In videos newly uncovered by Media Matters, Republican congressional nominee J.R. Majewski said last year, “I believe in everything that’s been put out from Q,” the figure behind QAnon. He also told viewers, “I wanted nothing more than to go in that building” during the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, but he stayed outside because he was with people who “had physical limitations.”
Majewski’s support for “Q” is yet another piece of evidence that he has been lying in his attempts to distance himself from QAnon.
Majewski won the Republican primary for Ohio’s 9th Congressional District on May 2. Forecasters consider his race against incumbent Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur a “toss-up.” Majewski has received a boost from right-wing media, especially One America News.
The violence-linked QAnon conspiracy theory is based on cryptic posts (or “drops”) to far-right online message boards from an anonymous user known as “Q.” Followers of the conspiracy theory essentially believe that Trump and his allies have been secretly working to stop pedophilia rings run by elites and prominent Democrats.
Majewski’s support for QAnon includes:
- promoting QAnon on Instagram and Twitter;
- associating with and frequently appearing on the show of QAnon influencer Zak Paine, who was with Majewski on Capitol grounds during the January 6 insurrection;
- having a collection of QAnon clothing, as The Daily Beast’s Will Sommer documented;
- and crediting QAnon with developing his supposed knowledge, stating on a QAnon show that the conspiracy theory is “very mind opening. And it broadened my horizons substantially, just getting involved in the movement, getting involved with what everybody is doing and just seeing, you know, how deep it goes.”
Additionally, CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck recently reported that Majewski has “repeatedly shared pro-QAnon material -- including a video showing him painting his lawn to say Trump 2020 with ‘Q’ replacing the zeros” and “between July 2020 and January 2021 on his now-deleted personal Twitter account, Majewski tweeted the QAnon hashtag #WWG1WGA -- which stands for ‘Where we go one, we go all’ -- more than 50 times.”
In a newly uncovered video, Majewski gave an unabashed endorsement of Q.
Majewski briefly co-hosted the streaming program Earcandy, where he discussed QAnon and other topics. During the show’s February 6, 2021, edition, Majewski defended the integrity of the embattled “Q” by stating, “I believe in everything that's been put out from Q,” and claiming that the problem with the QAnon movement was followers who “don't do their own due diligence.” Majewski then referenced other “schools of thought” around the conspiracy theory, including Fall of the Cabal, a violent QAnon video series which suggests that the Clintons and former President Barack Obama should be hanged for supposedly committing “high treason.” He added that people try to “twist” and “smear” Q when that figure is trying to put out “military-level intelligence.”