Vice President Mike Pence is dismissing QAnon as a “conspiracy theory,” drawing a line of distinction between himself and President Donald Trump, who earlier this week suggested he appreciated supporters of the theory backing his candidacy.
“We dismiss conspiracy theories around here out of hand,” Pence said Friday on CNN’s “New Day,” saying he had heard Trump’s comments and subsequently decrying the media that “chases after shiny objects.”
Asked on CBS’ “CBS This Morning” if he was inflaming attention on the group by not going on the record to oppose it, Pence decried “spending time on a major network to talk about some conspiracy online theory,” later adding, “I don’t know anything about QAnon, and I dismiss it out of hand.”
QAnon has ricocheted around the darker corners of the internet since late 2017, but it has been creeping into mainstream politics more and more. The baseless theory centers on an alleged anonymous, high-ranking government official known as “Q,” who shares information about an anti-Trump “deep state” often tied to satanism and child sex trafficking.
