White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows fired back at Chris Wallace over a question about the conspiracy theory group QAnon.
Meadows joined “Fox News Sunday” to preview the coming Republican National Convention, which is set to begin Monday, and Wallace shifted the conversation to discuss QAnon as the interview came to a close. (RELATED: ‘CNN Chases After Many Shiny Objects’: Pence Clashes With CNN Host John Berman Over QAnon Conspiracy)
WATCH:
Wallace concluded his Sunday morning exchange with Meadows with one final question about a recent exchange at a press briefing.
“The president was asked this week about QAnon, a conspiracy-theory group that the FBI has called a domestic terror threat. He was — the president said he was thankful for the support of people in QAnon,” Wallace said, asking, “You can end this controversy right now. Does the president disavow, does he condemn QAnon?”
“Well listen, we don’t even know what it is,” Meadows replied, saying that the White House had spent less time talking about QAnon than the media had. He added that it was “appalling” that despite all of the other things going on, the media would focus on something that wasn’t even on most people’s radar and ask about that first at a press briefing.
“It’ not a central part of what the president is talking about. I don’t even know if it’s credible,” Meadows continued.
“It’s not my first question. It’s my last question,” Wallace insisted.
“You’re bringing it up, and it’s ridiculous,” Meadows fired back. “If we want to talk about conspiracy, let’s get back to talking about how the FBI and others within the FBI —”
Wallace interrupted, saying that QAnon was a “hate group” and noting that even the FBI had deemed it a “domestic terror threat.”
“This president is not for hate so I can tell you if it’s a hate group, let’s look at domestic terrorism and look at Antifa and a number of other areas and quit spending time on something that 81% of Republicans don’t even know you’re talking about,” Meadows continued to push back.
Wallace insisted that the only reason it kept coming up was because no one was giving a clear answer on the topic.
“I’ll be glad to give you an answer … I don’t see it as a legitimate thing we have to address and so we are not going to address it. We are going to talk about things that are important to the American people,” Meadows concluded.