Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones testified that he now understands it was irresponsible of him to declare the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre a hoax and that he now believes it was “100% real,” the AP reports.
In other news, Jones learned that his lawyer mistakenly send a huge cache of text messages to the Sandy Hook families’ attorney which prove he lied in his deposition.
New York Times: “Their bleak prospects reflect the shifting role that conspiracy theories play in American politics. The Republican Party flirted with QAnon in 2020, as several Q-linked candidates sought higher office and Q merchandise appeared at rallies for then-President Donald Trump across the country. Yet identifying with the movement emerged as a political liability. As they have during this election cycle, Democrats attacked Q-linked candidates as extremists, and all but two — Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Lauren Boebert of Colorado — lost their races.”
“But many QAnon themes have burrowed deeper into mainstream Republican politics this year, experts say, including the false belief that ‘evil’ deep-state operatives control the government and that Mr. Trump is waging a war against them. Savvy candidates have found ways to tap that excitement — all without explicitly mentioning the conspiracy theory.”
“The far-right conspiracy broadcaster Alex Jones spread lies for years about the Sandy Hook school shooting, saying it was staged by the government and that the families of the victims were complicit in the hoax,” the New York Times reports.
“Juries will now decide in three separate trials how much Mr. Jones must pay for the suffering he caused.”
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Barton Gellman: “He has baffled old comrades with his transformation since being fired as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014. He led chants to lock up Hillary Clinton in 2016. In 2020, he posted a video of himself taking an oath associated with QAnon. He has endorsed crackpot fabrications of the extreme right: that Italy used military satellites to switch votes from Trump to Biden in 2020, that Covid-19 was a hoax perpetrated by a malevolent global elite, that the vaccine infused recipients with microchips designed for mind control.”
“Has Flynn always been susceptible to paranoid conspiracies? Or did something happen along the way that fundamentally shifted his relationship to reality? In recent conversations with the former general’s close associates, some for attribution and some not, they offered a variety of theories.”
Newly elected Rep. Mayra Flores (R-TX) “spread conspiracies on social media that the January 6 riot at the US Capitol was caused by members of the far-left group Antifa and repeatedly used a hashtag of the QAnon conspiracy theory in tweets that have since been removed,” CNN reports.
“In the 1980s, Virginia ‘Ginni’ Thomas had a moment of clarity: She realized she had fallen in with a group she considered ‘a cult’ and sought to be ‘deprogrammed’ from it,” NBC News reports.
“Thomas’ involvement with Lifespring, an organization advertising training seminars purporting to help participants unlock almost superhuman potential, left her wondering what it was about herself that allowed her to be drawn in. Her successful deprogramming — considered a controversial tactic — led her to become a vigorous anti-cult crusader.”
“It’s difficult to reconcile Thomas then and now, four people who worked with her at the height of her anti-cult activism through the late 1980s said in interviews. After she spent years trying to expose cults, these people found Thomas’s efforts to promote outlandish plans to overturn the 2020 results, particularly the text messages and emails in which she referenced false election conspiracies that originated in QAnon circles on the internet, surprising. Democrats and Republicans alike have said QAnon supporters exhibit cult-like behavior.”
Vice News: “On February 10, over a week before the platform went live, the developers set up Trump’s account. But that account was not the first one set up on the platform. A full 24-hours earlier, the developers running Truth Social set up an account with a single letter in its name: @Q.”
“Now, four months later, the platform is overrun with QAnon content, pushed by multiple QAnon influencers who have been given verified profiles on the platform. And now, Trump himself is boosting the QAnon content, resharing dozens of posts containing QAnon imagery, phrases, or memes.”
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), chair of the House GOP conference, “appeared to allude to a bizarre and baseless claim popular in some conservative circles when she tweeted that Democrats and the ‘usual pedo grifters’ are ‘out of touch’ with Americans,” the Washington Post reports.
“The claim that ‘pedos’ — short for ‘pedophiles’ — infiltrate the ranks of government is central to QAnon, the collection of right-wing debunked claims that former president Donald Trump was secretly leading a war against an elite cabal of pedophiles who control Washington, Hollywood and the world.”
