinated, Culp added.

Culp and his campaign manager, Christopher Gergen, had a similar discussion in a Facebook Live video on Tuesday.

Theres word and I dont know if you can speak to this there is word that these fires were set intentionally, Gergen said. That it wasnt due to lightning strike. Do you have any insight into that?

When I talked to the firefighter and the rancher in Okanagan County, he said that it had been set intentionally, Culp responded, without elaborating.

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