Gosar’s office now says he won’t appear on QAnon talk show

After the Arizona Mirror published a story about Congressman Paul Gosar’s scheduled appearance on a QAnon talk show, his office said he won’t appear on the program. 

Gosar was said to be scheduled to appear on Patriots’ Soapbox, a leading QAnon talk show, next week. But Jessica Lycos, Gosar’s digital director, told Vice News that he was “never confirmed” to appear. His office gave the same response to The Hill. 

Patriots’ Soapbox was promoting Gosar’s scheduled March 23 appearance on Gab and on its programs.

The Mirror previously reached out to Gosar’s office for comment, but did not receive a response. 

Patriots’ Soapbox is a fringe outlet that broadcasts online 24 hours a day, and that has proliferated QAnon stories for years. It is so tied to the QAnon movement that some speculated its founder, Coleman Rogers — the man behind Pamphlet Anon — could be behind some of the Q posts. 

“He has taken a stand against the conservative establishment to support #AmericaFirst and he never wavered,” Radix Verum, host of a show called Digging Deeper on Patriots’ Soapbox, said on the social media site Gab, promoting Gosar’s appearance. “Let’s show him our support. Let him know you have his back!”

Gosar has courted QAnon beliefs before. In 2019, he retweeted a QAnon follower and promoted a QAnon “clue,” and later cryptically tweeted “Epstein didn’t kill himself” during a Twitter thread about the first day of hearings for President Donald Trump’s first impeachment hearing. 

Gosar also attended the “Trumpstock” event in Golden Valley, Arizona, which had QAnon speakers and music performers.

In its simplest form, QAnon is a conspiracy theory that alleges that a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles are running a global sex-trafficking ring, control world governments and are trying to bring down Donald Trump — who is single-handedly dismantling the cabal. 

However, the community has seen division since the election of President Joe Biden and his inauguration, severing into new tribes and forming new conspiracies as they contend with prophecies that did not come to fruition. 

Patriots’ Soapbox has served as a platform for up-and-coming GOP politicians like Lauren Boebert, who appeared on the show when running for Congress. Gosar’s appearance would have marked the first time a sitting member of Congress has appeared on the show. 

The site has had its Twitter and YouTube channels suspended during a crackdown on QAnon content in October, though streaming platform Roku allows its customers to stream Patriot Soapbox. 

Verum, who had promoted Gosar’s alleged appearance on Gab, did not respond to Vice News’ questions about Gosar coming on the show, instead posting a screenshot of the email on Gab comparing the reporter’s behavior to that of a “neo-stasi.”

In promoting the show on Patriots’ Soapbox, Verum used the hashtag “#AmericaFirst” and included a cartoon frog in the lower right corner. The frog is a Groyper, a symbol used by white nationalists and far-right activists who often troll conservatives who they feel are not extreme enough. Groypers are also considered loosely organized and members of many different groups, but are almost all followers of white nationalist podcaster Nick Fuentes.  

Fuentes is the leader of the America First Political Action Committee and organizer of a conference at which Gosar spoke last month. At the same conference, Fuentes called the Jan. 6 riots “awesome” and demanded elected leaders like Gosar enact protections for the country’s “white demographic core.”

One of the main goals of groypers is to push conservatives in a white nationalist direction and one of their strategies is by presenting their views in a mainstream appearance or within mainstream organizations. 

Much like Patriots’ Soapbox, Fuentes has called for his followers to support Gosar from the Republican establishment for supporting “America First.”

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