New York Times: “Mr. Frank, a QAnon influencer whose Facebook page in recent months has shown him pictured with such conservative celebrities as Donald J. Trump Jr., Michael Flynn and Sidney Powell, has fashioned his team into a new style of border enforcers, motivated not so much by halting immigration as by guarding the country from other perceived threats — in this case, an unfounded conspiracy theory that migrant children are being funneled into pedophilia rings.”
“J.R. Majewski, the Air Force veteran who won the GOP primary for Ohio’s new 9th Congressional District, was a January 6 rally participant and has repeatedly shared pro-QAnon material — including a video showing him painting his lawn to say Trump 2020 with ‘Q’ replacing the zeros,” CNN reports.
Roger Stone claimed to have photographic proof that a “satanic portal” has opened over the White House.
Said Stone: “We who believe, we can close the portal, but we can only close it through prayer. Massive prayer, millions of Christians praying to close the portal.”
He added: “It’s like a swirling cauldron… It’s very, very clear. It doesn’t move, day or night. It’s harder to see during the day, but you see it at night. And I’m absolutely convinced about the inherent evil of what’s going on in the White House, what’s going on in the country.”
When Pennsylvania lieutenant governor candidate Teddy Daniels (R) was asked about his attendance at an event that promoted QAnon, he told the Philadelphia Inquirer: “At least I’m not a communist.”
“When candidates for public office indulge in conspiracy theories like QAnon, it’s often with a wink and a nod,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
“But just weeks before Pennsylvania’s May 17 primary election, such ideas are being promoted in plain sight. And high-profile Republican candidates for statewide office are treating talk of a ‘global satanic blood cult’ like regular campaigning.”
“Dozens of politicians running for state or federal office are aligning themselves with the right-wing, conspiracy-rich, sometimes-violent movement known as QAnon. They’re drawing tens of millions of dollars in donations as the movement’s popularity stays strong among voters,” Grid reports.
“And despite the movement’s penchant for lies and violence, key Republicans — from influential megadonors to prominent elected officials — are welcoming the QAnon movement into the party.”
New York Times: “A hard-line conservative activist, Ms. Thomas had long been viewed with suspicion by the Republican establishment. Yet her influence had risen during the Trump administration, especially after Mr. Meadows, who like Ms. Thomas has roots in the Tea Party movement, became chief of staff. Now, an examination of her texts, woven together with recent revelations of the depth of her efforts to overturn the election, shows how firmly she was embedded in the conspiratorial fringe of right-wing politics, even as that fringe was drawing ever closer to the center of Republican power.”
“The disclosures add urgency to questions about how Ms. Thomas may have leveraged her marriage to Justice Thomas, who would be ruling on elections cases throughout the battle over the 2020 vote and beyond.”
New York Magazine: QAnon’s takeover of the GOP is virtually complete.
“The online world of adherents to the QAnon conspiracy theory sprang into action almost as soon as Sen. Josh Hawley tweeted his alarm: that Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the Biden administration’s Supreme Court nominee, had handed down sentences below the minimum recommended in federal guidelines for possessing images of child sexual abuse,” the New York Times reports.
“The line of attack has set off a new debate over the Republican Party’s stance toward QAnon.”
David Leonhardt: “Jackson’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing has turned into a case study of how disconnected from reality large parts of the Republican ecosystem have become.”
“Pro-Russian channels and QAnon conspiracy theorists think Moscow is launching airstrikes on Ukraine to destroy bioweapon manufacturing labs in order to prevent the American infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci from creating a sequel to the COVID-19 virus,” Foreign Policy reports.
“This theory hangs on the entirely discredited idea that the coronavirus was designed as a bioweapon, perhaps by the U.S. government itself. And yet, the theory is being shared thousands of times, faster than regulated social media networks can yank the conspiracy theory down. On unregulated platforms, such as Telegram and 8chan, the conspiracy theory has become incredibly popular, racking up hundreds of thousands of hits each day.”
“The theory is now being actively contributed to, and promoted, by one Russian embassy, an official Russian state propaganda outlet, and media channels in Serbia and China.”
A new study finds the QAnon conspiracy movement continues to thrive and has even strengthened more than a year after Donald Trump left the White House, The Guardian reports.
“Some 22% of Americans believe that a ‘storm’ is coming, 18% think violence might be necessary to save the country and 16% hold that the government, media and financial worlds are controlled by Satan-worshipping pedophiles.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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