White House press secretary says she's never heard Trump talk about QAnon
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Thursday said she has never heard President Donald Trump mention QAnon, as a growing number of Republicans sharply criticized Trump’s appreciative stance on the conspiracy theory.
"The media talks a lot about this so-called QAnon. I've never heard the president mention it,” McEnany told Fox News. “I talk to him oftentimes 10 times a day. Not once have I heard him mention this group. The media can focus on QAnon, but this president is focused on the American people."
Trump said on Wednesday he appreciated support from QAnon followers, adding he did not know much about the group. QAnon adherents possess a false belief that the president is saving the world from a deep-state ring of Satanist pedophiles. The FBI labeled QAnon a potential domestic terrorist threat in 2019.
McEnany repeated Trump’s message that he knows little about QAnon, claiming the president “has not at all looked into who QAnon is.”
While the president and McEnany refused to condemn the conspiracy theory, Trump campaign national press secretary Hogan Gidley labeled QAnon “a bunch of junk” in a podcast interview with Clay Aiken that was released Wednesday.
Aiken asked Gidley, the former White House deputy press secretary, whether the president believed any QAnon theories, during an episode of his “How the Heck Are We Gonna Get Along” podcast.
“Oh, gosh, no. I don't even know that he and I have spoken about it at length other than to say it‘s junk,” Gidley said.
The singer then asked Gidley whether he thought it would be beneficial for Trump to disown the conspiracy theory.
“I don't really know anything about QAnon, other than it's a bunch of junk,” Gidley said. “I mean, look, that's not what this campaign is about.”
A handful of Republicans pushed back against Trump’s welcoming of QAnon support, including the third-ranking GOP member of the House of Representatives.
“QAnon is dangerous lunacy that should have no place in American politics," Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said in a statement to POLITICO.
"Q-Anon is nuts — and real leaders call conspiracy theories conspiracy theories,” said Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), a sometime Trump critic. “If Democrats take the Senate, blow up the filibuster, and pack the Supreme Court, garbage like this will be a big part of why they won."
Former presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush also slammed Trump for failing to condemn the conspiracy theory.
“Why in the world would the President not kick Q’anon supporters’ butts? Nut jobs, rascists [sic], haters have no place in either Party,” Bush wrote on Twitter.
Ari Fleischer, communications director under President George W. Bush, advised Trump to steer clear of QAnon.
“POTUS would be better off denouncing QAnon. They’re a bunch of wackadoodles. Both parties have nutty fringe groups. The USA does best when leaders in both parties keep the sentiments of those people on the fringes,” Fleischer wrote on Twitter.
While McEnany and the president professed ignorance of the QAnon movement, QAnon supporters and messaging are commonplace at Trump rallies. The Washington Post reported this month on an interview the press secretary conducted with a QAnon supporter at a Trump rally in Las Vegas in February.
McEnany asked the supporter what they would say to the president. “Who is Q?” the supporter said.
“Ok, well I will pass all of this along. Thank you very much,” McEnany responded.
The conspiracy theory is ascendant in Republican politics. Trump congratulated a Georgia Republican primary winner and QAnon adherent this month. In June, Oregon Republican primary voters selected a QAnon supporter as their candidate to run against Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.).
Melanie Zanona contributed to this report.
