GOP House Leader: 'Give Antisemitic QAnon Conspiracy Theorists a Chance'

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) gave a press conference on November 12, 2020, during which he advocated for incoming Republican members of Congress who have promoted the antisemitic QAnon conspiracy theory.

At the press conference, a reporter posed a question about two specific incoming Congresswomen, Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA-14), and Lauren Boebert (CO-03):

“How concerned are you about the Marjorie Taylor Greenes, the Lauren Boeberts , who have talked about and suppoted QAnon, creating controversy for your conference. I mean Marjorie Taylor walked around —

McCarthy started laughing at the question and inquired if the reporter was asked to pose it. The reporter said “no” and continued, specifically noting Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Islamophpobia:

“But recognize that she walked around with a bible looking for Reps. Tlaib and Omar, saying that they needed to swear on a bible and not the Quran. How are you going to deal with that?”

McCarthy tried to deny Greene’s and Boebert’s support for QAnon, and ignored the specific question about Greene’s attempt to harass two Muslim Congresswomen:

“Look, our party is very diverse. You mentioned two people who are going to join our party and both of them have denounced QAnon. So the only thing I would ask of you, and the press: these are new members. Give them an opportunity before you claim what you believe they have done and what they will do. I think it’s fair for all.”

Greene has not denounced QAnon, although she did attempt to distance herself from it in August of 2020, claiming that once she “started finding misinformation,” she decided to “choose another path.” However, as Media Matters’ Alex Kaplan pointed out, this came just two weeks after she gave an interview asserting she had “only ever seen patriotic sentiment coming out of" QAnon, which she referred to as a “source that gets censored tremendously.” In the interview, Greene also falsely stated “there’s never been any dangerous rhetoric coming out of people like that,” in reference to believers and followers of QAnon — a claim disputed by the lengthy timeline of violence connected to and fueled by the conspiracy theory.

Boebert stated in May of 2020 that she hoped Q “is real” and promoted conspiracy theories associated with the QAnon movement, but backtracked during an interview in October: “I’m not a follower of QAnon. My mom is not a supporter of QAnon, she just talked to me about it one time.”

QAnon is an antisemitic conspiracy theory. It originated on the right-wing extremist message board 4chan when an anonymous poster named “Q” claimed to have insider knowledge of high-level government plans. The conspiracy’s premise is that Trump is secretly working to take down the “deep state” by ridding the government and media of his enemies, who, according to QAnon believers, are pedophiles trafficking children for sex and for their blood, George Soros, elites in Hollywood, and a similar vague cast of characters.

20 congressional candidates who have expressed support for QAnon won Republican primaries in the 2020 election cycle. Greene and Boebert are the only two to have won their general election races as well.