GOP lawmaker's QAnon-style smear of Katie Porter debunked by CNN fact checker

Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX) this week launched a QAnon-style smear of Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) by calling her an apologist for pedophilia.

However, as CNN fact checker Daniel Dale demonstrates, Jackson's claim is completely false, as Porter never once suggested that pedophilia wasn't a crime.

The origin of the smear against Porter came as she was decrying posts on social media that accused LGBTQ Americans in general of being "groomers" of children.

"The ‘groomer’ narrative is an age-old lie to position LGBTQ+ people as a threat to kids," Porter said while questioning Kelley Robinson, the president of the Human Rights Campaign. "And it’s not – this allegation of ‘groomer’ and of ‘pedophile,’ it is alleging that a person is criminal somehow, and engaged in criminal acts, merely because of their identity, their sexual orientation, their gender identity."

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As Dale notes, it is clear that Porter believes child sexual abuse is criminal behavior, and is simply saying that it is wrong to conflate such behavior with gay or transgender Americans.

"Porter is being baselessly described as a supporter of pedophilia over comments in which she was denouncing how other people are being baselessly described as pedophiles," Dale writes.