QAA Podcast - The QAnon Press Secretary And The Texas Senate Race Cover Up That Wasn’t (E393)

Episode Date: October 14, 2026

Mr. President, a second Press Secretary has hit The White House. They say she’s new but Julian can’t say for sure and Jake is beginning to think clones and/or aliens might somehow be involved. This week Travis examines new Press Secretary Katie Zacharia’s long history as a devoted Trump fan and pilled Q follower. Then he breaks down the rising conspiracy surrounding Texas State Senate candidate James Talarico’s mysterious nine day absence from the campaign trail that some on the right falsely claim he spent in a mental health facility. New White House press secretary is a Pizzagate conspiracy theorist https://popular.info/p/new-white-house-press-secretary-is MAGA’s Talarico Mental Breakdown Conspiracy Implodes—Instantly https://www.thebulwark.com/p/maga-james-talarico-mental-breakdown-conspiracy-theory-implodes-sortor-amacher-lindner Subscribe for $5 a month to get all the premium episodes: www.patreon.com/qaa Click here to become a subscriber to Cursed Media today to get access to new episodes of Raising Hell releasing right now, plus our other exclusive Cursed Media series: https://cursedmedia.net Produced by Liv Agar & Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (instagram.com/theyylivve / sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (pedrocorrea.com) qaapodcast.com QAA was known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast.

Found a way to connect. Welcome to the QAA podcast episode 30093, the QAnon Press Secretary and the Texas Senate race cover-up that wasn't. As always, we are your host, Jake Rakatansky, Julian Field, and Travis View. QAA News. Whoa, we're back. We're in the news space. Yeah, we're back.

I got two stories I'm bringing you. One that's got me looking up Q-drops. 2026. Whoa. Going back to the drops. Yeah. He's actually looking to them for guidance. He's just a lot of that the news.

Travis has ended up where I started. Yes. I'm checking the Delta's daily now. It got me, finally. And yeah, another story about like a bizarre conspiracy theory involving the Texas Senate race that fell apart in spectacular fashion, but some people are still clinging to. I thought it was just an interesting sort of insight into how like the sort of the MAGA a conspiracist sort of like a news ecosystem operates.

Get your popcorn ready. Boom. Yeah. This wasn't on my bingo cards. God damn. I'm back. I was lived out last episode, but I'm back to being regular and cool again. Nice.

That's good to know. Nice. I just needed one. I just needed a couple Patreon comments to sort of push me back in the right direction. And we're good. Once in a while, he needs a good bullying when he says something like, we need to win. And me and Liv are like,

shut the fuck up. Who the fuck are you talking about when you say we? Explain yourself. So the first one, first story is about our new press secretary. So the former White House press secretary, Caroline Leavitt, resigned in August. And this was clearly unplanned

because they didn't have an immediate replacement ready. Carolyn, leave it, left it. Bye, bye. I mean, it's a little weird for like the White House to lose their spokesman. spokesperson without a replacement just a few months before the midterm elections. That is not unusual. That is absolutely part for the course.

Chaos. Mystery. Intrigue. Everything we were promised and more in Trump 2.0. Plus, horror, bloodletting, terrible executions. They're probably going to let Grok be the White House spokesperson for the next couple months. There's some sort of super intelligence, right?

Freaking, they're going to let freaking Clippy be the freaking president. fucking clipy what the hell oh man Leavitt said that she left because the jobs demands were incompatible with the time that she wanted to give to her two young children particularly after her daughter's birth in May

CNN reported that Trump repeatedly called during Leavitt's maternity leave which might be the idea that she couldn't even take some time off to take care of her infant daughter maybe that pushed her I don't know he forgot that she was gone He was just checking in, like, how is your body recovering? Like, how has your mood been?

You know, have you been able to feed yourself right? He's a caring guy. And every phone call to you is some sort of a domineering boss that might be trying to make a woman work during her maternity leave. On October 9th, Trump announced that Katie Zachariah would become the new White House press secretary. That sounds like a name that a kind of protagonist would have in a Christian movie. Yes, yeah. I see, I hear the name Zachariah. and I see an old bearded patriarch.

Yeah, this is who's going to be representing the White House, I guess, in the immediate future. We'll see how long she lasts. We're rebooting the whole Zachariah franchise. We've got a young woman. Her name is Katie. And she's going to be at the head of this nine movie blockbuster set of sequels. Jake, you are producing and it was your idea. What do you have to say for yourself?

I'm seeing Zacharias more of a beard and pipe kind of fellow. Okay, gotcha. Zachariah graduated from Pepperdine's Law School, where she was president of college Republicans. She also interned for the White House during the George W. Bush administration. More recently, she's been a regular pro-Trump voice on Fox News and Newsmax. This is the trajectory they always go, you know, in conservative media. Listen, I don't want to get into like any, you know, trouble this episode, obviously. But we need to talk about the Republican factory for,

women who look like this. It is crazy. Like you look at it and like, what the fuck? I mean, she's terrifying. She has a, she, I mean, I very honestly, you know, I'm becoming kind of beta. Like I'm getting, I'm becoming prey is what I feel like when I, when I see her eyes. Like, I would believe she could be a reptilian. I would believe she could eat a small dog in one chomp.

