When asked about the use of the slogan ‘We Are the Storm’, a shouting cry for QAnon supporters, the Texas Republican Party defended its adoption of the language, saying it was drawn from a poem and had nothing to do. with the Internet-driven conspiracy theory claiming that President Trump was elected to save America from pedophile Satanists.
The state party responded to a report in The New York Times on Thursday about how a small but growing number of Republicans have signaled national support for QAnon, a move that the FBI has warned may be of interest to domestic terrorism. The use of the slogan by the Texas Republican Party was cited by some prominent Republicans there as an example of how some in the leadership of the GOP open the party to followers of QAnon by adopting language used by the movement.
In a statement released Friday following the publication of the article, the state party said the slogan came from a favorite poem of the party’s new chairman, Allen West, and that the line had biblical roots.
It is “one of President West’s favorite quotes to use in speeches,” the party said. “He and the entire GOP in Texas will not be harassed by partisan leftists in the media for sending powerful phrases with biblical roots – taken from Psalm 29 – to Internet conspiracy groups.”
Psalm 29 includes a line about thunder, but not the word ‘storm’. The poem includes the line “I am the storm.” Its origin is unclear; it appeared on an Instagram post in 2018 by Tom Brady, then the quarterback of the New England Patriots, and can be found on a website about Scripture and culture.
Neither party officials nor Mr. West responded to a question on Saturday about whether they believed the use of the slogan could be taken by QAnon supporters as a signal of support from Texas Republicans. Instead, Mr West said the question of how the party came to use the slogan “was a clear example of the left’s embrace of racism.”
“It is insulting and detrimental that white, liberal, progressive socialists expect me to respond to their question to know how long I have been saying something,” he said in a written statement released Saturday in response to The Times. “It goes without saying that as a strong, conservative Black man, I am not allowed to think or talk.”
As for QAnon, Mr. West was quoted as saying by KXAN, the local NBC News affiliate in Austin, as saying this month: “I do not know about anyone else, and I am not into conspiracy theories about the internet.”
Reports of the Trump campaign and its surrogates are sometimes associated with the language and imagery favored by QAnon followers, and have been used in the same way by the White House and officials of state and local parties around the country. At least a dozen Republican candidate congresses, including one that is heavily favored to win in Georgia, have for some time supported the false assertion of the conspiracy theory that a ‘deep state’ cabal of pedophile Satanists led by powerful Democrats works to Mr. Trump.
Mr. Trump himself praised QAnon followers at a news conference last week, describing supporters – some of whom are accused of murder, domestic terrorism and planned kidnapping – as “people who love our country.”
QAnon supporters were ecstatic about Mr. Trump’s remarks, which so far have raised questions about the conspiracy theory, even when he regularly retweeted a few of her followers. Facebook groups used by QAnon followers, and more obscure message boards where they meet on websites like 8kun, lit up with users who said they heard in Mr. Trump confirms her belief that he has been sending her coded messages of support since the 2017 conspiracy.
The QAnon use of the slogan, “We Are the Storm,” grew out of one of Mr. Trump’s posted messages. In 2017, he snapped during a photo with generals: ‘You know what this represents? Maybe it’s the calm before the storm. ”
Since then, the catchphrase has become a major appeal for QAnon believers. They use it to refer to what they claim is an impending conflict between Mr. Trump and his enemies.
The Texas Republican Party adopted the slogan in late July after Mr. West, a former Florida congressman, was elected as its new president. It was soon plastered on the party’s emails and messages, and on T-shirts, hats and sweatshirts it sells.
The new slogan alerted some prominent members of the state party, who saw it as a barely coded signal to QAnon followers that they had a home in the GOP In interviews, more than half a dozen current and former party members, some of whom served in senior roles within the party, shared their concerns, described a party that was increasingly dominated by far-right ideologues.
Some in the party, party members said, shared the QAnon belief about the government being dominated by pedophiles, and others were more than willing to direct the followers of conspiracy theory as it meant Democrats retained profits. make at elections this November.
“This iteration of the GOP is not a fact-based party,” said Chris Ford, who voted for Mr. Trump in 2016, although he served in that year as a “never Trump” delegate to the Republican National Convention.
“Misinformation runs rampant through the members,” he added. ‘It’s a party of right-wingers right now. Others have left or are silent. ”
