Accused Pelosi attacker David DePape spread QAnon, other far-right, bigoted conspiracies. The QAnon conspiracy theory, which was promulgated by right-wing conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi, has been around since August 2017. QAnon, for its part, is not an official conspiracy theory. It is a collection of conspiracy theories made up of thousands of pages of writing and posts.
But the QAnon conspiracy theory has spread in a way that is likely to have a lasting effect on our politics.
This is one of the most consequential moments of this presidential election as we enter into the third month. The QAnon conspiracy theory has spread like wildfire. It has been shared hundreds of thousands of times on the world-famous social media platform, Facebook, and other outlets.
When one of the most powerful members of the Democratic Party is accused of being part of a conspiracy about a major political event, it creates a storm in the political climate. And that storm is only going to grow.
The storm was ignited when DePape, in a video posted to Facebook, claimed he was being attacked by leftist thugs, whom he blamed for planting the story about him being attacked about the video of his alleged incident. That video showed DePape being confronted by about a dozen people who were supposedly acting on behalf of the left.
I have been working with our investigative team to find and understand why this story was taken down. Now, that work is being taken over by a team of seasoned journalists who will be joining us in our newsroom this week. They will be joined by experienced partners in our congressional delegation, including Congresswoman Jackie Speier and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who have been working with us this week in preparing for this important debate that began in the House of Representatives.
We expect to have a very thoughtful discussion about the importance of this issue and about what the consequences of this storm could be.
So, on behalf of the newsroom, I thank our partners on the Hill, our partner at PBS NewsHour, and we thank our audience. And, I give you the floor now to speak.
President Trump, Speaker Pelosi, and Democratic Leader Pelosi:
To Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (MD-9):
I want you to understand something. This isn’t just about the impeachment case against the president — it isn’t a partisan thing.
