Trump ally running for Congress believes in
baseless QAnon sex-trafficking conspiracy
Angela Stanton King, who is working to help the
president win Black voters, confirmed her views to the Guardian
Oliver
Laughland and Tom Silverstone in Atlanta
Thu 15 Oct
2020 16.01 BSTLast modified on Thu 15 Oct 2020 17.08 BST
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/15/angela-stanton-king-qanon-conspiracy-theory
A
Republican congressional candidate and high-profile ally in Donald Trump’s
fight to win over Black voters has admitted to believing a baseless
QAnon-related conspiracy theory that the online furniture retailer Wayfair is
secretly selling trafficked children over the internet as part of a deep-state
plot.
Angela
Stanton King, who is running in Atlanta, Georgia, for the congressional seat
once held by the late civil rights icon John Lewis, told the Guardian in an
on-camera interview she believed the debunked conspiracy theory while
continuing to deny she was a follower of QAnon.
When asked
if she believed the retailer was involved in a global pedophilia conspiracy,
she replied: “You know they are. You saw it. You watch the news just like I
did.” The candidate then ended the interview, being taped as part of the
Guardian’s Anywhere But Washington series.
“I don’t
know anything about QAnon. You know more than I know,” King said as she walked
away.
Stanton
King is one of a number of Republican congressional candidates with ties to the
far right, antisemitic conspiracy theory. She has almost no chance of winning
her race in Georgia’s fifth congressional district, which has been held by
Democrats with overwhelming margins for decades. But elsewhere in the state,
Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican candidate for the 14th congressional
district and an outspoken promoter of QAnon, looks set to win a seat in
Congress.
Donald
Trump has himself praised QAnon followers as patriots who “love America” and
declined opportunities to debunk the false theories.
Stanton
King has used her social media presence to push false theories linked to Qanon,
including suggesting that the Black Lives Matter movement is “a major cover up
for PEDOPHILIA and HUMAN TRAFFICKING”. She also reiterated a QAnon rallying cry
related to the so-called “Storm”, a day of reckoning when, followers believe,
Donald Trump will reveal the malefactors in the deep state. “THE STORM IS
HERE,” she tweeted on 6 August this year.
When asked
to explain this post, Stanton King once again denied being a follower of the
movement and stated: “It was raining that day.”
Weather
reports on 6 August in Atlanta indicate it was hot with no precipitation.
Advocates
on the ground in Georgia and elsewhere have reported an uptick in
disinformation associated with the conspiracy theory movement during this
election cycle.
Fenika
Miller, an organizer in central Georgia with Black Voters Matter, a nonprofit
group registering voters in predominantly Black and marginalized communities
across the country, said she was encountering conspiracy theories and
disinformation among voters on a daily basis.
“It’s very
dangerous. But that’s the times we’re living in,” Miller said as she registered
voters in Peach county, central Georgia. “We’re living in dangerous times under
a dangerous administration. It’s intentional misinformation they’re putting out
specifically targeting young voters and Black voters.
“That’s why
we have to be out here talking and engaging so we can try to combat it,” she
added.
Stanton
King appeared at the White House with Donald Trump in February as part of a
roundtable discussion on African American History Month and has made
appearances for the Trump campaign at numerous “Black Voices for Trump” events
throughout the election season.
This year,
Trump issued a full pardon to Stanton-King after she spent two years in prison
for her role in a 2004 car theft conspiracy. She announced her candidacy for
Congress just weeks after the pardon.
During his
first term in office, Donald Trump has issued just 28 presidential pardons, one
of the lowest totals in modern presidential history. Many of these pardons,
including to the former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, former Trump adviser Roger
Stone and Stanton King, have gone to allies of the president.
Asked if
she believed Trump’s use of the presidential pardon had been representative of
fair and equal justice, Stanton-King replied: “I supported him before he gave
me a pardon.”
She added:
“I’m not one of his political allies.”
During her
meeting with Trump at the White House in February, Stanton-King introduced
herself by stating: “Recently pardoned by the greatest president ever.”
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