02x01 - k*lling Q

[bunniefuu]

-Tomorrow, we the people
are going to be here,

and we want you to know that
we will not stand for a lie!

All the digital soldiers
out there! All of you!

♪♪

- Where we go one...
- We go all!

-We're gonna walk down
to the Capitol.

-The storm clouds
are around the Biden camp.

It's gonna be a storm.

- [ Screaming ]
- We the people!

We are the storm!

♪♪

-Let me ask you about QAnon.

-Q is a military
intelligence operation.

I've heard these are people
that love our country.

-Willing to die, willing
to sacrifice their very lives

for the fresh air of liberty
that we breathe.

[ Indistinct shouting ]

-Help!

-He has a g*n!
He has a g*n!

- [ g*nsh*t ]
- Get her down!

-Ashli Babbitt was a veteran.

The day before the riot,
she tweeted,

"The storm is here.

Dark to light."
- Dark to light!

-We were normal
law-abiding citizens,

and you guys did this to us!

-Thank you, Q!

♪♪

-We are calling for
a great reawakening of America.

-We're declaring w*r!

-This is spiritual warfare 101.

-This is not politics as usual!

Because we are
in a time of warfare.

♪♪

-In December 2020,
Q posted what most believed

to be the final drop,

scored to Twisted Sister's
iconic track.

-♪ We're not gonna take it
anymore ♪

-This is my favorite song.
Twisted Sister. 1984.

♪♪

-♪ We're not gonna take it ♪

♪ No! ♪

♪ No, we ain't gonna take it ♪

♪ We're not gonna take it
anymore ♪

[ Cheers and applause ]

-[Singsong voice] Oh, hey!

- You up, America?
- [ Laughs ] Yeah.

Wondering what the two of us
are doing on your screen again?

Last year, we made a show

about this fringy
alt-right movement called QAnon.

-And it turned out
that a lot of you were asking

the same questions that we were.

There have been a lot
of theories on who Q is.

Do you have your own theory?
- I have a few.

- General Mike Flynn.
- Mike Flynn.

-Flynn is the guy
that I wonder about the most.

-General Flynn
would be the primary suspect.

-But a few months after
we released the show,

it seemed that everybody
became satisfied with the idea

that the 8kun administrator,
Ron Watkins,

was behind the whole thing.

They found Q.

♪♪

-We are at w*r...

a w*r for God,
a w*r for our country.

-Okay, maybe it helps us all
sleep better at night

knowing that there was
this Internet troll

behind the whole thing.
- But deep down,

who actually believes
that this was the guy

who thought up
a multi-year campaign

that radicalized millions
to distrust

the American government
and our institutions?

-The truth is, we may never know

all of the players
in the background,

but moving forward, that's not
what's important anymore.

-The real question is,
what do we think happened

to the 30 million-plus Anons?

Do we think
they just disappeared?

Stopped believing
the conspiracy theories,

went back to their jobs,
their families,

everything as normal?

No, they definitely did not.

-Way beyond
the mainstream media's view,

the movement we looked at last
season is only getting stronger.

-[Crowd chanting]
Fight like Flynn!

Fight like Flynn!
Fight like Flynn!

-So in order to understand their
next move, our search continues.

♪♪

One year after January 6th,
we're on the road again.

[ Engine rumbling ]

QAnon couldn't make it rain.
The storm never came.

-The world has changed.

The story we thought
we finished,

well, it's just getting started.

We're on our way to meet
Denver Riggleman,

a retired congressman you
might remember from last season.

-You think QAnon's a psyop?

-I think it's turning into one.

-After leaving Congress,
Riggleman became

the senior technical adviser
for the January 6th committee.

-It's time for us to look
in a fact-based way

at what happened
on January 6th to see

if we can prevent this from ever
happening again in the future.

- [ Silly horn honks ]
- That's a Denver horn.

That's how everybody knows
Denver's comin'.

♪♪

[ Shuffling ]

-Oh, wow!

- Yup.
- Smell that?

-How many barrels are in here,
you think?

- Ah, a couple hundred.
- Couple hundred?

-You know? Yeah.
Of course, this is right out

of one of those barrels,
you know?

Cheers.

Here's to whiskey,
freedom, and facts.

- Hm.
- I mean, who gets to do this?

- Yeah.
- Who gets to make whiskey

and watch bears and deer
run across fields?

- And fight fascists.
- And fight fascists.

Alright.
- Yeah.

- To the river?
- To the river we go.

♪♪

-I feel like
we're in "Stand By Me."

-I was just thinking that.

-What role did QAnon play
on the 6th?

-Well, I think
really the whole baseline

of "Stop the Steal"
is QAnon-based.

And I think the whole
radicalization pipeline

for the months and years
before that...

Somebody could honestly say

that the QAnon
sort of belief structure,

that cult behavior,

this messianic conspiracy theory

that they had to go out there

and protect, you know,
religion and spirituality.

-Jesus Christ,
we evoke your name!

Amen!
- Amen!

-That was a huge push for
individuals to show up that day.

