A former QAnon supporter apologized to Anderson Cooper on CNN for previously believing a ridiculous conspiracy theory claiming the anchor ate babies.
Australian resident Jutarth Jadeja told Cooper he believed the prevalent conspiracy, which is part of the broader QAnon conspiracy saying Democrats and other high-profile celebrities run a cannibalistic child sex trafficking ring.
“Did you, at the time, believe that Democrats, high-level Democrats and celebrities were worshipping Satan, drinking the blood of children?” Cooper asked Jadeja, who decided to leave the pro-Trump movement in 2019 after being deradicalized by QAnon debunking videos on YouTube.
“Anderson, I thought you did that,” Jadeja responded. “And I would like to apologize for that right now. So, I apologize for thinking that you ate babies. But, yeah, 100 percent.”
Jadeja said many QAnon followers still believe Cooper is a robot or that he drinks children’s blood.
“I at one stage believed that QAnon was part of military intelligence, which is what he says,” Jadeja admitted. “But on top of that, that the people behind him were actually a group of fifth-dimensional, intradimensional, extraterrestrial bipedal bird aliens called blue aliens.”
He added, “I was so far down in this conspiracy black hole that I was essentially picking and choosing whatever narrative that I wanted to believe in."
The interview was part of CNN’s special report released on Saturday called Inside the QAnon Conspiracy. Cooper called the special a “personal project” since some of the conspiracies target him and other journalists at CNN.
“The QAnon fringe has previously focused on me and a bunch of other reporters, as well as many other public figures, as somehow being responsible for some of their more outlandish, should we say, and bizarre, conspiracy theories,” Cooper said in the special. “It’s all made up, of course, but QAnon supporters seem to believe it or at least use it to try to harass me.”
Despite many attempts to debase the popular online movement, the QAnon conspiracy recently made its way into Congress, with lawmakers like representative Marjorie Greene promoting some of the baseless theories about top Democrats and the Parkland school shooting.
