House Condemns QAnon As ‘Psychotic Cult' -- But Many Republicans Disagree

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

If far-right GOP congressional candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene is elected in November — which is likely given how overwhelmingly Republican her district in Georgia is — a full-fledged supporter of the QAnon cult will be sworn into the U.S. House of Representatives in January. But QAnon has many opponents in the House, which has passed a resolution, 371-18, condemning the cult.

House Rules Chairman Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat, described QAnon as a "collective delusion," saying, "We all must call it what it is: a sick cult."

The QAnon cult believes that the U.S. government has been infiltrated by a global ring of pedophiles and Satanists and that Donald Trump was elected president to fight the ring. According to the conspiracy theory, an anonymous figure named "Q" is providing updates about Trump's battle. Trump has refused to condemn QAnon, claiming that he doesn't know much about it but saying that from what he knows, they seem to be people who "love our country." And he congratulated Greene after she won the nomination in a GOP congressional primary in her Georgia district.

But House Resolution 1154, which was sponsored by Rep. Tom Malinowski of New Jersey, condemned QAnon in no uncertain terms. Malinowski told BuzzFeed he has received death threats from the cult.

Another Democratic New Jersey congressman who voted for the resolution, Rep. Bill Pascrell, said of QAnon, "Human civilization is built on trust in knowledge and charity towards our neighbors. This psychotic cult, rooted in fantasies of violence and anti-Semitism, is an enemy of that civilization. Its adherents have been deluded and brain-poisoned."

Pascrell continued, "The FBI has warned of ties to domestic terror, and the real threats against my colleague, Congressman Malinowski, by miscreant cult members for sponsoring this common-sense measure makes clear the depravity of its so-called world view. Dangerous misinformation of this kind must be opposed by every American.

Pascrell also called out the Republicans who have embraced QAnon, saying, "It is shameful that the Republican Party has given its imprimatur to several cult followers as candidates for Congress. Enabling this mass delusion is a rejection of humanity."

Not all Republicans agree with passing the resolution. CNN's Jake Tapper listed those who voted no or abstained: