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After skirting the issue for weeks, President Donald Trump offered an embrace Wednesday of the fringe internet phenomenon QAnon, praising its followers for supporting him and shrugging off its outlandish conspiracies.
His comments reflected the highest-profile endorsement to date of the group, which has infiltrated Republican circles even as party leaders attempt to distance themselves.
"I don't know much about the movement other than I understand they like me very much, which I appreciate," Trump said in the White House briefing room.
It was a striking nod to a group that has been likened to a virtual cult and has been labeled a potential domestic terrorist threat by the FBI.
Asked if he believed the crux of the theory, described by a reporter as the belief that the President "is secretly saving the world from this satanic cult of pedophiles and cannibals," Trump said: "Well, I haven't heard that, but is that supposed to be a bad thing or a good thing?"
"If I can help save the world from problems, I'm willing to do it," he went on. "I'm willing to put myself out there. And we are, actually, we're saving the world from a radical left philosophy that will destroy this country."
At the congressional level, Republicans have at least three nominees who have been sympathetic or supportive of the group: Jo Rae Perkins, the GOP nominee for a Senate seat in Oregon; Marjorie Taylor Greene, who won a primary runoff for Georgia's 14th District last week; and Lauren Boebert, who beat a Trump-backed, five-term incumbent in the primary in Colorado's 3rd District in June. Greene and Boebert are running in districts where Republicans are favored.
Trump embraces QAnon - CNNPolitics
We are literally living in the twilight zone. All I can say is, the GOP will be completely screwed down the line if the moderates don't stomp those idiots into oblivion. But with the president of course supporting these lunatics because he's desperate for votes...man oh man are we in for some interesting (and scary) times ahead.