- Hm.
- And we know this.

- It was "the storm," right?
- It is the storm.

It's the "Great Awakening."

It's all that
and a box of doughnuts.

Moneymaker, radicalization.

Spiritual warfare made physical.

And I think all of that
could be based on QAnon

and the QAnon-adherent
conspiracy theories

that were floating around
at that time.

-The last time we were with you,
we asked you

if you think QAnon is a psyop.

-Now I think it became
something of a psyop.

I think at the beginning
a lot of people thought

it was a LARP gone bad,
you know?

But I think if you're from
a military background like me

and you see
the actual information flow

and how they pushed it,
obviously it was a psyop
or an information op.

At some point, it turned into

a deliberate way
of radicalizing people,

and a lot of that
had to do with money, too.

So it's a really interesting
question,

and I do believe
we're onto something there.

-So, if there were military
intelligence individuals,

veterans involved,

that means
it's a pretty serious threat.

-Yeah, you're in
a different space

where it's actually been proven,

so now how do you identify
those individuals

and how do you get them to come
out of their shell and tell you

what they're really thinking?
That's gonna be a challenge.

- I like a challenge.
- Let's go!

-Let's go.

Alright.

♪♪

-So, Q stopped posting
in December. Is Q dead?

-Oh, I think
the idea is alive now.

I think you're looking
at a religion.

I think you're looking at
something that, you know,

you almost have different
denominations or sects.

-What factions have grown
out of the Q world?

-There's a few. Even if
they're not called Q anymore,

it's what they are, right?

But you have "Stop the Steal."

Pretty prevalent right now.

You have "Save Our Children."

Stopping them from being
harvested for adrenochrome.

And when you talk about COVID
and things like that,

you have medical freedom.

So you don't want COVID nanobots
or Bill Gates-funded things

injected into your body.

You have all these
different things

that spouted out of
the QAnon belief system.

-Where does a movement like Q go

now that they no longer have
a leader?

-I want to tell you guys
right now, at this point.

I think the main name that you
say through all of this...

We can talk about Watkins and
all these other individuals...

Is Mike Flynn.

And I actually think Mike Flynn
is an enemy to this country.

If I had to put what happened
on January 6th,

it was Flynn's
foreign interference strategy

that influenced
Eastman's strategy

to overturn the election.

-He's an obscure figure

who got famous
through this whole scandal

when he wrote
the notorious "Eastman memo."

He laid out how the attack

on the Capitol that day
could work.

-We're gonna walk down
to the Capitol.

[ Crowd cheers ]

-And if you're
already predisposed

to believe in things
that are conspiracy-laden,

like Flynn has been
for some time, right,

and you're a retired
three-star general

and you have other individuals
that are willing to play along

in this grift

or in this thing
that you have with QAnon

that's very religious,

that's power-based,
that's money-based,

I mean, how easy is it
as a three-star general

that all of a sudden you're
sort of leading the effort

to really participate
in overturning

the election
in the United States of America?

-Given everything that you know
about Mike Flynn

since January 6th,
what he be doing right now?

-Well, I mean, he was
an intelligence guy,

so he'd be preparing
the b*ttlefield, right?

Doing his intelligence work.
He'd be marshaling his forces.

So that means he's gonna
have to be traveling around

and making sure
he identifies the individuals

on his team,
so he better have a tour.

- Rallying the troops.
- Gotta rally the troops.

And you got to make sure
you have support.

-Are you awake yet?!

[ Crowd cheers ]

What I want to talk to you about
today is getting other people

who aren't here awake.

[ Crowd cheers ]

-This is
the ReAwaken America Tour,

a traveling political
and religious roadshow

led by General Mike Flynn.

It attracts tens of thousands
in cities across America.

-The monthly rally featured


-Truthfully, we may not
even know how many votes

that Donald Trump had
in any state.

-Evangelical pastors...

This is spiritual warfare 101.

-...anti-vax doctors...

-So, the COVID shot
is a m*rder weapon.

There is no reason
to take it for anybody.

-...and, of course,
the general himself.

-This is not
a cheerleading session.

None of these are.
This is an education.

-Hopefully, because we know

a couple of people
who are working there,

we can get in
without too much of a problem.

- Hey. Good to see you.
- Good to see you, too.

-...event like this,

and our event
is to wake people up to truth.

-Chris Jacobson
is an early Q follower

who seems to know pretty much
everybody in the movement.

-In season one, when I was on
my way to a QCon in Arizona,

Jacobson is the guy
who called me to let me know

that I should not come.

-Please do not come
to the event tomorrow.

-But we've been working
on our friendship.

-I do believe, obviously,

we have to fix what's wrong
with the elections.

Then we get back to the point
where we can agree to disagree,

we can have heated debates
over it,

and at the end of it I'll say,

"Okay, we agree to disagree.
Let's go get some dinner."

- What's that?
- Yes.

-Our country's stupid, okay?

Our people
have been stuck on stupid.

My election stats
are controversial.

I got people that call me
a QAnon conspiracy theorist.

I'm not a QAnon person at all.