I'm starting to think that maybe Trump just like stays up at late at night watching Fox News and that's his hiring pool. He sort of just sees who he. he likes on there and goes like, oh, she was, she was great. We could. Why do we grab her? It seems like that's sort of like where he's getting all of his, um, his taps from. No, I mean, Trump leads a singularly bizarre existence in which when he's not, you know, out in public, he's at home watching TV about himself, constantly watching about things that he did and constantly watching people talk about him. We need like an A24

prime time style, like very dark, very dark. Very dark. nightmarish film about just like Trump alone at night in the White House. Like what snacks he's getting, what he's watching. Like, I think that could, that could make for really a fascinating, a low budget horror feature. Anyways, her look is like, like you would think. She's literally like an Aryan person. She looks like some sort of a German clone that was made in like a factory for genetic

manipulation. I mean, I guess she's a fake blonde, but she's definitely like, you know, heavy on the die. Oh, I see. Okay. I'm looking at it. Oh, yeah, she looks like, I think he is working with the aliens. I think he is working with the Nordic. Yeah, she could be a Nordic. Yeah, actually, hold on. Uh-oh. That's the take. Oh, no, she does not look human. And there was that other lady who was hanging around the Dell, the CEO of Dell or something. She was in a suit. Same thing. Another terrifying bizarre blonde woman. I think maybe the alien people are on to something. I am telling you, man, the skin is barely hanging off that reptilian frame. I say this, but I want to let our listeners know because there was a little bit of concern in the comment section last time. I am okay. I know it sounds like I'm spinning out of control, but I'm mentally taking care of myself.

Wow, it's that bad in the comments. Yeah, I'm mentally taking care of myself and it's okay. This is my safe space to lose my mind, and that keeps me healthy in other places. So you see the worst, ladies and gents. I just want to make sure everybody, because it's no fun to listen to somebody that you think is actually losing their mind. I got it together. I got a good support group, solid partner, all as well. And also, I will continue to bully him, so don't worry about that. And I also still maintain that the lady that I'm looking at right now is from the planet Pleiades.

No, she's not Pleiadian. She's Nordic. Actually, I don't really know what planet the Nordics come from, but I know that they're distinct from the Pleiades. Come on. Are you even in the super secret, the secret space program, Jake? She's from the Norse civilization. that survived inside of Earth. No, you're mixing stuff up. You've never even done a 30 in back. You probably have no psionic abilities. You've never fought the Draco, like, around any orbits.

Yeah, I just can remember, like, all the lyrics to, like, a ghetto boy's song from, like, 1989. That's what, that's... I do like that you... That's where my powers lie. You are simultaneously super interested in aliens, and also, like, you don't give enough of a shit to like really remember any of the specifics. Fuck, you've like kind of fine, you kind of have called me out like ultimate,

ultimate style. It's kind of like my everything. I'm curious, but I really don't give a shit enough about anything to really, you know. That's not true. Xenomorphs get special attention from you. Cenomorphs get special attention. And I understand that. I'm a huge alien. I mean, people talk a lot about your tastes, but I've never come out as like a full-on alien

nerd. Like I love and have watched every single terrible, even terrible movie. Yeah, even the fourth one where they're swimming underwater and the CGI was bad. No, forget the fourth one. I'm talking about Alien versus Predator like spin-offs. Oh, Requiem and, yeah, there's a bunch of different ones. I'll watch it all. I can't wait for another Ridley Scott one.

I love seeing those aliens. Look, hey, guys, look, when it comes down to it, I love seeing these aliens and I love seeing these predators go at it. You know, we like to see. I want to see these creatures. mix it up. I'm going to say that Zachariah looks more like a predator, though. No, she has an elongated zina. If she opened up, I don't know a second mouth, I think could, you know, come out and she's totally when he takes off the mask what the predator looks like. You know, I think, yeah, Zachariah would definitely kill me in a very precise, honor-based manner like a predator,

not in sort of an animalistic manner like a xenomorph. Exactly, Jay. Thank you, Travis. Thank you, Travis. for once you're saying something that makes sense. The only thing Travis would see is little three red dots slowly moving up his body and then boom, lights out. She's in a tree cloaked. Anyways, right in, you know, not to like check in on Jake or whatever be. First of all, you're all helicopter parenting him. He's fine.

Leave him alone. I understand some of it's concerning because I laugh really loud basically to the point where I'm like, oh my God, it's so funny. But yeah, I understand how like to a regular person, you know, it could be like, wow, he's really fucking letting loose. But this is my place to do that. I go, I give you guys 115%, you know. Instead of worrying about him,

write in and tell us who you think, Katie Zachariah, what species of alien is she? That's what we really want to know and we want to see in the comments. Thank you very much. Earlier this year, Zachariah briefly worked in public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security,

including as a spokesperson. Her most recent job was a senior communications advisor for Trump Media. and technology group, which is the company behind Truth Social. So this is how Trump describes Zachariah in a post. She has an unblemished record of support, and she's been a loyal and brilliant supporter right from the beginning. She is likewise a devoted fan and member of Maga.

Devoted fan. Fan. She's a fan. He calls his political basis fan club. He is so rotten. Oh, my, my. You can see the Jews. Just dripping off.

Cooked old bitch. I like this post because really Trump says like in three different ways is that she expresses like for me. It's like unblemished record of support for me. She's been a loyal and brilliant supporter of me right from the beginning. Likewise, she is the devoted fan and member of MAGA, which is like my coalition. So it's like, oh, she likes me. And also she's like, well, she likes people like me.

