When Lauren Boebert won her 2020 primary campaign against Rep. Scott Tipton (R-CO), The New York Times described her as "a political novice and gun-rights activist who has spoken approvingly of the pro-Trump conspiracy theory QAnon."
"Republican and QAnon supporter Lauren Boebert wins House race in Colorado," was the headline in Axios when she won the November general election.
And on Saturday, Boebert returned to her QAnon political roots by alleging the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the U.S. Supreme Court was part a vast conspiracy to protect pedophiles.
To understand her allegation, one must know that on Friday, police in Maine arrested former independent candidate Eliot Cutler on child pornography charges.
Cutler was widely seen as electing far-right Gov. Paul LePage with his third-party "spoiler" campaigns for governor, which Raw Story featured in the headline in our story on the arrest.
Candidate whose spoiler bid helped elect MAGA Maine governor arrested on 4 felonies: reporthttps://www.rawstory.com/candidate-whose-spoiler-bid-elected-the-most-outlandish-governor-arrested-on-4-felonies-report/\u00a0\u2026— Raw Story (@Raw Story) 1648243111
On Saturday, Boebert appeared to be referring to Cutler's arrest when she linked it to Judge Jackson's nomination, describing him as a "Democrat (sic) megadonor."
"The reason KJB was picked becomes more and more obvious as the days go on," she said, apparently referring to the judge's initials, KBJ.
A well known Democrat megadonor in Maine was arrested on...\n\n...You guessed it!\n\nChild pornography charges!\n\nThe reason KJB was picked becomes more and more obvious as the days go on.— Lauren Boebert (@Lauren Boebert) 1648338179
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) has led the GOP's QAnon adjacent attacks on Judge Jackson.
"It’s no accident that Republicans have landed on this particular accusation," Jamelle Bouie wrote for The New York Times. "The belief that Democrats are pedophiles — and that at its top levels the Democratic Party is an elaborate pedophilia ring — looms large in the QAnon conspiracy theory, which is something like orthodoxy for a substantial portion of the Republican base. In a poll taken just before the 2020 election, half of Donald Trump supporters agreed that 'top Democrats are involved in elite child sex-trafficking rings.' And in a poll taken last year by the Public Religion Research Institute, 15 percent of Americans say that 'the levers of power are controlled by a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles.'"
Republicans have been accused of turning the nomination hearings into a "QAnon circus."
"The Republican attacks on Jackson are a QAnon dogwhistle, and QAnon followers have heard the message. In a recent piece, my newsroom colleagues David D. Kirkpatrick and Stuart A. Thompson describe how 'the online world of adherents to the QAnon conspiracy theory sprang into action almost as soon as Senator Josh Hawley tweeted his alarm.' On forums and in videos, QAnon supporters have blasted Judge Jackson as 'an apologist for child molesters' and a 'pedophile-enabler.' Where the Republican base goes, the politicians follow. That was true with the Tea Party, it was true with Trump, and now it is true with QAnon," Bouie explained.
