ATLANTA — Friday was the last day for early voting with a special election now days away. And there's one race in northwest Georgia that's getting a lot of attention.
It’s the Republican runoff in Georgia's 14th Congressional District between neurosurgeon John Cowan and businesswoman Marjorie Greene. Greene has been criticized lately for her controversial social media post about race and religion and some of our viewers are asking if Greene is a follower of QAnon.
Some conservatives believe that QAnon or “Q” is an anonymous person secretly protecting President Donald Trump from a shadowy network of people trying to take him down.
So, does Greene still support that conspiracy theory? Our sources for this verify come from NBC News the FBI and Marjorie Greene's own remarks during an Atlanta Press Club debate in July.
Before we even get into her answer, let's give you some background on what QAnon is. It's a conspiracy theory that surfaced in 2017 on the 4Chan website and spread to Reddit.
In an FBI document obtained by NBC News that was sent as an intelligence bulletin to other law enforcement agencies, the FBI described QAnon supporters as a group believing they are following “an anonymous government insider leaking classified information online about covert plans targeting Trump's presidency.”
But the FBI warns in the document that “throughout history, such conspiracy theories have fueled prejudice, witch hunts, genocide and acts of terrorism.”
NBC News has reported that QAnon “is a convoluted conspiracy theory that has no apparent foundation in reality.”
So, we’re going back to Greene’s recent comments at a July debate when asked: “Yes or no, are you a follower of QAnon?”
“I, like many Americans, are disgusted with the Deep State who've launched an effort to get rid of President Trump,” she said. “We saw it launched straight from Barack Obama's White House.”
Greene doesn't give a direct answer then and 11Alive has reached out several times to ask her to clarify her position. But, based on her answer during the debate, we can verify she is at least is giving credibility to the QAnon claims.