-Seth Keshel created a report

that claims to show
a statistical analysis

that proves Donald Trump
won the election.

-When presented to the court,
his findings were thrown out

for relying on probability
rather than facts.

-But Keshel
allegedly slid his report

into Mike Flynn's DMs
on LinkedIn

and has since become
one of Flynn's right-hand men.

-Why are those results
not acceptable?

-The affidavits presented,
the various incidences presented

have not been really aired out.

All the cases have been thrown
on procedural grounds.

-It's people
in our justice system.

-Whew. I gotta go.
Thank you, guys.

-Hey. Yeah. We'll be around
this weekend. Thank you.

-While Bayan
engaged with people,

I tried to blend in and see what
was going on inside the church.

-They're gonna cause
a resurrection across America!

From sea to shining sea!

You don't outthink God!

He's got a plan
greater than yours!

Bigger than yours!

-One thing I heard Seth say,
which is like, you know,

"They call me
a crazy QAnon con..."

Why do you think
it's taken such a turn?

-So, I like Q. I believe Q
to be a credible source.

You know, people that are
being canceled with their...

- Hey, guys.
- Hey.

- Oh, really?
- Yeah.

- Wow.
- Start heading that way.

Why?

-You guys are getting off...
Out of here.

You're on private property
and you'll get escorted out.

- I mean...
- Time to go.

-For an event that talks
about freedom and Constitution,

apparently, you don't
live by those values.

And you are escorted out
with automatic weapons

when you attempt to.

And a cute puppy.
I'm not mad at that.

-We're just here
to do what we're told.

- Yeah.
- But if you guys are seen

back on property,
it'll just be trespassing.

-Ladies and gentlemen,
for those of you keeping score,

so far today,
we've kicked out VICE so far,

so we're just getting warmed up.

♪♪

-This is a movement.

If we don't get it right, folks,
the end of this country

will come sooner than you think.

-Can you imagine four years ago
if somebody told us

the MyPillow guy
was gonna save the world?

[ Laughter ]

- These are my guys.
- Are you Q?! This guy's Q!

Look at him!
- Hey!

-Alright, ladies and gentlemen,
for those of you keeping score,

so far today,
we've kicked out VICE,

and it's because
we only want the real media

that's gonna report the facts
at these events.

-My name
is John Michael Chambers.

We are not alternative news.

We are the news.
We are now the news.

There is a plan.

So hold the line, patriots,
with everything you got.

And where we go one...

-We go all!

-God bless you!
You're beautiful!

-I can't help but notice

that the guy they put forth
as "the real news"

is just up on stage
quoting Q drops.

-Alright, so we are set up here

looking to get some interviews
in this public space.

Did I hear right that you're
the head of Cowboys for Trump?

- That's correct.
- Oh, my gosh.

♪♪

- His name's Red.
- Red? He's beautiful.

How many members do you have
in Cowboys for Trump?

-Pretty much looking at it.
[ Chuckles ]

-Okay.

-You know, there's a saying
in our world

that everybody wants
to be a cowboy

till it's time
to do cowboy stuff.

-Oh, thank you!

Ooh! Thank you!

-Coronavirus was a felony
domestic terrorism campaign

so that the pharmaceutical
companies could,

with impunity,
unleash genocide on humanity.

Does that sound like
public health to you?

No. It's genocide.

-People that...
What I've gotten out of this

is the people that have taken
the three jabs and the booster,

there's not much hope for 'em.

You know? It's sad because
I got family that's done it.

-What does your family feel?

Have you had these conversations
with your family?

-Well, since the va...
Or the COVID come out,

they just went their way
and avoided us.

Why? I don't know. Because
we're... we're not anti-vaxxers.

We just wanted to know more
about what's going on.

And glad we did
because we found out

that this is genocide,
plain and straight.

It's just genocide.
No other way to say it.

-Pastor Gr-e-e-e-eg Locke!

- [ Cheers and applause ]
- Love ya.

Some of y'all,
y'all done been ostracized

and separated from your family,
but here's what I know.

There will never be activation
without isolation!

And God's isolating some of you
because he's gonna pull you back

and use you in unbelievable ways

to turn your community around
for freedom

and for the sake
of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Don't just pay money
to come for a cool show...

if you're not gonna go back home
and turn your school board

upside down
for the glory of God!

-Hallelujah!
Praise the Lord Jesus!

- Hallelujah! Yeah.
- Hallelujah!

No mask. No mask. No mandates.
Freedom. Health.

-This guy knows.
He's from Israel.

It's like when they...
- Wow.

-...they put the yellow star
on the Jews.

It oppresses you.

It humiliates you.
- It is!

-It keeps you
from being who you are.

- I lost my job!
- The correct terminology...

It's not a vaccine. It's a
bioweapon of mass destruction.

-It is. This is not a vaccine.
All of the doctors...

-When you do
the correct research,

it actually is a weapon created

to destroy up to 15% of mankind,

if not all of everybody
that's taken them.

-It started from Bill Gates.

