Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Vanity Fair that “QAnon is bats--t crazy," adding that he believes the conspiracy theory is "very much a threat."
The big picture: QAnon has grown increasingly popular in mainstream Republican politics, with multiple supporters winning congressional primaries — most notably Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is likely to enter the House after winning the GOP nomination in a deep-red Georgia district.
- Among other threads, QAnon baselessly claims that a powerful cabal of pedophiles and cannibals within the "deep state" is engaged in a global fight to take down President Trump.
- The FBI has categorized the conspiracy theory as a potential domestic terror threat.
What he's saying: "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."
- "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."
- "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 place. Thank God nobody got killed. But the pizza owner under my theory, could sue QAnon for passing along garbage. That’s a pretty dramatic step."
The big picture: President Trump added fuel to calls to condemn QAnon after he praised its supporters at a press conference earlier this month, claiming they "like me very much" and "love America."
- That prompted Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) to say that "real leaders" would denounce the "nuts" QAnon.