Speaker 1: Q and On is now the most prolific online conspiracy
Speaker 1: theory of the twenty one century. None of their predictions
Speaker 1: came true. Q has vanished and the storm never came,
Speaker 1: but Q and On is still alive. I'm Jake Hanrahan,
Speaker 1: and this is Series two of Q Clearance, a podcast
Speaker 1: shedding light on the ongoing Q and On conspiracy theory.
Speaker 1: This is a production of Ku Data Media and I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. In this episode, we'll be discussing the storming
Speaker 1: of the US Capitol Building on January six one and
Speaker 1: how that is connected heavily to Q and On. Now.
Speaker 1: Many people seem to think that because Trump is no
Speaker 1: longer the US president, Q and on is over. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: that is very much not the case. There are hundreds
Speaker 1: of thousands of Q followers still hanging on, and believe
Speaker 1: it or not, some of them still think Q so
Speaker 1: called plan is being followed to the t. Will be
Speaker 1: showing you that just because you're not seeing it everywhere
Speaker 1: now doesn't mean Q and On has gone away. Before
Speaker 1: we go into all of that, though, let me explain
Speaker 1: what we'll be doing in this series. So in the
Speaker 1: first series, we clearly laid out who we think is
Speaker 1: behind the Q and On hoax, and why we went over,
Speaker 1: how the account changed hands, how media misinformation started blaming
Speaker 1: the wrong people, and why hundreds of thousands felt for
Speaker 1: the madness of Q and On. If you haven't heard
Speaker 1: it yet, I strongly advise you to go back to
Speaker 1: episode one of series one, otherwise a lot of this
Speaker 1: will make no sense to you. The end of series
Speaker 1: one of Q Clearance came around the same time as
Speaker 1: the end of Q and On as we know it,
Speaker 1: at least the end of que drops. See Q hasn't
Speaker 1: posted a single que drop since before the US election.
Speaker 1: The followers have been somewhat set adrift by this. Some
Speaker 1: have realized their error in believing in such an outlandish
Speaker 1: conspiracy theory, whilst others have dog in deeper. Will be
Speaker 1: covering all of that later on in this series, so
Speaker 1: to be clear, In this series will be documenting the
Speaker 1: evolution of Q and On without its leader. Will also
Speaker 1: cast a light on the deeper parts of the conspiracy
Speaker 1: that you won't see discussed in the news segments. Since
Speaker 1: the see of Maga hats kicked in windows at the
Speaker 1: Capitol Building, twenty four hour news channels have decided to
Speaker 1: take proper notice of Q and On. Predictably, most of
Speaker 1: their reporting is surface level and often over dramatic. At
Speaker 1: Q Clearance, we're digging in deeper. For four years, we
Speaker 1: have witnessed the pro Trump crowd fought with the police.
Speaker 1: This is the west front of the capital and you
Speaker 1: see the smoke is building and you see the flash there.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the flash bang is used by law enforcement to
Speaker 1: try to disperse the crowd. It's obviously one of the
Speaker 1: tactics in their tool belt. Um and and it seems
Speaker 1: we saw the FBI swat team come in earlier, no
Speaker 1: question that they The storming of the Capitol Building is
Speaker 1: what really catapulted Q and On into the public eye.
Speaker 1: Before that, Q and On was an oddity, laughed at
Speaker 1: by most who had heard about it. Now it's becoming
Speaker 1: a serious talking point for every US politico from here
Speaker 1: to d C. Some people are calling Q and On
Speaker 1: a terrorist organization, whilst others have started trying to distance
Speaker 1: themselves from this beast that they obviously nurtured. One side
Speaker 1: blames the other as usual. It's all a mess. But
Speaker 1: what actually happened at the Capitol Building in January? To
Speaker 1: discuss the situation in a way that's hopefully less dramatic
Speaker 1: than the online discourse that surrounding all of this has been.
Speaker 1: I spoke to journalist Matthew Goat. Goat runs the podcast
Speaker 1: Angry Planet and has been doing work on Q and
Speaker 1: on from the very beginning. Let's just just do a
Speaker 1: beat by beat for January six here, just so we
Speaker 1: kind of know, have the facts straight in front of us. Um. So,
Speaker 1: on January six, Congress bought the House and the Senate
Speaker 1: convene at a joint session presided over by the Vice President,
Speaker 1: and it's to certify the election results. Basically, to count
Speaker 1: the electoral votes and officially say, all right, Joe Biden wins,
Speaker 1: he will be the next president. This is part of
Speaker 1: like a very you know, an adyne normal process of
Speaker 1: American politics. Right. Um, the lead up to this day,
Speaker 1: Trump is indicating both on Twitter and in speeches, et cetera,
Speaker 1: that Pence could quote do something about this, that he
Speaker 1: could stop the certification, you know, because he's making this
Speaker 1: bold claim that the election was stolen from him and
Speaker 1: that the election is fraudulent, right, or at least kind
Speaker 1: of hinting around that. No here, that many Q and
Speaker 1: on's were convinced at the time that Mike Pence was
Speaker 1: their savior. They thought he might be one of Qu's
Speaker 1: right hand men and that he'd storm this stage as
Speaker 1: it were, and announced that Trump was about to take over.