-Ladies and gentlemen,
he's my friend and yours.

Please stand to your feet
and greet

General Mich-a-a-a-ael Flynn!

-This is a movement.

I want champions
to rise up in this country.

The solution is you.

If we don't get it right, folks,

the end of this country
will come sooner than you think.

And the only way
that we get it right

is you got to
get off your rear ends

and you got to get out there
and you got to fight.

[ Cheers and applause ]

-[Crowd chanting]
Fight like Flynn!

-What is General Flynn's role
in this?

-General Flynn
would rather be do...

He wants to go fight wars
that he was doing.

But he's not now...

He's fighting the w*r
that's in the w*r in America.

Because he sees
what's happening.

-After leaving
the Dream City Church,

we followed the crowd
just a few short hours

to Florence, Arizona,

where Donald Trump
was hosting a rally.

-Our border's been abolished,

and ill*gal aliens
are pouring into our country

by the millions and millions
and millions and millions.

-[Chanting]
Let's go, Brandon!

[ Cheers and applause ]

[ Pres. Trump
continues indistinctly ]

Our country is going to hell.
And I say enough is enough.

And we are not going to
take it anymore.

[ Cheers and applause ]

-He got told he wasn't allowed
to wear it.

-Where we go one, we go all.

I was told by security out there

that QAnon is a violent regime.

I said, "Really?

Is that what the [bleep]
fake-news media told you?

Because maybe you should do
your research like I did

before I even knew
who they were."

-The guys had
that Secret Service sh*t on.

You'd rather hear a lie
than the truth?

Oh, that's your problem,
not mine.

-Sorry for interrupting you,
but Denise...

You gotta go.
- I gotta go.

My wife's yelling at me.
So y'all have a good night.

What's your name?
- God bless. My name is Doug.

-No?

-Yeah.

- Really?
- Yeah. No more?

Huh.

-Q just used to run rampant
at Trump rallies, Bayan.

-Yeah. I mean, flags, merch.

- Dude.
- Everything.

And I wonder how Q followers
will kind of interpret that.

Because the first reaction
is anger,

but then there seems to be
a reason for everything.

- What up, man?
- Alright.

Wait. One? Two?
- Come on. Two.

- Take two. [ Chuckles ]
- [ Beep ]

- Oh.
- [ Chuckles ]

I'm gonna just start
with my hand...

- Just start with one.
- [ Beep ]

- Alright!
- Hey!

- Season two.
- How you doing?

- Good.
- Ready for this?

- Yeah.
- I'm stoked on a bumper.

That was a interesting trip
to Arizona.

-[ Chuckles ]
You're telling me.

First of all, I mean,
the size of the crowd.

Thousands and thousands
of people.

-I kept thinking back
to season one, our first QCon.

It was like 20, 30 people,

and, like,
half of them were reporters.

-[ Chuckles ] Yeah.

-I mean, I was looking around,

and I don't...
I didn't see any reporters.

-And what's interesting,
I think,

that we saw also
at the Trump rally

is not a lot of people
wearing Q merch.

You know, we used to see
hats and pins and T-shirts

just all over the place.

Now it was just
kind of a bumper sticker,

like, literally
and metaphorically.

Now you see, like,
the ideas of Q

permeate what the speakers
are saying on stage.

-Without actually saying "Q."

Sort of... I feel like
have dropped the riddles,

made it a lot less cryptic,
and are just coming straight out

and directing the digital army
that they've built into battle.

-Let's clarify the timeline.

-The final Q drop
was on December 8, 2020...

So about a month
before the insurrection.

In January,
after the insurrection,

we see Ron Watkins come out
and says, "Okay, guys.

It was all fun. Time for us
to move on with our lives."

April 2021, Flynn starts
a new nationwide tour

called
the ReAwaken America Tour,

and it's bringing together
a lot of Q influencers

and preaching
a lot of the messages

that we saw on the boards.

-I went to a ReAwaken
in July in Anaheim,

and Q was very present...

In the signage,
there were merch tables,

people in the crowd
wearing Q shirts,

and General Flynn.

-Throughout the summer,
there's more ReAwaken events.

They're sort of
heating up still.

But then November...

-That's when the Flynn/Lin
split started happening.

- Mm-hmm.
- My understanding of this event

is that L. Lin Wood,

who became popular in QAnon
during the election,

leaked a phone call
with Mike Flynn.

It's the first time
anybody has heard

Mike Flynn refer to Q directly.

-So, the QAnon movement
really is a movement

that spun out of
your digital soldiers.

-Maybe. I don't know that.

I think it's a disinformation
campaign that the CIA created

and is set up to make people
actually look like fools.

That's really what this
whole... that whole thing is.

-A few months
after this call dropped

and Flynn
distanced himself from Q,

Q's totally disappeared.

-And I also think
it's really interesting

that as we look
at this timeline,

we think about the last Q drop
is December 8, 2020...

so within two weeks
of Mike Flynn being pardoned.

-Now that Q is gone,
there's really three main ideas

that Anons
are organizing around...

