Michael Shermer on Pizzagate: Denies

The claim: Democratic elites ran a child-trafficking ring linked to Comet Ping Pong.

2020-09-09: “Supposedly where Hillary was running her pedophile ring in the basement and that lunatic shows up with a gun and shoots through the roof because he thought, “I'm going to bust up this pedophile ring right now.”” source
2022-10-14: “Does anyone really believe that Hillary Clinton and other Democrats are running a secret Satanic pedophile ring out of the Washington D.C. Comet Ping Pong pizzeria? Edgar Welch did, and he went there with his loaded AR-15 assault rifle and a revolver to stop the crime when no one else would do anything about it.” source
2022-11-02: “Suddenly there is a secret satanic paedophile ring, where thousands and millions are being sacrificed, without their parents somehow noticing.” source
2022-11-11: “Conspiracism is a signal detection problem: which conspiracy theories are true, and which are false?” source
2026-04-18: “Do Republicans really think Hillary Clinton and Tom Hanks and Beyoncé are running a pedophile ring out of a pizzeria? I don't know if they really believe it. One guy did—Edgar Welch. He went there with his gun to break up the pedophile ring, got to the pizza place, and there was no basement, which is supposedly where the pedophile ring was operating.” source