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Fox News' Jesse Watters has retracted comments he made on air in which he appeared to praise QAnon conspiracy theorists for uncovering "a lot of great stuff."
The host made the comments during Saturday's episode of his show Watters' World while speaking to Eric Trump, the son of President Donald Trump.
The pair were discussing the news that Twitter has banned thousands of accounts linked to the far-right group that has pushed a number of baseless allegations involving child sex abuse and satanic rituals.
Among the claims pushed by QAnon is the so-called Pizzagate conspiracy which falsely alleged influential Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, were connected to a child sex ring linked to a pizza restaurant in Washington, D.C.
Another unfounded theory from the group was that furniture company Wayfair was advertising trafficked children under the guise of selling expensive pillows, shower curtains and cabinets.
Introducing the topic of QAnon as "this conspiracy deal," Watters asked Eric Trump if the removal of the accounts was an "attempt to interfere in an election?"
Watters said: "Q can do some crazy stuff, with the pizza stuff, and the Wayfair stuff, but they've also uncovered a lot of great stuff when it comes to [Jeffrey] Epstein and it comes to the deep state. I never saw Q as dangerous as antifa. But antifa gets to run wild on the internet."
In a statement provided by Fox News, Watters retracted the comments and said he does not support what QAnon is doing.
"While discussing the double standard of big tech censorship, I mentioned the conspiracy group QAnon, which I don't support or believe in," Watters said. "My comments should not be mistaken for giving credence to this fringe platform."
QAnon, which originated on infamous online message board site 4Chan, centers around a conspiracy theory that Donald Trump is waging a secret war against the "deep state" and high-profile Satan-worshipping pedophiles.
The theories started growing in 2017, and have also been linked to violence. In 2019, the FBI identified the fringe group as having possible links to terrorist threats.
Despite this, a number of political candidates and other officials including high-ranking police officers have shown support for the conspiracy theory group.
Last week, Twitter said it will be permanently removing thousands of accounts which are linked to QAnon.
"We've been clear that we will take strong enforcement action on behavior that has the potential to lead to offline harm. In line with this approach, this week we are taking further action on so-called 'QAnon' activity across the service," the company tweeted.
"These actions will be rolled out comprehensively this week. We will continue to review this activity across our service and update our rules and enforcement approach again if necessary. As we work at scale to protect the public conversation in the face of evolving threats, we'll continue to lead with transparency and offer more context on our efforts."
About the writer
Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, and Florida ... Read more