CNN Interviews Families Left Struggling After Being Split Apart By Qanon

By Susie Madrak — February 11, 2021

CNN's Alysin Camerota introduced another piece by Donie O'Sullivan about Qanon conspiracy theories tearing families apart.

"I live just a few blocks south of the capitol, so I started seeing people walking on the sidewalk heading up to the Capitol with Trump flags and red hats. And I thought to myself, I wonder if my mom is here. I just thought to myself, 'Let me check her YouTube, and lo and behold, she was."

We are here at this rally. Look at this!

I will never stop loving my parents, but it's this switch that flips in them when they're talking about what the latest Q drop means. They're not logical anymore. They're not understanding. and often, they're not kind.

Not only does she really believe it, but it intersects in her mind with her religion. She has never put anything else on a pedestal equal to the Bible. And it really feels like that with this Qanon stuff.

"A conspiracy theory has taken over both these women's lives, but not by their choosing," O'Sullivan said.

I just want to have a mom who loves me. We're just, we're past that.

"They say their parents have been sucked into Qanon," he said.

My childhood was as perfect as any childhood could be. In the recent year or two years, where this has become so much stronger within them, they've become completely different people.

"This woman is still desperately trying to save her relationship with her parents. It's why we've agreed to hide her identity. How did this all start with your parents?"

"All through growing up, it was constantly, oh my gosh, like, the Clintons. Oh my gosh, the Illuminati, things like that. But it all started really in the 2016 election cycle. Hillary Clinton and all of the Democrats are pedophiliac and cannabalistic people who were trying to take over the world. Things heightened when I got to college. They would background search my professors. They were like, your professor, they're a registered Democrat," Danielle Marshall said.

"She knows my wife is a Capitol police officer. When she did that, that did everything to me, that she was willing to put my wife's life in danger. If she had called me up or texted me later that day or the next day and said, 'Hey, listen, I was at this rally, it got way out of hand, I'm really sorry, how are you guys,' that would have changed everything, but it's been crickets. I haven't heard from her."

O'Sullivan said Danielle's mother would not respond to requests for comment.

"Have they changed their lifestyle in any way as a result of this?" he asked.

"Well, last time I was there at my family's house, they told me that they have a three years' supply of meat in the freezer. They told me that they bought up a bunch of ammo."

"Are you concerned that they might blow their life savings on these freeze-dried foods and 300 pounds of meat?"

"Not their life savings, my college tuition, right?"

He asked what she would say to the person running the Q account.

"I would tell them that they've ruined my life, they ruined my family, they took what was supposed to be the best, most consistent, most loving part of my life and turned it into evil."

"And this is a story that might be far too familiar to many American families and families around the world who are watching this morning. We have a much longer, extended interview with both of those women posted on to cnn.com this morning and they have a lot to say. It's a very scary story. And while Trump might have left the White House here in Washington, D.C., Qanon has infected so many homes in this country."