Almost half of Republicans and more than half of Trump 2020 voters think top Democrats are involved in pedophilia cabals, a recent YouGov poll found.
While just 14 percent of respondents of all parties said that they have a somewhat or very favorable view of QAnon, including 16 percent of Republicans, the core tenet of the QAnon conspiracy theory has thoroughly infiltrated the GOP. The survey found that 30% of respondents said it’s true that “top Democrats are involved in elite child sex-trafficking rings,” and that the more conservative respondents were, the more likely they were to believe that.
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The survey provides even more evidence that QAnon has seeped into the Republican mainstream, no doubt helped along by accusations from politicians like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Gov. Ron DeSantis that Democrats and Republicans who vote with them are “pedophiles” and “groomers.”
Forty-nine percent of Republicans and 52% of people who voted for former President Donald Trump in the 2020 election said Democrats are involved in the child-sex trafficking rings. And voters who consumed right-wing media were even more likely to believe it, such as people who get their news from conservative websites (58%) and those who trust Newsmax (56%) and One America News Network (54%).
The survey was conducted in the days following Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearing for the Supreme Court, during which Republicans portrayed Jackson’s record as a U.S. District Court judge and member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission as overly lenient in her sentencing of child abuse material offenders.
The rhetoric has only escalated since then. On Monday, after three Republican senators said they would vote for Jackson’s confirmation to the Supreme Court, Greene called Sens. Mitt Romney, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski “pro-pedophile.” Greene doubled down on the charge Tuesday, and added a dose of transphobia as well.
“There is a line in the sand,” Greene tweeted from her official congressional account, since her personal account was banned for misinformation earlier this year. “Either you are Pro-pedophile and Pro-transgender biological men or you defend children and women. Period. There is no other option.”
Greene went even further in an appearance on the far-right web TV channel Real America’s Voice Tuesday.
“The Democrats are the party of pedophiles,” Greene said. “The Democrats are the party of princess predators from Disney. The Democrats are the party of elementary school teachers trying to transition their elementary school age children and convince them they’re another agenda.”
“This is the party of their identity, and their identity is the most disgusting, evil, horrible things happening in our country,” Greene added.
Collins said that the charge that she’s pro-pedophile wasn’t a “healthy dialogue,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
“[Greene] obviously can say whatever she wishes,” Collins said. “But that’s clearly ludicrous and sadly typical of what I expect of her.”
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