The House approved a bipartisan resolution Friday condemning the baseless conspiracy theory movement QAnon.
It passed overwhelmingly on a vote of 371-18, with one member voting present. Seventeen Republicans opposed the resolution, along with Libertarian Rep. Justin Amash.
Introduced by Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski of New Jersey and Republican Rep. Denver Riggleman of Virginia, the measure encourages the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies to continue to strengthen their focus on preventing violence, threats, harassment, and other crimes carried out by people motivated by political conspiracy theories.
It urges “all Americans, regardless of our beliefs or partisan affiliation, to seek information from authoritative sources, and to engage in political debate from a common factual foundation.”
QAnon adherents believe in a baseless conspiracy theory that there is a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who have infiltrated the highest reaches of American government and are working hand-in-hand with other elites in business and Hollywood. They believe President Donald Trump is secretly fighting to destroy this cabal and that messages are being delivered to them in code by an anonymous central character called Q. The FBI has listed the group as a possible domestic terrorism threat.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi lauded the House’s passage of the resolution, saying QAnon “poses a clear and immediate danger to our country: eroding trust in democratic institutions, rejecting the very notion of objective reality, fueling division and even directly leading to violence.”
Trump has fed into the cult-like movement, retweeting messages from QAnon supporters in the past and praising them as “people that love our country.”
“I don’t know much about the movement other than I understand they like me very much, which I appreciate,” Trump said.
