'I stand with Q': GOP Senate candidate deletes video professing her support for QAnon after national ridicule — but we have the receipts

Less than 24 hours after declaring, “I stand with Q and the team,” the GOP nominee to challenge Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley denied supporting the batshit conspiracy. Jo Rae Perkins posted a now-deleted video to her Twitter account soon after winning the nomination, spouting the grammatically-challenged QAnon slogan “Where we go one, we go all” and thanking her fellow “anons” for their support. When her disturbing lunacy made national headlines, Perkins quickly threw Q and the Gang under the bus.

“I'm disheartened that… my words were already being spun through the fake news machine and taken out of context. I was not endorsing QAnon, but rather stating that I appreciate the fact that there is still free speech in this country that allows for voices—including whistleblowers from both sides of the aisle—that may, or may not, bring to light issues Americans need to be aware of.”

So that clears it right up. Unfortunately for Perkins, the “fake news machine” saved the video before she deleted it from her Twitter account. She has been tweeting about QAnon since January 2018 and made the conspiracy a plank in her campaign. In a January interview for Right Wing Watch, Perkins explained her strategy.

“It's a very highly calculated risk that I'm taking. Most people play it a lot safer than I do. It's either pure genius or pure insanity. It's one of the two. The voters are going to have to be the ones that make that decision.”

I’m gonna go out on a limb and say it’s not pure genius. Then again, she won the GOP nomination handily... maybe she’s stupid like a fox?

Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) is a heavy favorite in the race. He won his last Senate campaign by almost 20 points against a “good” candidate in a bad year for Democrats. Hopefully he can make Perkins the poster child for the raving kooks who infest the Republican Party.