Speaker 1: Of course, Q and On's linked Trump's tweets about Pence
Speaker 1: to cues previous hints that Pence was on their side
Speaker 1: to make things even more polarizing. There was also a
Speaker 1: contingent of Q and On's, many of them who thought
Speaker 1: the opposite of Pence. Many believed he was a traitor
Speaker 1: either way. On the day in question, he played a
Speaker 1: sign if a can roll in the Q and on
Speaker 1: mythos Um. Also in the lead up to the day,
Speaker 1: he announces that he will be holding a stop the
Speaker 1: Steel rally on the day that they are certifying the election.
Speaker 1: So in January six, then that morning, and then kind
Speaker 1: of throughout the afternoon, Trump supporters gather on the Ellipses,
Speaker 1: which is a large park north of Washington, north of
Speaker 1: the Washington Monument and south of Lafayette Square. UM. So
Speaker 1: at noon Trump speaks. I think you know, at this
Speaker 1: point we've all heard the speech. We all know what
Speaker 1: he said. It was played repeatedly on cable news broadcasts
Speaker 1: and as part of his second impeachment trial. So he's
Speaker 1: still speaking when at twelve thirty the crowd begins to
Speaker 1: gather outside of the Capitol building itself. UM. And at
Speaker 1: one pm people start to push through the first barricade
Speaker 1: that was around the Capitol. UM. At one one oh five,
Speaker 1: inside the Capitol, they begin certifying the votes. UM. At
Speaker 1: one tin Trump ends his speech and he else his
Speaker 1: supporters that we are going to the capital and that
Speaker 1: he will you know, we're going to march down Pennsylvania
Speaker 1: Avenue and that he will be there with them. Um.
Speaker 1: He was not physically anyway. Then about one thirty, Trump
Speaker 1: supporters start marching down Pennsylvania Avenue and they make it
Speaker 1: to the steps, and a lot of the most striking
Speaker 1: footage that that we saw on social media comes from
Speaker 1: this moment, like from one thirty to two, where the
Speaker 1: crowds are gathered out outside and they're starting to fight
Speaker 1: with police officers and they're crawling all over everything. Um.
Speaker 1: And then at about two fifteen they get in. And
Speaker 1: then five minutes later when Congress adjourns, and they start
Speaker 1: moving to safe locations either within the building or without
Speaker 1: if they can get outside of it, and then you know,
Speaker 1: we again we get to start to see what happens
Speaker 1: while these people are in the Capital Um. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of selfie taking. Uh, there's a lot of petty vandalism.
Speaker 1: There's reports that excrement was smeared on the walls. Um.
Speaker 1: And you know there's there's the Q and On Sharman,
Speaker 1: who we will talk about here in a moment um.
Speaker 1: You know, in the ratunda in the chambers, looking looking
Speaker 1: very regal and important. If you saw any of the
Speaker 1: coverage of the Capitol Building riot, you will have seen
Speaker 1: the guy at gold just mentioned the Q and On Shaman.
Speaker 1: We'll be talking about him more later in the series,
Speaker 1: but just in case you've been living under a rock
Speaker 1: or something, the Q and On Shaman is a man
Speaker 1: called Jake Angelie. Angelie was a hardcore Q and On
Speaker 1: believer who turned up to the Capitol Building shirtless, with
Speaker 1: his face painted and wearing a fur hat with antlers
Speaker 1: attached to it. You could not make this up. He
Speaker 1: was a well known face amongst the Q and On
Speaker 1: protests for years, and was of course present when the
Speaker 1: Capitol Building was stormed on January nine. He was a
Speaker 1: rested on federal charges of knowingly entering or remaining in
Speaker 1: any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, and with
Speaker 1: violent entry and disorderly conduct on capital grounds. He's since
Speaker 1: renounced his q and On allegiance and Donald Trump. It's
Speaker 1: believed he has also had a history of mental illness.
Speaker 1: As the Capital Building was stormed, many of the protesters
Speaker 1: were posting their crimes to social media, showing off and
Speaker 1: often cheering Q and On mantras as they did it.