Stop the Steal,
Save Our Children,

and COVID conspiracy.

-The place that we saw
the organization

start happening first
was with the Big Lie,

with the Stop the Steal theories
that were pushed.

The best example we have of that
is in Maricopa County,

where many of the people
close to Q,

including Ron Watkins,
Mike Flynn, others

immediately went...
Just dug in really hard

and got this audit started.

And there's this reporter
who has done

a really, really good job
into looking into the money

and just the paper trail
behind this audit,

so I am really looking forward
to talking to him.

-It's the Wild West when
it comes to QAnon in Arizona.

-I think Arizona is the canary
in the coal mine.

Here we are... CPAC 2022.

-And, by the way, I noticed
a patriot in our midst...

Mike Lindell.

[ Cheers and applause ]

-VICE? Are you guys corrupt?

- Are you?
- [ Laughs ]

-Maricopa County is ground zero

for the Stop the Steal movement
that Q popularized.

-As a local political reporter
for the Arizona Mirror,

Jerod MacDonald-Evoy

has covered these efforts
extensively.

-It's the Wild West when
it comes to QAnon in Arizona.

There's politicians
that are involved in it,

like Kelly Townsend,
sharing information from QAnon,

although,
when I reached out to her,

she said she didn't know
that it was

a QAnon-related
conspiracy theory.

And you had Mark Finchem,

who is now running
for Secretary of State.

There's local players, as well,
when it comes to the people

who spread the conspiracy,
who claim to be involved in it.

Now you'll see
a lot of these groups

trying to distance themselves,
though, from QAnon

because they understand

that it's kind of become
this scarlet letter...

You know, if you're
into QAnon, you're crazy...

And they've moved on to
America First, white genocide,

and pushing that and immigration

in regards to how they're trying
to get new followers.

-There's just, like,
a mainstreaming of that word.

Like, now they're just throwing
out "genocide" all the time.

-It's a rhetorical backdoor.

It opens you up
to a lot of these ideas

that are just deeply
and squarely rooted

within white nationalism.

-And it also echoes back
to Charlottesville

and "they will not replace us,"

that sort of, you know,
ideology, as well.

-The constant, like, mixing
at these events like we saw

where there is a pastor
who's leading a prayer

and then a disaffected doctor
and then a three-star general.

People left that event
dead-a*s telling me

that we are living through
a genocide.

-So, it's November.

Fox has called Arizona
for Joe Biden.

Walk us through from that
point on how this audit happens.

- This is a big development.
- Yeah.

-The Fox News Decision Desk is
calling Arizona for Joe Biden.

-Mark Finchem,
he wanted it to be

at the Arizona House of
Representatives or the Senate.

They ended up
not allowing it there.

And so they had this
this election integrity hearing.

And it was after this
that they convinced

Senate President Karen Fann

that they needed to do
this audit of the 2020 election.

-I don't know what's legit,
what isn't legit,

but why wouldn't we want
to answer those questions?

-So, was this funded
by Arizona taxpayers?

-So, the Senate
put forward $150,000,

but then the rest of the money
was going to come from,

you know, donations
and things like that.

One of them,
The America Project,

was the the biggest one.

The America Project,
it was $3.2 million

that they gave
to the Arizona audit.

It's run by Patrick Byrne,

and Patrick Byrne is
the former CEO of Overstock.com.

-I'm the one
who's waking up Americans

to this deep problem
in our election apparatus.

This is gonna be a big week.

Maricopa gets delivered.
Let's all see.

-What does his partnership
with Michael Flynn

look like on this project?

-When you go on to
The American Project's website,

there's a video
with Michael Flynn greeting you

and telling you, you know...

-We are in a time of large-scale
government corruption.

-There's no America Project
without Michael Flynn,

and there's no Patrick Byrne
without Michael Flynn.

These two individuals
are connected in every way.

-What were the findings
in the audit?

-So, one of the major findings
of the audit

was that the hand count
of the ballots

was basically the exact same
as the hand count

by Maricopa County.

They actually found
some more votes for Biden...

-Whoops.

- than the original count
by Maricopa.

-Wait. So how is there now
two narratives

that have formed
around these results?

-What we have seen
from the Maricopa County

Board of Supervisors
is absolutely disgusting!

-How did these
two narratives form?

-A lot of it comes down

to not understanding
particular ballots

that are sent to people
who are, like,

domestic-violence victims
or judges and people like that

who have to have
their identities protected.

So there are ballots

that you can't connect
to specific people.

And so it's a twisting of facts

or a misunderstanding
of election law.

And then it gets construed
in a way

that just comes out as fraud.

♪♪

-I understand and I sympathize

why there's confusion around it.
- Yeah.

-Because I mean, even me,
I was learning things

in there about, like,
where are these ballots

that don't have a name
attached to them?

It's just so frustrating to know
that there are

all of these agendas
that co-opt that information.

-People still are, you know,
just blatantly

very, very concerned about
the numbers in these votes,

and it's really scary,
and it happened fast, man.

-In the next three years,
this could very well be

the place where democracy dies.

