Sen. Lindsey Graham strongly denounced QAnon, arguing that it is inciting violence.
The Republican senator from South Carolina talked about the far-right conspiracy theory that espouses the belief that a group of Satan-worshiping Hollywood elites and Democrats running a child trafficking ring are waging a conflict against President Trump during an interview with Vanity Fair.
“Well, QAnon is bats— crazy,” he said. “Crazy stuff. Inspiring people to violence. I think it is a platform that plays off people’s fears, that compels them to do things they normally wouldn’t do. And it’s very much a threat. But there are a lot of websites out there.”
Graham also noted that he wants to change Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which allows social media companies to be considered a platform, rather than a publisher, to protect them from liability. Trump has already signed an executive order pushing for the Federal Communications Commission to narrow the clause’s protections.
“So under Section 230 of our law [the Communications Decency Act], a social media company can’t be sued for the content that they carry. I get slandered all the time on Twitter and other outlets,” the senator explained. “If the New York Times printed an article, I could sue them. If CNN said something about me that wasn’t true, I could sue them. But Twitter and all these other sites can pass on the most scandalous information, you have no recourse. So how to fix this? I would like to remove Section 230 liability. That if you’re going to have a social media site like QAnon or anything else, you spread this stuff at your own peril.”
He also said that if he was to get his way with changes to Section 230, the owner of Comet Ping Pong, the Washington, D.C., pizza restaurant at the center of the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory, could sue QAnon for pushing conspiracy theories that led to a man coming to the eatery with a firearm and shooting.
“So when this guy went into the pizza restaurant in Washington, because they alleged that Hillary Clinton was running a pedophile ring out of a pizza place in Washington. This guy took it seriously, went in with an AR-15 and started shooting up [the] place. Thank God nobody got killed. But the pizza owner under my theory, could sue QAnon for passing along garbage,” Graham said.
Some Republicans, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, and Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, have already condemned QAnon, but it came as some QAnon backers won party nominations in House and Senate districts for November’s election. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who won the GOP nomination in Georgia’s heavily red 14th Congressional District, was an avid QAnon backer but has since distanced herself from the group. Oregon GOP Senate nominee Jo Rae Perkins is also a QAnon-believer.
A number of Trump administration officials, the president included, have said they are unfamiliar with the conspiracy theory, but Trump also thanked them for supporting him.
