Fact Check

Did Former QAnon Believer Apologize to Anderson Cooper for Thinking He Ate Babies?

"You actually believe that I was drinking the blood of children?" Anderson Cooper asked the guest.

Published Jan. 31, 2021

 (Screencapture / Twitter)
Image courtesy of Screencapture / Twitter
Claim:
A former QAnon believer apologized to Anderson Cooper for thinking ate babies.

On a Jan. 30, 2021, broadcast of "Anderson Cooper 360" on CNN, Jitarth Jadeja — a former believer in QAnon, the sprawling set of conspiracy theories asserting, in part, that elite pedophiles in media and government control the world — apologized to Cooper for once thinking the news anchor ate babies.

"Did you at the time believe that high-level Democrats and celebrities were worshiping Satan, drinking the blood of children?" Cooper asked Jadeja in an interview conducted as part of a CNN special report on QAnon (transcript here). "Anderson," Jadeja replied, "I thought you did that. And I would like to apologize for that right now. So I apologize for thinking you ate babies."

https://streamable.com/mnhhg6

CNN reported that Jadeja had been a believer until June 2019. He has been featured in a number of media reports and podcasts about leaving the QAnon world, including a September profile in Rolling Stone and an October profile in The Washington Post. As the interaction is genuine, the claim is "True."

Alex Kasprak is an investigative journalist and science writer reporting on scientific misinformation, online fraud, and financial crime.