-You're right. I think Arizona
is the canary in the coal mine.

♪♪

-The real danger to this country

are people
in Brooks Brothers suits,

not in Army or Marine Corps
uniforms.

-What keeps you up at night?

-QAnon's ability

to motivate individuals
to engage in acts of violence.

-After seeing conspiracies
derail state politics

in Arizona, we're curious
how conspiracy-laden politics

impact national legislators'
ability to do their jobs.

- One, two, three, go.
- Nice.

- Does that... Good sound?
- Hey. You're a pro already.

-I'm a pro at this. Yeah.
Give me my SAG card. I'm good.

-Ruben Gallego is a former
Marine who served in Iraq

before becoming a member
of Congress from Arizona.

-One of the things that I think
is particularly disturbing

about that day is that when
you finally did make it back,


to not certify the election.

How do you govern
in a post-truth world

where you have these
antagonistic colleagues?

-Look, it is difficult working
with many of them...

And I don't actually.

For some of these
very hardcore insurrectionists

that continue talking
about the Big Lie

and talking about
how the vote was stolen,

I don't really work with them
as much...

Most of them
because a lot of them,

you don't really need
to work with them because

they're not really good members
of Congress to begin with.

I just can't work with them
in good standing. I just can't.

Like, my nature won't allow it.

-So, you spent some time
serving in the military,

and recently a number
of four-star generals

have come out sounding the alarm

about potential infiltration
from extremists.

- Mm-hmm.
- Should we be concerned?

The real danger to this country

are people
in Brooks Brothers suits,

not in Army or Marine Corps
uniforms.

It's the politicians
and the lawyers

that are gonna pass the laws
in different states.

They're gonna run for office.
They're gonna affect the counts.

They're going to try
to stop people from voting.

They're going to do
what Trump asked

the secretary of State
of Georgia to do,

which is just add more votes.

-As you look into
the midterm elections

and even the general election,
what keeps you up at night?

-Look, what keeps me up at night
is that very well-placed

Trump supporters
win seats that count votes

and they just refuse
to certify elections.

What happens when people

feel like
they've been disenfranchised?

I mean, that's the actual,
real, real danger.

It's not going to be
an 18-year-old

that's gonna
overthrow the government.

It's gonna be a 52-year-old
Ivy League lawyer

that's gonna end up doing it.

-While it's clear that
Q has taken ahold of at least

a portion
of the Republican Party,

how widespread have Q's
conspiracy theories become

on the national level?

-Orlando, man. Here we are.
CPAC 2022.

This is really
the establishment side

of what we spend all of our time
looking at, right?

These fringe conspiracy theories

and now how they have merged
into the mainstream

and become part of the GOP.

-Yeah, I couldn't help
but notice

that the tagline of the event
is "Awake, Not Woke."

QAnon really popularized
the term "The Great Awakening,"

and we hear it dropped
in speeches all the time

about the Great Awakening
or the...

-Reawakening of America.

-Or just an awakening.

- The Awakening.
- Just being awake.

-And I think that is, like,
a very subtle hint

about how QAnon terminology
have made its way

into the mainstream
Republican Party.

-CPAC is basically
conservative Mecca.

Every year, Republicans
of all levels descend on Orlando

for the conference hosted by
the American Conservative Union.

- Just looking.
- Okay.

♪♪

-I never knew how important
being president was.

I was president for four years.
I think I did a great job.

-We did things that nobody...

[ Cheers and applause ]

[Crowd chanting]
Four more years!

Four more years!
- Thank you.

-Four more years!
Four more years!

- Thank you.
- Four more years!

-Write whatever you want.

- I want to hear a little bit...
- Where you from?

- Texas.
- Texas. Where at?

- Small town outside of Austin.
- Oh, my son lives in Austin!

-Nice.

-Talk about a liberal cesspool.
Okay.

- [ Laughs ]
- So... Sorry.

We went to be involved
in our public schools,

because whether you have kids
in school or not,

we all pay taxes, and
those taxes are going to fund

some of these pornographic books
that are in the libraries.

-So, it says here,
"Everybody is important

and has the right
to be safe and happy."

-Right. Well...

-What's the...
What's the issue with that?

- Well, look up here.
- "Everybody has the right

to choose their own gender

by listening
to their own heart and mind.

Everyone gets to choose
if they are a boy or a girl

or both or neither
or something else,

and no one else
gets to choose for them."

-Yeah, these are
the kid-friendly versions.

-So, that just
sounds like freedom.

Lindell TV.

-[ Whistling ]

-And, by the way,
I noticed a patriot

in our midst...

Mike Lindell.

Will you stand up?

[ Cheers and applause ]

He's a patriot. He's a patriot.

-Mike Lindell rose to fame,
or infamy,

over the last decade
as the CEO of MyPillow.

His infomercials
were hard to miss,

but Lindell's public image
went from quirky

to controversial when he started
appearing with Trump in 2017.

Since the election,
he's become the face

of the Stop the Steal movement
and a hero to Q followers.

