A Hawaii Republican Party official has turned in his resignation after appearing to defend the QAnon conspiracy theory on Twitter using the party’s account.
Edwin Boyette, the vice chairman of communications for the state party, announced he was stepping down in a Sunday post on Facebook. He asked the GOP to accept his resignation “for the good of the party” and said he would be taking a break from social media.
“Discussion of some topics is ill suited to the forums of social media, and regardless of intent — only serves to increase conflict and discord,” Boyette said. “The discussion of the Q-Conspiracy was an error of judgement, and should not reflect upon the leadership or the members of the Republican Party of Hawaii. The responsibility for that discussion and that error is mine and and mine alone.”
Boyette was apparently behind the since-deleted Saturday tweet thread that was almost immediately criticized by both Republicans and Democrats.
While the tweets did acknowledge the “fiction” behind the conspiracy theory, which baselessly alleges that the government is controlled by child-eating cannibals and pedophiles, it blasted media coverage of QAnon supporters and said their “patriotism and love of Country should never be ridiculed.” It also did not acknowledge that some of those who stormed the Capitol earlier this month were followers of Q, an anonymous person who claimed President Donald Trump was the only one who could stop a cabal.
“People who followed Q don’t deserve mockery, the world is a complex place, there are bad actors, injustice, corruption — the processes of justice and the mechanisms our Republic are slow by design, abuses and wrongs are always swifter than correction,” one tweet read. “People want hope.”
“We should make it abundantly clear — the people who subscribed to the Q fiction, were largely motivated by a sincere and deep love for America,” another since-deleted tweet read. “Patriotism and love of County should never be ridiculed.”
Several QAnon followers were photographed during the Capitol Hill riot, including Jake Angeli, a man who goes by the moniker “Q Shaman” and was seen sporting face paint and wearing a headdress adorned with bison horns.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the Hawaii GOP for further comment.
