‘Again, Stay Focused’: New GOP Congresswoman Scolds Fox News Hosts for Asking About Her QAnon Posts
Newly-elected Rep. Mayra Flores (R-TX) rebuffed questions about her social media posts from Fox News anchors Sandra Smith and John Roberts, repeatedly scolding the America Reports hosts to “stay focused” without answering their questions.
Flores won a special election for Texas’ 34th congressional district earlier this month to complete the term of retiring Rep. Filemon Vela (D-TX). Her victory means she will represent the South Texas seat until January, and her name will be on the ballot in November, hoping to win a full term starting in 2023. The fall election looks to be a tougher challenge for her, as redistricting will make it more Democrat-heavy and she’s unlikely to have the same sharply lopsided fundraising advantage she did this time around.
Democrats attacked Flores during her campaign for past social media posts that included hashtags and slogans used by QAnon supporters, and a new report from CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski uncovered additional (since deleted) posts from Flores promoting conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“I’ve always been against any of that,” Flores told a San Antonio Express-News reporter in April when she was asked about her QAnon posts. “I’ve never been supportive of it.”
Most of the Fox coverage the day of Flores’ win through the next day ignored the controversy over her past social media posts, with the exception of a brief mention during Neil Cavuto’s Fox Business Network program by reporter Alicia Acuna.
On Thursday, Smith and Roberts made multiple attempts to get answers from Flores, but she repeatedly refused to answer, offering responses similar to what she had told the Express-News and scolding the co-hosts to “stay focused on the issues that matter.”
Roberts brought up the topic at the end of their interview with the new congresswoman, saying they wanted to “give you an opportunity to address this,” how she had posted “a couple social media posts that included a hashtag for QAnon, and I just want to know where you come down on that whole QAnon thing.”
Flores laughed and replied, “I’ll say it over and over, it was a hashtag, and my post was actually against it. I have never supported any of those conspiracies and none of this nonsense.”
To be clear, as shown by the screenshot of the tweet that Fox News displayed on the screen during this section of the interview, she was not posting anything critical or otherwise opposing QAnon. In that specific tweet, several QAnon hashtags are included in a long list of hashtags supporting former President Donald Trump and other conservative causes. The other Flores posts referencing QAnon that have been reported were similarly not critical of QAnon.
“So why include it?” Roberts asked Flores.
“Again, Washington wants us to focus on nonsense,” she replied, adding she was “focused on the issues that matter in my district,” like increases in gas, food, and healthcare costs. “Please, this is just nonsense.”
“Why was it included in the tweets, though?” asked Smith. “It was an account obviously managed by you–”
“Stay focused!” Flores interjected. “Stay focused. Stay focused on the issues that matter.”
“Wait, wait, we are focused on the issues that matter, I think that anybody that watches Fox News would tell you that,” Roberts retorted. “We are just wondering what you say to the critics who point to that and we’re curious why you would have included those in the first place?”
“I’ve said it over and over, never supported any of those conspiracies,” Flores said. “Again, stay focused on the issues that really matter to the American people: border crisis and of course the economy.”
“Fair enough,” concluded Roberts as they wrapped the segment. “Good to talk to you. Congresswoman Mayra Flores from the great state of Texas. We will be seeing more of you. No question about that.”
Watch the video above, via Fox News.
