Several Republican elected officials and candidates in Arizona have flirted with QAnon, a fast-rising conspiracy theory/Mike MacKenzie/Flicker
By Jerod MacDonald-Evoy | Arizona Mirror
Ethan Watkins was deeply troubled by the responses he was getting in his late-night text exchange last month as he pressed his friend on QAnon, the dangerous conspiracy theory that has been linked to violent acts across the nation.
Do you believe, Watkins asked, that there’s a secretive cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophile Democrats who are running a global sex-trafficking ring? And that Donald Trump is working to dismantle it?
The response came quickly: This evil global cabal is also made up of some Republicans.
Watkins pushed back. If this absurdly evil thing is being run in a bipartisan manner, how can you tell the difference between the elected officials and politicians who are involved and those who aren’t?
“Who knows?” texted back state Sen. David Farnsworth, a Mesa Republican and Watkins’s friend. “I have talked to quite a few people who really believe they are good people who are trying to bring out the truth.