And she's a fan of me. So, of course, she's great. Support, support, support. It's what I'm always saying. The three supports. The three pillars of support, support, support, and support. You can let her in, give her a plus one. So, you know, on paper, you know, she's perhaps an unsurprising choice for Trump to pick as

press secretary. She's a blonde Trump loyalist with experience in both government and conservative media. You're going to look so great, sweetie, when you're running behind my golf cart. When people started to, like, dig into Zacharias's past statements, some found, you know, things that should be disqualifying, but are probably actually prerequisites for serving in this administration. For example, as first reported by Brendan Hartnett at the bulwark, she said that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. She's saying all the right things in the interview.

The re-engagement in the political battlefield for me was actually the pandemic. Was the 2020-2020 when the election was stolen from President Trump. And I'm just going to say it. It was stolen. Okay. I guess you can say that. Wow. Yeah.

She also repeatedly in posts endorsed the idea that Trump should run for an unconstitutional third term in 2008. Zachariah also deleted a series of tweets calling for suspending habeas corpus, the legal principle that requires the government to justify a prisoner's confinement. Yeah, she's as bloodthirsty as she looks. Wow. But that was not the worst of it. It appears that Zachariah is more pilled than that. But before, I do want you guys is like sort of, I'm always interested in to win people. express this belief, especially when they're like well educated, whether or not they actually believe

in this nonsense or whether or not they're promoting it for some kind of cynical reasons. And she's, I don't know, tough not to crack in that regard. But let's take a look. So basically, she's endorsed the Pizagate conspiracy, indicated that she's familiar with Q-Drops and posted belief in devolution. Now, if you remember, devolution is this Q&ON-related theory that during President Biden's administration, Trump somehow retained control of the military or is possibly secretly acting as president. Yes, of course. It's just absolute delusional nonsense, but she seems to take it seriously. We've got another one.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's, I called this, not to say, not to say it, but he, he surrounded himself with the bottom of the barrel and the only people that will, you know, stand next to him are essentially like QAnon believers. Like, this is, this is the end. This is the end of the train. I don't know. I wonder, I mean, I kind of.

hope that Katie Zachariah suffers the same fate as Marjorie Taylor Green and that Marjorie was a full-out Q&N believer. Like really, from the early days posting, talking about Q-drops and talking about how she sincerely believed there would be a mass arrest event. She was all in. And then she got elected to Congress and was had to actually work with the president. And that disillusioned her. That made her realize she had been thoroughly duped. Obviously, once she actually was forced to work with him personally, she realized that she had been sold a bill of goods in the cue drops. We also just got gifted with another Jakeism,

the end of the train instead of the end of the line. That's the end of the train. Oh, that's going to get me for a little while. Binkers still comes into my brain. Oh, man. Beautiful stuff. The end of the train. Well, I mean, yeah, it feels like you were at the engine and now we're at the caboose or I don't know if they do cabooses anymore.

We're out the little door out the back, the one that you see the rails from. Yeah, yeah, yeah, where you kind of, yeah, you see whoever's running behind you, whoever got left behind. You know. Jud Legum at Popular Information reported on some of the tweets indicating this Pizza Gate support first. Now, one of these relates to the fact that in 2022, longtime Pizza Gate target, John Podesta, joined the Biden White House as a climate change advisor. This prompted Zachariah to post this on Truth Social. Why doesn't Fox News do a feature on what a pedophile Podesta is?

The old school cooked shit, man. This is like early. Yeah, she likes them. She's going to be the press secretary? That's what she's awesome. my favorite fucking story about John Podesta is that our very first

like QAnon gathering on September 11th all those years ago, what was it? 2019. 2019, yeah. One person like that was there had actually run into Pedesta because it was in Washington, D.C. And he just looks like a guy

with like a crummy backpack like on his way to work. And it was Podesta. And she's like, look, I got a photo of him. She was showing other people. I'm like, this guy's behind like the biggest like, He eats children in your world, and you were like, I got a little picture of him.

Look at him. And he was, I don't know. It just to this day still cracks me up thinking of that little, that picture of him just kind of looking up. Like the Yeti. Yeah, looking a little confused. Yeah. Like, there he goes. The worst criminal in all of humankind.

Anyways. Got a picture of him. The other thing is like, was really great. The people who took the picture talked about what they would like to do to him. Of course. Like, like, but you did. You bet up with him. Yeah.

Yeah, you had your chance. What you did with them is that you kind of like took a picture of them weirdly. Which is exactly what happened in the Capitol. They just started live streaming. They got to the place and it's like, what do we do? Well, we do souvenirs. We post. Yeah, we post.

So I think that was a weird question to ask by Zacharias. I was like, why doesn't Fox News do a feature on what a pedophile pedesta is? Because she should know that like if like they tried doing that, then the Fox News legal department would like physically tackle any anchor who tried. Yeah, they would. would not let these blurry JPEGs that passes evidence through the Fox News. I mean, no matter how much you want to criticize Fox News, they're not yet referring directly to the Frazzled Rip video as existing. The same day she made that post about Podesta, she also posted this.

The radical left Hollywood elitists are sick pedo-cannables. Change my mind. Cannibals. Cannibals, that's, yeah, going straight for the, yeah, the pedo-cannibals. Yeah, pedovores. She's using like one of the humor preset templates. You know what I mean? Like people who have zero sense of humor whatsoever.

