FLASHBACK: Three Times Kevin McCarthy Denounced QAnon — Before Now Claiming: ‘I Don’t Even Know What It Is’

Months after the Republican Party has been beset by conspiracy theorists making absurd claims about Democrats, child trafficking, and the 2020 election, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said on Wednesday that he didn’t know anything about the QAnon movement.

CNN’s Don Lemon, however, certainly wasn’t buying the top House Republican’s stunning claim, coincidentally made right after a long-awaited meeting with QAnon-adherent and freshman Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) to discuss the deranged and violent rhetoric she pushed on social media. What’s more, McCarthy insisted he didn’t even know how to pronounce the term “QAnon.”

Lemon ran a clip of McCarthy discussing his just-concluded meeting with the Georgia congresswoman, which resulted in his condemnation of her past incendiary comments and endorsement of violent execution of Democrats in Congress, but no discipline.

“I think it would be helpful if you could hear exactly what she told all of us, denouncing QAnon, I don’t know if I say it right, I don’t even know what is,” McCarthy said quickly. “Any from the shootings, she said she knew nothing about lasers or all the different things that have been brought up about her.”

A skeptical Lemon furrowed his brow at this bizarre claim of ignorance.

“You believe that? No, you don’t believe that, of course. He doesn’t believe that” the CNN host asserted. “Let’s just give him that that he didn’t know what it is. So, he has been saying for — what has it been a week now or so that he’s going to have a conversation with Marjorie Taylor Greene. So if you’re going to have a conversation with Marjorie Taylor Greene about what she said and her QAnon beliefs, don’t you think you would know about it as the leader who’s going to be having the conversation with her, wouldn’t you do your homework? Come on, Kevin McCarthy!”

“Turnip truck: didn’t fall off yesterday,” Lemon snarked, moments later. “That is insulting. Think about that. QAnon: ‘I don’t know what it is.'”

Lemon was being generous by giving McCarthy the benefit of the doubt, however, because the House Minority Leader has, in fact, addressed QAnon beliefs on three previous occasions — and even denounced it as being incompatible with Republicans.

The first of these moments took place more than five months ago when McCarthy was asked about the conspiracy group during an August 21st press briefing with reporters that aired on C-Span.

“We have had a number of questions asked about Marjorie Greene,” a reporter asked during the remote Q & A. “She just won the primary in Georgia. They say she will likely win a congressional seat in November. What do you think about that and how do you see her role in the party? Should the party be distancing themselves from her?”

“People get elected from their district — I’ve had discussions with Marjorie Greene, she won that primary,” McCarthy explained, before indicating a strong familiarity with the conspiracy theory. “She recently came out and denounced the Q, uh… organization, whatever beliefs, I do not agree with their beliefs at all. And she denounced those, I believe everyone has an opportunity from that standpoint. The discussions I have had with her, I think she will continue to work to show people that lots of times in press today they imply something different.”

Later that same day, McCarthy appeared on Fox News, and gave Fox News at Night anchor Shannon Bream a similarly unequivocal answer indicating he clearly knew of Qanon’s delusional fantasies.

“Let me be very clear,” McCarthy emphasized. “There is no place for QAnon in the Republican Party. I do not support it and the candidate you talked about has denounced it.”

Of note: McCarthy also correctly pronounced the name of the conspiracy group, saying “Q-ahn-ahn.”

Then, after the election, with Greene and another Qanon-adherent, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) now representative-elects, McCarthy was pressed about their conspiracy beliefs during a weekly House Minority Leader briefing on November 12th (video courtesy of the Washington Post).

During one exchange, a reporter pushes McCarthy on Greene’s embrace of bizarre and false claims, referencing a homemade video the incoming congresswoman previously made of herself walking through the Capitol to try to force Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) — both Muslims — to repeat their Constitutional oath on a Bible.

“Our party is very diverse. You mentioned two people who are going to join our party, and both of them have denounced QAnon,” McCarthy said, now pronouncing it “Q-ahn,” but again implying familiarity with the political toxic beliefs Greene and Boebert were supposedly casting off. “So the only thing I would ask for you in the press — these are new members. Give them an opportunity before you claim what you believe they have done and what they will do.”