IT SEEMS THAT HILLARY MIGHT HAVE BEEN RIGHT WHEN SHE SAID HALF OF TRUMP'S SUPPORERS BELONG IN A 'BASKET OF DEPLORABLES'

Half of Donald Trump's supporters BELIEVE QAnon's bizarre central claim that he is working to end a child sex-trafficking ring run by top Democrats

 

By Geoff Earle

 

Daily Mail

October 20, 2020

 

A new poll in the wake of President Trump's refusal to denounce QAnon shows that half of his supporters believe a bizarre conspiracy claim that Trump is working to shut down a secret Democratic-run pedophilia ring. 

The results, contained in a Yahoo News / YouGov poll, comes after Trump clashed in a town hall forum when interviewer Savannah Guthrie invited him to condemn the group and its bizarre theory. 

It reveals the potential political pressure the president believes he is facing, with many of his supporters subscribing to a bizarre idea he refused to denounce. 

A 55 per cent majority of voters have still not heard of the group, according to the poll. 

And among all registered voters, a vast majority do not subscribe to its bizarre view about a secret child sex ring, 51 to 25.

But it is another matter when examining Trump supporters. Among them, a full 50 per cent believe the idea, according to the survey, with 17 per cent saying they don't believe it and a third 'not sure.' 

By contrast, just 5 per cent of Joe Biden voters believe the claim. 

'I know nothing about QAnon,' Trump said at the town hall when asked to condemn their conspiracies 

There are different results when people are asked about the group by name. Among those Trump supporters who have heard of it, percent call it an extremist conspiracy theory with no basis in fact, while 22 per cent say it 'goes too far.'

It is when the question is asked without mention of the group's name that Trump supporters give its central idea such strong support.

The president didn't do much to bat down the idea when asked about it at his town hall interview on NBC with Savannah Guthrie.  

'I wanted to ask you about QAnon – it is this theory that Democrats are a satanic pedophile ring, and you are the savior of that. Now can you just, once and for all, state that that is completely not true. So disavow QAnon in its entirety,' Guthrie asked him in a contentious exchange with the president.

'I know nothing about QAnon. I know very little,' Trump claimed, although he has retweeted QAnon information multiple times and backed GOP candidates with QAnon links.

'I just told you,' she pressed.

'You told me, but what you tell me doesn't necessarily make it fact – I hate to say that,' Trump pushed back. 'I know nothing about it. I know they are very much against pedophilia, they fight it very hard. But I know nothing about it' – he said, appearing to applaud at least part of its worldview.

Guthrie tried another approach by inciting remarks from Republican Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska – who in the past has clashed with Trump.

'Republican Senator Ben Sasse said quote QAnon is nuts and real leaders call conspiracy theories, conspiracy theories,' she said.

'He may be right,' Trump conceded.

'Why not just say it's crazy and not true?' she asked of the QAnon conspiracy theory.

'Can I be honest, he may be right. I just don't know about QAnon,' Trump repeated.

'You do know,' she claimed.

'I don't know. You tell me all about it,' he said. 'Let's waste the whole show. You started off with White Supremacy, I denounce it. You start off with something else. Let's go, keep asking me these questions.'

'But let me just tell you, what I do hear about it is they are very strongly against pedophilia. And I agree with that. I mean, I do agree with that and I agree with it strongly,' he said.

Thirty-eight per cent of Trump voters, compared to 24 percent of Joe Biden voters, report coming across posts or emails about child sex trafficking.

The issue bubbled up in the 2016 elections amid bizarre and false claims of a Democratic child sex ring being run out of the basement of a pizza parlor. 

QAnon has gained traction recently as some candidates, including a Republican U.S. congressional candidate from Georgia, have won their primaries – and others within the party have come out in favor of the conspiracy group.

Most recently, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have begun campaigns to crack down on the spread of QAnon conspiracies on their social media platforms. It started with Twitter announcing earlier this month that it would block all content related to QAnon, not just those that incite physical harm or violence.

QAnon fashions President Trump as a secret warrior against this supposed child-trafficking ring allegedly run by celebrities and government officials.

EDITOR'S NOTE: People who believe the bizarre conspiracy crap put forth by QAnon and InfoWars can only be described as deplorable.

And what's deplorable is that Trump believed QAnon's crazy conspiracy theory that the Navy SEAlS killed a body double instead of Osama bin Laden, and that Obama and Biden were killing SEAL Team 6 to cover up that bin Laden was still alive.