Speaker 1: And these people are all posting to social media. Um,
Speaker 1: they they're they're also going into congressional offices. They are
Speaker 1: looking for people. Mostly they find equipment. Some of them
Speaker 1: steal equipment, some of them steal Nancy Pelosi's mail and
Speaker 1: her laptop. Things get trashed, and that's generally what happens.
Speaker 1: So what does this have to do with you and On?
Speaker 1: I think is like the big question, right because I
Speaker 1: think in the aftermath of all of this happening, a
Speaker 1: lot of the blame for this event was put on
Speaker 1: Q and on so YouTube and Facebook had already banned
Speaker 1: Q and On from its platforms for whatever you know
Speaker 1: that means. Uh. Late on January eighth, Twitter comes two
Speaker 1: days after what will the storming of the capital, Twitter
Speaker 1: bands active q and on accounts and deactivates around seventy
Speaker 1: thousand accounts it says are connected to q and on.
Speaker 1: This includes former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and Ron Watkins,
Speaker 1: who I'm sure listeners will be very familiar with by
Speaker 1: this point. If that name means nothing to you, I
Speaker 1: again strongly advise you go back to series one to
Speaker 1: find out how it was uncovered that him and his
Speaker 1: dad were very likely behind the q and on hoax. UM. So,
Speaker 1: partly because of this and partly because of increased scrutiny overall,
Speaker 1: and a perception the platforms like Facebook and YouTube and
Speaker 1: Twitter silence and conservative voices, um, what I would call
Speaker 1: the q and on community begins to kind of migrate
Speaker 1: to Telegram. We've got a whole episode coming up about
Speaker 1: how qun on flooded their way onto Telegram, the messaging
Speaker 1: app when its proponents were banned from social media. But
Speaker 1: just so you know for context, the ideas behind q
Speaker 1: and on have only become even more outrageous and unbelievable
Speaker 1: now that its main source of discussion is on Telegram.
Speaker 1: These groups aren't small either. When I'm following has well
Speaker 1: over one hundred thousand members and is constantly being updated.
Speaker 1: So why is Q Why do people think you and
Speaker 1: on is to blame for this? Right? Right? I think
Speaker 1: that's that's like a big question, like why is that
Speaker 1: part of the narrative here? Um and I would say
Speaker 1: that is because we don't have good numbers on how
Speaker 1: many people were actually there. We may never know like
Speaker 1: what the total number is, but we can look at
Speaker 1: people that have been charged um SO. As of this recording,
Speaker 1: federal authorities have charged more than three people in connection
Speaker 1: to the rights. The list is growing every day, and
Speaker 1: the charges range from conspiracy to petty vandalism. It's really
Speaker 1: all over the map with what these people are getting
Speaker 1: charged with. Um SO. News outlets like USA Today, Insider,
Speaker 1: and NPR have searchable databases of who the people are
Speaker 1: that are getting charged um things that have been written
Speaker 1: about them in their local newspapers, what their social media
Speaker 1: activity was like. So there were people at the riot
Speaker 1: who were Q and On believers, Alright, how many of
Speaker 1: them believed quote unquote in Q and on or we're
Speaker 1: big Q people. I don't think that's super noable, but
Speaker 1: I do have some data points from like the indictments
Speaker 1: and what we know about some of these people, and
Speaker 1: I just kind of want to run through just three
Speaker 1: real quick. UM. So there's Harry P. Muntzer, who's fifty two.
Speaker 1: He's charged with disorderly conduct and breaking and entering UM.
Speaker 1: He ran an appliant store in the Midwest. The local
Speaker 1: newspaper would report on him. It would run photos of
Speaker 1: a of an appliant the appliance store. It was decorated
Speaker 1: in murals talking about Q, talking about how people are
Speaker 1: sheeple um, and that this was an awakened store and
Speaker 1: that he was fighting against a deep state cabal. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, this is on the wall of his of
Speaker 1: his Midwest appliance store, just in in the middle of
Speaker 1: just you know, on a normal street. There's Dominic Madden,
Speaker 1: forty three. He's got a real long list of charges,
Speaker 1: including including disorderly conduct and breaking and entering UM. He
Speaker 1: was seen on January six wearing a blue Q hoodie.
Speaker 1: There's a married couple, Jason and Christine Girding, also charged
Speaker 1: with disorderly conduct. They took a photo together in the
Speaker 1: rotunda of after they'd broken in UM. A loving like
Speaker 1: the kind of thing that you would see, like a
Speaker 1: normal couple take in front of a beautiful bridge or landscape.
