On Friday, 17 Republican representatives in the U.S. House voted against a measure condemning the violent and ever-growing QAnon conspiracy theory.
The measure, which, according to The Daily Beast, “urged the FBI and intelligence agencies to focus on the threats from fringe conspiracy groups,” passed almost unanimously with 225 Democrats and 146 Republicans supporting it.
QAnon believers think that a “pedophile-cannibal cabal of Satanists that controls the world” and that Republican President Donald Trump seeks to uncover and destroy the cabal, but is being opposed by a shadowy set of “deep state” agents in the FBI, CIA and other agencies.
The Daily Beast states:
The 17 Republicans who voted against the bill were Jodey Arrington (R-TX), Brian Babin (R-TX), Rob Bishop (R-UT), Mo Brooks (R-AL), Michael Burgess (R-TX), Buddy Carter (R-GA), Warren Davidson (R-OH), Jeff Duncan (R-SC), Drew Ferguson (R-AL), Bill Flores (R-TX), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Joseph Kelly (R-PA), Steve King (R-IA), Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), Scott Perry (R-PA), Tom Tiffany (R-WI), and Daniel Webster (R-FL).
Trump and the Republican Party in general have increasingly embraced QAnon believers as part of the GOP.
When asked in the past about the group’s massive support for him, Trump said, “I understand they like me very much, which I appreciate. But I don’t know much about the movement. I’ve heard these are people that love our country.”
In August, QAnon believers sent death threats to Democratic California State Senator Scott Wiener after he introduced legislation to reform the state’s sex offender registry to be less queerphobic.
QAnon’s theories infamously led an armed gunman in 2017 to enter a gay-owned Washington D.C. pizza parlor, Comet Ping Pong, to investigate “Pizzagate,” the claim that the pizzeria had child sex slaves locked in its nonexistent basement.