And so they have to take a change my mind or, you know, a nailed it, that sort of thing. An apatowism, I would call it. Her fantasy about Fox News doing like Pizza Gate style coverage wasn't a one-off thing. In October of 2022, she tagged Sean Hannity on truth social and asked, where's the feature on John Podesta? She's getting impatient. She's like, I was promised some really good Podesta content. I bet with AI now she's got herself a whole series. She's got a trilogy of movies that she's made for herself about Podesta.

It's not enough for him to just be like the kind of sniveling, failed flunky to like the Hillary Clinton disaster. He has to be. It's like we need the full story. What's John Podesta been up to? You feel like even in 2022, both like Q&O'N honors had moved on from Podesta. You know, they had other targets. She was still dipping into the old school stuff.

On November 18th, 2022, Zachariah honored conspiracy theorist Robert David Steele. He actually, he died from COVID the previous year. You might remember Robert David Steele as the former CIA officer who promoted Q&ONN and was one of the main spreaders of the Andrinochrome conspiracy theory. He also once claimed that NASA is hiding kidnapped children on Mars. So this is guys really off in space in terms of. of the claims he's making.

Literally. Damn. Travis. Mm. So here's what she did. On Truth Social, Zachariah said this about Robert David Steele

in response to a Q&N follower who was mourning his death. I'm so sorry for your loss. He was exposing the petto rings of the elite cabal. May he rest in peace and the work of his hands not have been in vain.

She's like communicating with, yeah, like other Q&N promoters who have a presence on Truth Social and like praising this absolute lunatic who's, yeah, again, responsible for some of the worst conspiracy theories to spread online. The handle that she's replying to is

Cag Drogo. Yeah. That's so annoying. Oh, fuck. Yeah, so in terms of, like, her interest in the cue drops, this again comes from someone she was responding to.

So on November 16th, 2022, a Q&ON believing truth social user posted this. Did you notice Trump drinking bottled water last night during his announcement, he drank at least two to three times. I have not seen him do that in his speeches or rallies. It reminds me of Q-Post 765, 767 and 847, or was it a signal for something else, by land or by sea?

I love that this person is just citing the Q-drops like scripture without explaining what they mean, because obviously you're familiar with these drops. Yeah, yeah, we all read them and know them. So here's what Zachariah responded. I was wondering the same thing. You were wondering, Katie, about whether or not Trump drinking two times was a reference to certain cue drops? At least two to three times, Travis.

Two to three times. That's the meaningful. Once it's above two, then you're in the land of communications. Coms activated. I am receiving. Third eye decalcified. Travis, I'm receiving your beam. Well, she's going to have a chance to find out if all of this stuff is true because

she's going to be working directly for the president as the press secretary for the White House. Or as she calls him Q Plus. A long time ago, she was just a lady on Twitter. Just posting along. Now she works in the White House, like a Simon and Garfunkel-y type jam. That would be, she works in the White House. My chair is turning around on the voice. My chair is turning around on the voice.

I don't know. For some reason, it's sounding like an 80s sitcom called The Podium or something about someone who's like been shot up into the role of press secretary and doesn't know how to handle it. I feel like we could. I feel like I'd like to see a reality show of her, like a Veep style sort of show about her interactions like with various people that she works with because, I mean, I wonder if like Marjorie Taylor Green, I wonder if she's, I don't know, grown out. of, you know, Q and I, I guess we're going to find out, right? Yeah, yeah. So, by the way, the post that this person was referring to, one was the watch the water post. This is like, I don't know if this is why they think it's like, oh, yeah, Q post say watch the water, Trump drink some water, therefore there's a connection.

I'm sorry, Travis, you can't just read them like that. Please, Q, could you give us the post? Cue, yeah. Oh, sure. Watch the water. There we go. That one, classic, yeah. And Q Post 767 is more like generic raw raw patriotic stuff.

I wasn't quite sure why this was referencing, you know, drinking water. But anyways, here's what it said. You are strong patriot. Do not give in. Fight, fight, fight. You have more friends than you can imagine. United we stand. God bless.

It's very generic, yeah. Yeah, but anyway, so, but yeah, this is like, I don't know. Yeah, she's responding to Bakes, basically. classic cue drop bakes and saying that she was she was wondering the same thing for no reason. And so this was in 2022. So four, only four years ago, she's, she's watching the water. That's still pretty in deep. Yeah, she's in the, she's in the cue drop bakes and she's like, she's talking about devolution and I'm going to get to that. So on truth social, there were some QAnon followers who were claiming that there was evidence that Biden wasn't actually the acting president.

and this was according to like how certain ceremonial events were conducted. So Katie seemed to be kind of like on board of that. So in response to a post from Patel Patriot, which is like the main promoter of devolution theory, a guy named John Harold. And Kate Awakening's boyfriend, yeah? Yeah, this isn't even the first Kate. Fuck. That's right.

Yeah. So Katie posted this. On Biden's inaugural day, he received a three cannon, approximately nine shot every eight to nine second gun salute versus a true presidential 21 gun salute. Again, this is like real crazy numerical baking. Eight to nine seconds. Like she's very, very, very specific. Not maybe eight, maybe nine.

