Royalty-free stock photo ID: 180970337. NATIONAL HARBOR, MD - MARCH 6, 2014: Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
Next year will be the ten-year anniversary of the so-called "Pizzagate" conspiracy, and one Republican Senator is trying to reignite the lie that inspired at least one gunman.
"Pizzagate" was the conspiracy that claimed Hillary Clinton was involved in a child trafficking ring that was being run out of the basement of a Washington, D.C., pizza parlor. The pizza place in question doesn't have a basement, nor did it have any connections to trafficking or trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
The Huffington Post's Yashar Ali noticed that Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) reposted a video from "a conspiracy theorist who regularly spreads neo-Nazi propaganda."
The video he reposted came from Ian Carroll, who uploaded it in Jan. 2024. He challenged the claim that reports and fact-checks had officially debunked the "Pizzagate" conspiracy. Clicking on links, he called it "nepotism circles" of news links from "left of center" sites.
Carroll followed the path from Bill Gates giving funding to a fact-checker to Gates taking a photo with Epstein, a sex offender.
"The 'Pizzagate' conspiracy came out way before the Epstein revelations came out," Carroll claimed.
In fact, "Pizzagate" was a 2016 election conspiracy. Epstein was first arrested in Florida in 2006, following complaints that first began in Nov. 2004, the Washington Post reported, citing court documents.
Carroll then makes the leap that Epstein's trafficking of young girls make the conspiracy all the more likely.
"Am I, like, way out of line to say that Epstein is pretty solid evidence that there might be some child trafficking going on with elites?" Carroll asked. "Right? Like, is that too far out there?"
Lee reposted the video nearly two years after the initial video went live, touting those who are merely asking questions.
"What comes to mind first when you hear that mainstream-news media sources have 'debunked' a particular 'conspiracy theory'? I don’t know this guy, but he asks some legitimate questions. Watch the video and see for yourself," Lee wrote
The meme "I'm just asking questions" mocks conspiracy theorists who use the "pseudoskeptical" concept to distort claims under the guise of questions, author and researcher Tim Wise wrote in 2022.
Ali noted that Lee's promotion of Carroll's video perpetuates this false narrative.
"Carroll is a conspiracy theorist who regularly spreads neo-Nazi propaganda. The video Senator Lee is promoting is filled with thoroughly debunked nonsense about 'Pizzagate' and also repeats various lies about public figures. In the past, Carroll has spread neo-Nazi propaganda, including claims about the Rothschilds being involved in the Scofield Study Bible, among other dangerous conspiracies that target Jews," wrote Ali.
The gunman who went to the pizzeria in 2016 was ultimately released from prison after serving four years. Police have since killed the gunman in an unrelated incident.