Speaker 1: UM and Jason's profile photo on Facebook before the rest
Speaker 1: is emblazoned with the Q. UM. There's others. There's others,
Speaker 1: people in the three hundred people long list, right, But
Speaker 1: it's not as if I mean you you know this
Speaker 1: and the listeners know this. It's not as if there's
Speaker 1: a centralized location where Q is being planned and people
Speaker 1: are being organized. This is a self starting belief system
Speaker 1: and cult these So it's it's to say that Q
Speaker 1: and on caused this, I think is a simplification of
Speaker 1: a much broader phenomenon about what's going on that also
Speaker 1: involves President Trump, that just involves the way the internet works,
Speaker 1: in the way conservative politics have gone in America more
Speaker 1: broadly in the last ten or twenty years. I think
Speaker 1: as well, though, some something that a lot of people
Speaker 1: look to when saying, oh, the Q cause this is
Speaker 1: because the Q and On's before this, Actually this happened
Speaker 1: before the riot happened. The Q and On's on telegram
Speaker 1: was saying, right January sick, there's going to be something big.
Speaker 1: Trump is going to come back. He's gonna he really
Speaker 1: won the election, he's going to arrest ever, you know,
Speaker 1: another one of these failed predictions that they always have.
Speaker 1: And then when nothing happened, they kind of made something
Speaker 1: happen and said, see, we told you something big was
Speaker 1: going to happen. And it's like, no, that that's not
Speaker 1: the same. That's like saying, oh, my car is going
Speaker 1: to get stolen on Monday, and then when no one
Speaker 1: steals that, you steal your own car and trash it
Speaker 1: and then say, see I told you, Like, no, it
Speaker 1: doesn't work like that. That's not prediction, that is you
Speaker 1: causing it. That's a self fulfilling prophecy. Right. I think
Speaker 1: that did have a lot to do with it as well. No,
Speaker 1: I think you are exactly right, um, and like part
Speaker 1: of and this is especially what what you're talking about
Speaker 1: is especially important when we talk about what has happened
Speaker 1: after to the Q and On movement. They say that
Speaker 1: January six is going to be this day the you know,
Speaker 1: the big Q we will call it a Q influencers,
Speaker 1: the big people in the Q and On community right
Speaker 1: are saying that January six is going to be the stay,
Speaker 1: It's going to be the day that the election is certified.
Speaker 1: Like and as you said, they manifested this. They made something,
Speaker 1: They made something happen. So there we have it. The
Speaker 1: Capital Building riot or insurrection or whatever you want to
Speaker 1: call it didn't necessarily happen only because of Q and On. However,
Speaker 1: I think it's fair to say that it likely wouldn't
Speaker 1: have been carried out in the way that it was
Speaker 1: if Q and On didn't exist. Q whipped his supporters
Speaker 1: up into a wild frenzy for four years, promising political violence,
Speaker 1: secret plans, and the destruction of the Democrats. When that
Speaker 1: didn't happen, many many Q and On supporters sort of
Speaker 1: tried to light the spark that Q couldn't, because of
Speaker 1: course Q was full of ship from start to finish.
Speaker 1: This isn't over, though, the threat of potential violence from
Speaker 1: Q and On adherence got so extreme that on page
Speaker 1: one of a New York Police Department Intelligence Bureau mailer
Speaker 1: on extremist imagery, they put the Q and On symbol
Speaker 1: at the top. This mailer was obtained by journalist Jason Wilson.
Speaker 1: On it, the police wrote the following, Q and On
Speaker 1: is a broad conspiracy movement with anti Semitic underpinnings that
Speaker 1: falsely alleges, based on purportedly classified intelligence, that an elite
Speaker 1: cabal of pedophiles led by Democrats is plotting to harm
Speaker 1: children and undermine President Trump. Several adherents to the movement
Speaker 1: have been responsible for acts of violence and criminality. The
Speaker 1: possible danger here is that Q and on is very
Speaker 1: much still alive. It's just more underground than it ever was.
Speaker 1: Stay tuned to Q Clearance while we bring all of
Speaker 1: this into the light. Q Clearance is brought to you
Speaker 1: by I Heart Radio and cou Data Media. I'm Jake Hanrahan.
Speaker 1: You can find me online at Jake Underscore Hanrahan. That's
Speaker 1: h a N A h a N. This episode was
Speaker 1: produced by myself, with fact checking and additional research by
Speaker 1: Sarah Hightower. The music is by Sam Black and the
Speaker 1: sound was mixed by Thomas Griffin. That splicing Block Burton
Speaker 1: Burton and Burton person unperson