Eagle light, Katie. You can't get anything past her. No. She's counting the cannons. Four days later, Zachariah reposted this post from Patel Patriot. Just a reminder that Trump would have been derelict in his duties as president and commander in chief to not implement something like devolution. He saw the election theft come.

eight years in advance, crying, laughing, how in advance. He's such a fucking boomer. It's so funny because he's like our age, I think. But I just, the crying laughing emoji is doing my head in being like, Trump is so smart, dude. He's like one million steps ahead. Here's an honest question for you guys. Like, do you think, let's say 25 years ago, as many people thought they knew exactly what was going on?

Like, I have vague memories of running into somebody every now. and again, that would be like, I'll tell you what's going on. And they would tell you a crazy theory. Jake has stumbled into this, not on purpose, but 25 years ago was 2001, which was 9-11, the year of 9-11. So I don't know, Jake. You tell me. That one really hurts.

You did it to yourself with your random number generator. I wonder if it's like, if it's because we're all on the internet, everybody thinks they're so smart because like oh I think they have a digital library at their fingertips so they're like I know exactly look eight years ago he knew what was LMAO I'm crying laughing at how much he knew I'm crying laughing at like how prescient and godlike Trump is that is in fucking sane I mean I still maintain in some ways that this is just like a weird kind of like political d and d for these people I mean yeah so it's like based on this, like how pill do you think he is? Because like, again, Devolution, this is, this is deep in the weeds. Yeah, she's cute pill. She's cute pill. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, definitely.

For sure. Like, at least she was in 2022. She seems to have like, you know, cooled off on the Q posting since then. But yeah, she was like, if you're so gone, you have this bizarre, elaborate fantasy about how Trump is secretly president. Yeah. I mean, yeah, this is like Q and on for people who think that Q&ON wasn't enough. You need to go beyond the Q drops to like some theories promoted by a sort of like bigger Q&on promoters. It was like one of the main strains of like Biden era cope for Q&N believers after the first Trump term. Yeah.

Yeah. I guess, yeah. I mean, she just, she got just radicalized in that she's like, it was so damaging to her that Biden won. She bought into this devolution nonsense. Well, she wins now. She's got the job. Yeah.

Now she speaks for the White House. You shut, you shut your mouth. Both of you shut your mouths. I won't hear any more slander of my beautiful Katie Zachari. Ah, my beautiful Mars attacks bride. This is what happens to the interns who worked for George W. I think that's a really interesting trajectory. Intern for W.

QAnon Believer and the press secretary for Trump now. Oh, and at Newsmax. Excuse me, Newsmax. Personally, I'm in full support. I can't wait to see what a good job, Katie does. Let's find out. The other thing I want to talk to you guys about is this business in Texas. Because, yeah, the midterm elections, they're just, there's a, there's a

couple weeks away. And because of that, you know, we got a glimpse of like, you know, like how, really how the conspiracy theory machine operates. I was vaguely aware of this as it was happening. Something about, something about people believe Talarico had checked himself into like a mental institution or something. Yeah, that's basically it. I was like kind of like vaguely like this, this was being pushed to be like on the algo. This was the main sort of like. Yeah, that's basically I think Republicans are kind of going nuts about this race. This is, yeah, between Republican Ken Paxton, Democrat James Tala Rico, is that the race is competitive. And if Tala Rico wins, Paxston would be the first Republican in nearly four decades to lose a Senate race in Texas.

So it would be quite a dramatic thing. So they are throwing everything they got. So all this business started because Tala RICO was absent from the campaign trail for nine days. Now, Tala Rico said that it was due to his recovery from an infectious illness because Tala RICO has type 1 diabetes, health experts, and his campaign noted that he faced a higher risk for serious flu complications requiring a longer recovery time. But Paxson's allies claimed that Tala RICO had a stint in a mental health facility. The idea that there was something suspicious about his absence was even promoted by Trump

and Elon Musk. Before his absence, Tala RICO spoke at a Hispanic Business Council event on September 30. 30th by video. He said during the event that he had been diagnosed with a flu at an urgent care facility in Dallas after starting to feel kind of under the weather a few days ago, adding that he wasn't there in person because he had decided to put safety first since he had a fever and was still contagious. Suspicious. Yeah, seems like a normal, seems like a normal thing. No, no, no. There's more to this. He was absent from the campaign trail until October 9th when he made a surprise visit to Austin City Limits.

During that interval, Ken Paxton's campaign, you know, they took advantage of his, the fact that he wasn't on the campaign trail and he's crucial, you know, weeks leading up to the election. Ken Paxton's campaign, they circulated these missing person posters with, you know, Tala Rico's image. They demanded proof of life. They launched what they call a Tala freak out tip line. Got them.

Got them. Oh, they're so good. So, yeah, this is kind of like they were kind of encouraging. speculate. They didn't say anything outright, but this encouraged speculation that the campaign was concealing something more serious. What was it? What was it the when it happened to Hillary Clinton during the campaign trail and like people were like she has kudu or like some type of virus that was going to make her eat human flesh. Oh yeah. I remember that. In some ways, this is this is still like very much this is very much like Jacksonian like

America where like we're still around election time like prone to believe like isn't that wait is isn't that who was president during the Morgan affair uh Travis was it Jackson or am I getting that fact wrong? Well well technically Jackson was first elected president in 28 but a lot of people call the Jacksonian period earlier than that the 1820s. What would I call like the Morgan affair period? Yeah yeah call it call it jacksonian because it was like that rough period when the when the first generation of Americans who were born United States citizens became adults essentially, became the ruling class. And folks, that's how a bit unfolds on the QAA podcast. I can't remember what my original joke was. So now I'll allow Travis's explanation to stand in place. I was wondering.

