Lindsey Graham has dismissed the QAnon conspiracy as crazy, despite the fact its believers are strong supporters of President Donald Trump. The Republican said the conspiracy was inspiring violence.
The South Carolina senator spoke to Vanity Fair‘s Peter Hamby on his Snapchat show and was asked about the conspiracy theory, which claims Trump is fighting an international, satanic pedophile ring.
“Can you say batshit crazy on your show?” Graham asked.
“Well, QAnon is batshit crazy. Crazy stuff. Inspiring people to violence. I think it is a platform that plays off people’s fears, that compels them to do things they normally wouldn’t do.”
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“And it’s very much a threat,” he said.
Graham went on to discuss slanderous statements online and how the law might respond to them.
“But Twitter and all these other sites can pass on the most scandalous information, you have no recourse,” he said.
“So how to fix this? I would like to remove Section 230 liability. That if you’re going to have a social media site like QAnon or anything else, you spread this stuff at your own peril.”
“So when this guy went into the pizza restaurant in Washington, because they alleged that Hillary Clinton was running a pedophile ring out of a pizza place in Washington. This guy took it seriously, went in with an AR-15 and started shooting up place.”
“Thank God nobody got killed. But the pizza owner under my theory, could sue QAnon for passing along garbage. That’s a pretty dramatic step. But the only way I know to make people more responsible who run these websites is allow lawsuits when they go too far.”
Graham is a strong supporter of President Trump, who was recently criticized for appearing to praise QAnon believers because they like him.
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Darragh Roche is a journalist covering U.S. politics and media
