Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) speaks during a news conference with members of the House Freedom Caucus about immigration on the U.S.-Mexico border outside the U.S. Capitol on March 17, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Unraveling viral disinformation and explaining where it came from, the harm it's causing, and what we should do about it.
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But that’s not what Gosar is saying. After VICE News contacted Gosar’s office about his guest spot on the show, Jessica Lycos, Gosar’s digital director, said it wasn’t happening. “He is not appearing. He was never confirmed,” she wrote. Lycos did not immediately respond to follow-up questions about whether Gosar had been in discussions about appearing on the show.Patriots’ Soapbox did not respond to VICE News’ request for comment. The Republican Party has flirted with QAnon but has never openly endorsed the conspiracy movement. Many of its members — such as Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert—have previously endorsed QAnon, but their comments were made prior to their election to Congress. As a sitting congressman, Gosar’s appearance on one of the main QAnon channels would have marked a new level of involvement in the conspiracy theory for the GOP.
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But Gosar came pretty close: Back in August 2019, before QAnon really went mainstream but less than two weeks after the FBI labeled the movement a potential domestic terror threat, Gosar tweeted: “have a tip. I think high level FBI agents may have colluded with British agents and Democrat operatives to initiate an illegal coup against @realDonaldTrump.”
In the tweet, he directly referenced a message posted by Q, which was a video of Deadpool eating popcorn because he's excited Democrats will be arrested. While Gosar subsequently said he unwittingly posted the link to the Q drop, for some reason, the Arizona representative has never found time in the intervening 18 months to delete the tweet.