Greenville County GOP leader dies from COVID-19

Earlier this month, Stutts and his wife were rushed to the hospital due to decreasing oxygen levels. Though his wife recovered and returned home a few days later, Stutts developed pneumonia and entered the ICU, as he shared in several Facebook posts at the time. He was later placed on a ventilator.

Over the course of the pandemic — including his time in the hospital — Stutts made several social media posts about COVID-19 conspiracy theories, and once called face masks an "illusion." In July, he also shared dismissive comments about the delta variant in a Facebook post, which has been flagged by the platform as false information, before criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris' vaccination efforts in South Carolina.

However, on Aug. 1 after being admitted to the hospital, Stutts insisted online that he "always contended that COVID was very real."

"It is a deadly bio-weapon perpetrated upon the people of the world by enemies foreign, and perhaps domestic." he wrote in a lengthy post alongside photos of himself in the hospital.