Donald Trump's horrifying QAnon dodge

Opinion by Frida Ghitis

Updated 10:26 AM ET, Fri October 16, 2020

Savannah Guthrie grills Trump at NBC's town hall

Savannah Guthrie grills Trump at NBC's town hall 02:23

"Frida Ghitis, a former CNN producer and correspondent, is a world affairs columnist. She is a frequent opinion contributor to CNN, a contributing columnist to the Washington Post and a columnist for World Politics Review. Follow her on Twitter @fridaghitis. The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author. Read more opinion on CNN."

(CNN)What was the most alarming part of President Donald Trump's Thursday night town hall event?

The moment when he not only refused to denounce, but actually appeared to defend QAnon, a collective of conspiracists so extreme in its beliefs that one shudders to hear what its followers think.

Frida Ghitis

Frida Ghitis

When a group of people believe conspiracy theories so outlandish that one can't imagine anyone taking them seriously, it's tempting to laugh and then ignore them. But the once-obscure QAnon, a movement sprung from the internet and identified by the FBI as a domestic terrorist threat, has grown so much and so fast, and spread its bizarre ideology so widely and forcefully, that the time for laughing has ended.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/16/opinions/trump-qanon-dodge-ghitis/index.html