Editorial: Sen. Chris Murphy joins latest version of QAnon

During President Trump’s first term, a bizarre – in some ways, almost incomprehensible – conspiracy theory emerged among the fringes of the political right.

The “QAnon” theory, as it was known, held that Mr. Trump was secretly engaged in a war against an underground network of powerful, politically connected pedophiles. Supposedly, an inside source, the anonymous “Q,” would transmit messages online updating believers about the effort to stop these abusers, who were also accused of cannibalizing their victims.

The theory became mainstream – in the liberal mainstream press. The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Associated Press, and virtually every other household name in media spilled ink explaining the unhinged theory to their audiences. Reading the coverage, one could understandably come away with the idea that these paranoid delusions were taking over right-wing politics.

But by the second half of 2020, as Mr. Trump’s first term was coming to a close, Pew Research Center found that only 39% of Republicans were familiar with QAnon, compared with 55% of Democrats. Among the Republicans who had been exposed to it, a plurality said it was either “somewhat bad” or “very bad” for the country. Few elected Republicans at the national level gave credence to QAnon; the most prominent proponent was former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who has since left politics and become a strident critic of Mr. Trump.

But a new version of QAnon-style conspiracy theorizing surrounding Jeffrey Epstein has become a mainstream rallying cry against the president, and it’s caused members of the Democratic establishment in Washington to find common cause with fringe, anti-Trump Republicans.

After the release of the so-called Epstein files, Rep. Massie and his Democratic colleague, Rep. Ro Khanna of California, said “they spotted at least six names of individuals ‘likely incriminated’ by their inclusion in the Epstein files after the two reviewed an unredacted tranche of the documents,” The Hill reported, adding that Rep. Massie said, “There’s millions of files, right? And in a couple of hours, we found six men whose names have been redacted, who are implicated in the way that the files are presented.”

At least four of those men were innocent private citizens whom The Guardian reported had “no ties to Epstein.” The Department of Justice told The Guardian Reps. Thomas and Massie “forced the unmasking of completely random people selected years ago for an FBI lineup” who “have NOTHING to do with Epstein or Maxwell.” Rep. Khanna acknowledged the mistake. Rep. Massie did not.

Rep. Massie – who is also known for being a one of the most vocal antisemites on Capitol Hill – doesn’t have many friends in the Republican Party these days. Mr. Trump has been his chief critic. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise that he lost Kentucky’s Republican primary this month and will soon be out of Congress.

But he has made some friends within the Democratic Party, including Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.

“So there you have it. If you lead a campaign against powerful pedophiles, you get drummed out of the Republican Party,” Sen. Murphy posted on X after the race was called for Rep. Massie’s opponent.

Sen. Murphy’s support for Rep. Massie is the ultimate admission that his appeals to decency and norms in the Trump era have been farcical. When it comes to opposing the president, there is no conduct too disgraceful, no theory too unhinged, no lie too damaging for Democrats to excuse or embrace.

To be clear: Since the release of millions of pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, who was convicted of child trafficking and has been dead for the better part of a decade, there has been no proof he oversaw a network of “powerful pedophiles.” The evidence suggests that Epstein led two lives – one of a billionaire friend of celebrities and politicians, and one of a serial predator. That those lives appear to have had minimal overlap should be a relief to everyone. But the cult-like opposition to Mr. Trump has led many people to wish the abuse was more widespread than the evidence suggests. Left or right, that’s a terrible place to be.