I was wondering if you got to see. You get to see how the sandwich is made. And you know, we'd get Corey to cut all this out and then we'd sound smart. Yet normally we would get Corey to get all of this out, or we would go back and forth of helping me try to remember what my original point was. But Julian's got a hard out for superstructure, so we're just going to leave it in. And we've been doing it for eight years. It's fun to hear the mistakes, right? Right.

The rumor that Tala RICO was in a mental health facility seems to have been widely spread by former reality TV star and one-time L.A. mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt. On October 9th, Pratt tweeted this. This isn't the case of the flu with Tala RICO. this is the case if one flew over the cuckoo's nest. Boom. That's the last like mental illness related piece of content, you remember? It's a long time ago, man.

You're going to have to. Yeah, yeah, well, it's pretty ancient. You can't take like a young Jack Nicholson movie and try to feed it to your Gen Z constituents, Mr. Pratt. Yeah, like, even the more recent one would be like, wasn't Tala Rico's campaign that was interrupted. Tala RICO was girl interrupted. Boom. Oh. Oh, damn, that is fucking way spicier.

That is spicier and Spencer Pratt is gay, so he would say that. I saw a couple guys trying to get Talafrico going, which I was like, Oh, my God. Look at these guys. This is so sad. That's kind of fun, though. Freco? Talafrico.

I mean, that's what his boys probably call him, like, you know, when things get real crazy. Oh, shit. He's on his eighth shot. Telefrico's coming out tonight. Oh, fucking Talafriko's coming out tonight. fucking Tala Freakos coming out. His eyes roll back into his head and he just becomes nonverbal. Yeah.

Well, that's what he was on. He was on a nine-day bender. I mean, come on. Spencer Pratt, follow that up with this tweet. My sources are telling, telling me, Tala Riko is in a mental health facility. His campaign has stopped actively planning events in the vital home stretch of his campaign. So, yeah, so this really kind of like stoke the fire. And it got stoked even further on October 10th.

When Caroline Wren, a former fundraiser for Donald Trump, posted tracking information for a private aircraft that flew from Austin to an airport in Hamilton, Ohio, and suggested that Tala RICO was on board. This is, again, this is why, you know, flight tracking information is always good for a bake because it's public, and there's lots of information that, like, you don't know, like, for example, who's on board. And so you can speculate a lot. So this is what Caroline Wren said. What are the chances that a private plane took off?

from Austin and flew to tiny Hamilton Airport in Ohio, which is 20 minutes from the Linder Center, a private inpatient mental health treatment facility, and then turned around and flew back to Austin landing yesterday morning at 1024 a.m. right before James Tala Rico magically reappears at the Austin City Limits Music Festival that afternoon. So yeah, I assume her search was like trying to find planes that maybe landed in Austin that day when Tala Rico appeared at all. Austin City Limits. And then she worked backwards to see, well, okay, where other planes have been flying and where have been they've been close to a mental health facility.

Yeah, you can sort of see where her train of logic sort of came from. But it is nonsense. Also, like, if I can just jump in and say, so what? Like, even if, what if, so what? So what if he did be like, oh, man, this campaign's really getting to me. I got to check in. I better check into like a mental health facility to, like, make sure I'm like, okay. And he did that for two weeks.

The last time we were, we were listening to shit like this. It ended up in John Fetterman. Do you want to summon another Ghalem? That's true. I mean, yeah, I have to have to say. I forgot about Federman. Fetterman has been an absolute disaster for mental health advocacy. I thought they buried him back in the mud.

Nope, nope, he's still. I, no. I thought they got Rabbi, Rabbi Lidner came and he said a couple prayers, and they buried him back under the mud. Oh, because he's, maybe you have esoteric knowledge because you're in community. Get it? Yeah. Travis hated that joke, but also chuckled a little at its stupidity. I can see you.

You don't forget. I can see your video. I think it was like the most charitable kind of way they could spin this and why they'd be so interested. It wasn't that he was like getting mental health treatment. That's fine. Or what the real problem is lying about, he was covering it up, you know, he's not being honest about why he was absent from the campaign trail. Well, it's none of their fucking business.

Well, I mean, I'm arguing, I'm arguing like, like, again. the conspiracy is if it were true? That's a weird position to take. I think, I don't know. I mean, it's like, again, it's like, it is like, you know, the public's business, what candidates are up to, like, in, like, where they're going. This is a, I don't know, it's just the nature of being, you know, running for a public service job.

That's true. That's true. But to me, the way I look at is it exposes, like, the rights hatred of, like, any kind of mental health practice. That's true. That was a chair. In reality, they want to stigmatize mental health. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But the story really escalated on October 11th when conservative influencer Nick Sorter. I hate this guy. Yeah, it's a piece of shit. So, yeah, he circulated a recording made by fellow influencer Ryan Omiker. So in the recording, you can hear a woman who is a facility employee. And she appeared to say that Tala Rico had been discharged that evening. Okay, so nothing for James Talariko? It looks, well, this is what it's today.

It looks like just discharged this evening. That's why I don't have it. Oh, he was discharged then? Mm-hmm. Okay. And this is the Hope. They should be. Okay.