-Can you imagine four years ago
if somebody told us

the MyPillow guy
was gonna save the world?

-We got attacked by China,
and they flipped this election!

-In 2021, he hosted
a Cyber Symposium,

a 72-hour livestream event

that promised a treasure trove
of evidence

proving that China helped
Joe Biden steal the election.

You must be dead-certain
that the proof

that you have
is incontrovertible.

-It's 100%.

-He pledged $5 million

to anyone
who could disprove his data.

-There's a $5-million prize.

-Despite multiple experts coming
forward, Lindell never paid.

-I'd like my share.

♪♪

-[Crowd chanting]
USA! USA!

-These are my guys.

-These are your guys?
Who are you?

- VICE.
- What?

- VICE.
- VICE?

- VICE.
- VICE. Are you guys corrupt?

- Are you?
- [ Laughs ]

-[Crowd chanting]
USA! USA! USA!

[ Indistinct conversation ]

- Thank you.
- Here. These are my guys.

-These are your guys?
Who are you?

- VICE.
- What?

- VICE.
- VICE?

- VICE.
- VICE. Are you guys corrupt?

- Are you?
- [ Laughs ]

Are you a left-wing
attack media?

- No, of course not.
- Alright.

Let's hear the first question.
We're gonna see what they are.

What do you got?
- What do you think the future

of the Republican Party is?
- Uh, next question.

-Why did the first
Cyber Symposium

not bring about the proof
that you had said...?

-The Cyber Symposium was...
Down in history

as one of the most successful
events ever, and here's why.

Not one of you rotten media
said anything

for 15 days after that,

when we proved it was
from the 2020 election.

All 50 states were there.
They went back.

No... You g... Nobody said,
"Look. There's no evidence."

Nobody won the $5 million.
And let me tell you.

The machines and computers
have to go.

If you're not a traitor
to our country,

you should be very concerned
about that.

So the Cyber Symposium
is the most successful thing

in history.
- [ Cheers and applause ]

-Do you think Q
will ever come back?

- Who?
- Q?

- Q what?
- [ Chuckles ]

-Q what? I have no idea.
You guys have asked me about Q.

-Why is that suddenly...
Like, nobody knows what that is?

You pretend like
you've never heard of it before.

-No. I've heard of it.
I don't know what it is.

Do you?! Are you Q?!
This guy's Q! Look at him!

- Hey!
- [ Cheers and applause ]

-We've found Q!

This guy's a traitor
to the United States of America!

Bringing up Q.

-I'm just as American
as you are, my man.

-Listen. No. No, you're not!

-No, you're just trying
to get the mob on me.

- You're a traitor!
- You're a coward.

- Traitor! Traitor!
- You're a coward.

You hide behind these people.
- That's you. No, I don't.

You're a rotten journalist.

You're traitors to
the United States of America.

-So, just to be clear,
you're attacking me.

I'm asking you questions.
- You came up to me.

I was taking pictures
with these great people.

You come up to me.
- [ Cheers and applause ]

-[Crowd chanting] Mike! Mike!
Mike! Mike! Mike! Mike! Mike!

-I have hyper-focused since
I found the evidence that I got

on January 9th of last year.

We've had more evidence
of more stuff,

more crime committed
than any crime

in the history of the world.
Let's talk about Pennsylvania.

-Well, you seem to be doing
quite a hell of a job with that.

Look. You have
your own TV station.

I don't know if we need it,
but it's here.

-I'm going to tell
everybody this.

Fox...
Fox is the worst.

I will say that.
You're one step above Fox.

-That's alright. Alright. Well,
thank you for your time, sir.

-Yeah. God bless you.

♪♪

-Well, that was exciting.

-Oh, man. I'm so proud of you.

That was some real energy, man.

You really brought
some serious energy there.

-You know me. I try to keep th...
Like, de-escalate things.

I try. I at least try or at
least remain, like, respectful.

-You did. You remained
respectful with him, I think.

-When you have large groups
of people together like that

believing that, you know,
we are the enemy as the press,

like, situations
like that happen, you know?

-Yeah, that actually
kind of escalated a lot more.

I was like,
"This is kind of fun,

but, also,
is he about to get shot?"

-I have mixed feelings about it

because I didn't want
to be that version of myself,

but it just felt like
I had to fight back.

That was the only thing to do

to maintain
any kind of integrity.

♪♪

What do you make
of the straw poll

indicating that 90.4%
of the people who attended CPAC

think that the election
was stolen?

-Well, I think
it's a horrifying number.

I think, by far,
one of the biggest problems

that we face as a country
right now

is that the GOP is co-opting
the term "election integrity"

in order to push a very dark,
nefarious agenda

that includes disenfranchising a
large amount of American voters,

making it a lot harder
for people to vote,

and making sure that their base

are the only people
who have access to that.

A lot of the measures
that they're putting in place

are very specifically targeting
Black communities.

They're making it harder
for them to vote.

They're reducing the number
of polling locations

in Black neighborhoods,
and they're increasing numbers

of polling locations
in white neighborhoods.