I'm sorry. And I'll make sure I'm the right. This is Hope Linder? Yes. Uh-huh. Okay. And you're in Hamilton, Ohio? No, we're not in Hamilton.

Oh. We're in Mason. Okay. So that's why he's on a system. He's been recent. Okay. All right. Okay.

Thank you. Thank you. So, I mean, yeah, but regardless of what that employees seem to have say. It's like the story doesn't add up because Amaker said that he called Saturday evening on October 10th and Tullerico had already appeared at Austin City Limits the day before on Friday the 9th. So the timeline doesn't quite match of what's being claimed here. And then on top of that on October 11th, the facility made a pretty definitive statement. Representative James Talariko has never received treatment from Lindner Center of Hope.

So that said, never, never received treatment. So you're telling me he's got no hope. Yeah. Wow. But it got worse because according to audio of the phone call, Ryan Amaker told the Linda representative falsehoods in order to acquire patient data, which, again, I'm no legal expert, but I'm told may, you know, put someone in some legal hot water. Amaker told the woman on the phone that his name was Tim and that he was trying to send a

care package to his cousin. So apparently on the previous call, the woman asked him for a code that he needed in order to access patient information. So on this call, he just, like, made one up. And it worked. How are we breaking into these places like this? It didn't work because she had no record of this patient at all. So, I mean, yeah, this is, this is what he said at the beginning of the call. Who, who is this? Oh, my name's Tim. I was turning to send a care package to my cousin, but I, did I just talk to you like two minutes ago? Oh, okay. You have a code? Yeah, it's, is, it's, is Is it, it's 2244? Okay, what's the name?

James Telerico. I do not. Oh, he must have checked out then. I'm looking through my name, so I'm just let me double check. Okay. So, yeah, I mean, that's, okay, so. Already, so, like, I do not, like, she didn't have any, any records, and, like, yeah, again, so this is why, I guess, like, the code wound up being irrelevant.

The woman also indicated that she had no information about Telerico, well, I guess, allowing the possibility that someone by that name might have been discharged? Yeah. No, I don't have anyone by that name on my list. Well, he's not there, but was he there? Not that I'm, he could have been. I'm not at a computer that I can pull it up and look at it. So the woman went on to a computer to check on a database and then came back with this

information. Hi. I do not find anyone with that name for the last four days. It's been discharged and they're not here in the building. Pretty, pretty clear. Pretty straightforward. To get rid of this annoying guy, she finally is like, listen, I mean, maybe it's because he's discharged. I don't fucking know, man.

Stop annoying me. That's, that she was basically, I had no information. And then she, like, yeah, she allowed with like, well, no, maybe there's some, some weird records hiccup. And then that little clip of this, I guess, this longer conversation is what played and went viral and then spread, spread the conspiracy theory. This fucking Reinhart, I'm a, yeah, I know. He sounds like a dumb dumb, too. Yeah, he does. He kind of sounds like a jerky boy.

And, yeah, to really put the final nail on the coffin of the rumor, the Associated Press in New York Times both reviewed home security footage, which confirmed that Tala Rico was at home during the period in question. So, yeah, so it was all nonsense the whole time. But what's even more damning is that Ryan Amaker in a Twitter space said that he initially shopped the story to Sarah Gonzalez of the Blaze, which is a right wing rag who promoted lots of nonsense conspiracy theories,

but it didn't pass legal. But even like Sarah Gonzalez, like she really wanted to post it, but her legal team just said, hey, hold off. So again, yeah, this is like, yeah, this is people who are like, you know, responsible for like keeping these outlets out of legal trouble said, fuck no,

you're not running with this. There's nothing to it. That's really funny. Yeah, there's like, a hundred different reasons that she could have been like, oh, yeah, I see he checked out last night. It could be that. She didn't even say that. She said, she said, if the name's not here, then possibly he checked out last night. But you can tell from the previous conversation that she's starting to suspect that she's dealing with some guy who does not understand. Yeah, and who also

might have, yeah, there also might be ulterior motives for sure. Either way, this is such a funny conspiracy because it's, like Travis was saying, it really does just sort of exist to stigmatize mental health stuff to be like, oh, look at the freakazoid. Like something's wrong with this brain, Texas. Don't you want to vote for like the, you know, I don't know, insert. Who's he running against? Ken Paxton. Oh.

Oh, he's no good. Jake is awakening late in the episode. Wait a minute. He's no good. I know that guy. He's real bad. We've talked about him before on the show, right? I do like that, like, Tala Rico has sent the association

to press in New York Times footage of himself at home, like home security footage. He's like, I will have you know that I was having a mental health breakdown and jerking off on my couch during this hour. He was like, I'll have you know it took me 45 minutes to get some mods installed at a project and I had myself a real nice couple of days. That's what really happened to him for nine days. He got a fucking advanced copy of GTA 6. Yeah, what came out?

I'm trying to think of anything dropped in the last like couple of days. It might have been like Tala Rico, Tala RICO bait. Well, I mean, he's like in part of the pedo cabal, obviously, as a Democrat, so he must have links to, like, all the GTA six leaks and everything that he wants. And in exchange for the blood of, you know, children. He's probably, like, playing GTA in a browser at this point. I'm always fascinated by how conspiracists react after, like, their story really falls apart. Like, it doesn't even, it doesn't get off the ground more than a day or two before, like, all the holes make it untenable. So after Lidner said that it never treated Tala RICO, Ryan Omacher claimed that the facility statement about its own patients was merely an opinion saying this in response to Lidner's tweets.