It takes the voice away
from a large amount
of the American people.

-One of the things
I can't help but notice

is that this is essentially
Stop the Steal

but on a legislative level.

-In many ways, I think
Stop the Steal was just that.

Obviously,
it had a lot to do with Trump.

It had a lot to do
with continuing to break down

our trust in institutions
and divide the country,

but it also had to do
with the fact

that our demographics
are shifting and that we are not

going to be a majority-white
country anymore,

and that is not
going to work in their favor.

The only way that
they are able to stay in power,

it is to keep people
from voting.

-I don't think
it's really our job anymore

just to sit there
and be agreeable.

We have to push back harder
this season

because we didn't know
how serious things would get

when we first
started doing this.


that violent action

towards the government
is sometimes justified.

-And that's not even
of Republicans.

That's all Americans.
- That's all Americans.

That's one in three.
One, two, three.

-Recently on Twitter, there was
this really great thread

by this guy
named Michael Jensen,

extremism researcher
for the University of Maryland.

Though he studies
all kinds of extremism,

he's recently had to shift
to domestic terrorism

because that has become
the biggest threat

to our national security.

So, he is specifically
looking at Q crimes,

and I think that he is going to
be able to give us a sneak peek

into what the world looks like
if Q continues to spread.

♪♪

{\an3}-We've seen an increase in
all forms of criminal activity

since Q stopped posting in 2020.

So, 2021 was quite
an active year

in terms of QAnon-related
criminal activity.

There were nearly 50 crimes
committed around the world

in the name
of the conspiracy theory,

and that included
some high-profile homicides.

-It's clear that one of two
major American political parties

have been co-opted
by QAnon conspiracy theories.

But is that just bizarre,
or is this actually dangerous?

-To find out,
we sit with Mike Jensen,

who studies extremism
at the University of Maryland.

-I actually think
that the criminal aspect

of the conspiracy theory
is one that has not garnered

as much attention as it should.

You know, a lot of people
are talking about

the bizarre nature of the ideas,

you know,
these mass-mobilization protests

that have happened
around the world

and, of course, January 6th.

But what we started to see
right away with the QAnon

conspiracy theory
is that there were individuals

that were being mobilized
to violence.

QAnon is a form of what
we call stochastic terrorism,

which means that no one
is sitting there saying,

"Go k*ll this person.
Go b*mb this building."

Instead, what they're doing

is they're causing fear,
they're causing anxiety,

and they're
identifying villains,

knowing that somebody
will take that

and, on their own,

determine that they need
to take action, right?

So what we've seen in
QAnon crime and QAnon violence

is that this is not
being orchestrated

by anyone outside of the crimes.

These are individuals that
latched onto the narratives

and were motivated on their own

to mobilize
and commit these acts.

-Is there an increase
in violence

since Q stopped posting?

{\an3}-We've seen an increase in
all forms of criminal activity

since Q stop posting in 2020.

So, 2021 was quite
an active year

in terms of QAnon-related
criminal activity.

There were nearly 50 crimes
committed around the world

in the name
of the conspiracy theory,

and that included
some high-profile homicides.

So this really is a global
political movement now

that is inspiring criminal
activity around the globe.

-Do you think we're gonna see an
increase in political violence

in the years to come?
- By all metrics that we have,

we've seen
a fairly rapid increase.

Whether that trend continues
depends on whether

the movements continue
to garner mainstream support,

whether they feel that
their wishes are being met

by political representatives,
or whether they feel a need

to mobilize
to achieve their goals.

And, so, the midterm elections

and especially
the election in 2024

will have a major impact
on what we see happen

in terms of political violence
in this country.

-What keeps you up at night?

-QAnon's ability
to motivate individuals

to engage in acts
of interpersonal violence

and especially family violence.

So, we've seen the most
devastating and tragic cases

of QAnon-inspired violence
has been within the family unit.

It's not been standoffs
at the Hoover Dam

or wild plots to b*mb
the Illinois Capitol Building.

It's been parents
harming their children.

-What role does religion play

in motivating
these acts of violence?

-QAnon followers often
make appeals to religion.

QAnon presents itself
as fitting squarely

within the battle
of good and evil.

So they are on the side of good
fighting these forces.

And that resonates with various
types of religious communities.

But what we've seen is that,

in the evangelical Christian
community in particular,

is that this narrative
is really resonating.

And so we see more and more,
you know,

pastors and churchgoers
talking about QAnon

and framing it as this
"good and evil" battle.

-It's been the fight against
good versus evil since then.

-I don't give two craps
what the media thinks about me!

We'll burn
the whole media system down!

Welcome to the house, CNN!

♪♪

We break your spells!
We break your curse!

We got your first name!
We got your last name!

We even got an address...

-I execute judgment on you,
COVID-19!

-First of all, keep in mind
that the coming Antichrist

will be of Jewish descent.
- Satan!

-It's an authoritarian cult.

Behavior control,
information control,

thought control,
and emotional control.

-In America, we don't worship
government. We worship God.

-It's Q 2.0.
But much better. Much better.