You're entitled to your opinion, no matter how ignorant or detached from reality it may be. Again, this opinion was that this person has never been a patient of this facility. Like, I guess a literal statement of fact. And I feel like they would be more equipped than most to know whether or not this is true. This is just cheap shit, man. This is just, it's nasty, a bunch of crabs in a bucket. I feel like these folks are doing a lot of saying, like, you're entitled to your own opinion. Yeah, my truth is that James Talariko had a freco and was in the hospital.

But this did go super big. I mean, I saw this all over, probably because of sort, sorter is that how you pronounce his name? Yep, yeah. Talk about a little freco. Jeff Childers writing in the subsack coffee in COVID on October 12, supplied possible loopholes to the facility's statement. Perhaps Telerico used an assumed name or received treatment from a private doctor inside the facility rather than its staff. Why are we fucking reading blogs by Jeff Childers?

It's a very popular... Fucking coffee and COVID is so annoying. That's so fucking annoying. Everyone is so soy. Coffee and COVID. Do you have both? Oh, my God. I have, I fucking hope I have both.

So this was what Childer said. This denial is worse than useless. This denial is worse than useless. This denial is worse than useless. If he checked in under an assumed name, then Representative James Talariko was arguably not at the clinic. It was Captain Joy Boy or whatever. What?

Second, received treatment is different from being there. If Talariko received treatment from a private doctor at the clinic, rather than the center's staff, then the statement is technically true, but misleading. Captain Joyboy? Yeah, this is very obnoxiously lawyerly kind of like, you know, response. Yes, every one of these snarky little fucking bloggers, goddamn, man. I do it to them.

Probably be pretty nice and just be like, I don't know, man. I just think, like, I don't know. I would say, how did you come up with Captain Joyboy? Yeah. I would actually just say, show me your hard drives. Jeff Childers, huh? Twitter user and Pentagon employee, cynical Publius. Not him again!

Why are we hearing these names a second time? So he suggested that perhaps someone with the same name as Tala Rico was in the health facility, and Democrats exploit this fact as part of an elaborate operation to boost Talariko's campaign. What? Yeah, yeah, I like this one. Check this out. Grock just told me that there are some. Who just told you?

Grock just told me. I just got heard from Grock, yeah. That there are somewhere around eight people named James Talariko living in Ohio. Does anybody know if the folks investigating the issue ruled out the possibility of someone with the same name being in that Ohio facility? I note that the facility's denial did not disavowed James Talleyco as a patient. Will you condemn James Tala RICO and Hamas? But instead disavowed representative James Telerico as being a patient.

And the reason this is important is in case the whole thing was a false flag Democrat op designed to generate sympathy for Tel ECO, which is... No, no, no, no. Which is a possibility. Another one for the gallows. Oh, good old cynical publius, please get up on those gallows now. It's time to say goodbye. My favorite response to this conspiracy theory falling apart, however, came from PJ Media Writer Scott Pink's No.

Yeah. So he argued that even though the evidence doesn't support the claim that Tala Rico was in the mental health facility, that doesn't matter because the allegations are plausible to him. If this were a legal case, it'd be laughed out of court. But it's not a legal case. It's a political race, which means its jurisdiction is the court of public opinion. Okay. And in the court of public opinion, the biggest, most compelling, most deeply damaging circumstantial evidence is this. James Tala Rico looks like the kind of guy who use mental health professionals.

He's a 37-year-old, a fete left winger. Excuse me, Tony Soprano Erasure. Like, please, you should be picturing him whenever you think of someone who use mental health professionals. He thinks and speaks in the language of woke with a capital W. And the part of the woke culture is relying on therapy as the ultimate solution for all mental health problems. Got issues with sadness, anger, or your in-laws? The answer is therapy. Well, it's like, what's your answer?

Like, murdering them? Like, in a pit full of rage? Nobody among all of these woke morons is trying to take a hammer to their own skull. Whether or not Tala Rico actually spent time in a mental health facility is beside the point. Allegations don't stick because they're truthful. They stick because they're plausible. Wow, dude, genius at work here. I think this is also maybe AI written.

Another fucking smart guy that we got to listen to. Yeah, this also smacks of kind of like AI writing. It's got those, you know, the negative parallelisms. But also I thought it was like, I don't know. I like this one because it felt like honest. It's like I don't give a shit. It's like I want to stigmatize people who are struggling with mental health issues and then stigmatize him by connecting him with mental health issues because he seems like the kind of guy who would.

I feel like that's the ultimate sort of like answers. Like, I don't get it. It's like when I say he went to a mental health facility, what I mean is I don't fucking like this guy. And those are basically the same things to say, you know? Yeah. It's just such a, I don't know, in 1950s, like he went to the Looney Band is where he went for those nine days. It really is like, oh, the guy you won't, he can barely hold it together.

Except for our guy who believes that the moon landing wasn't real. Our guy who has some really, um, nefarious allegations against him, let's say. But yeah, that's the state of, you know, where things are going. We got, yeah, yeah, QAnon Press Secretary and the people who make up stories about mental health facility visits and, like, you stick by them even after it falls apart. I think those are the two, you know, genders now. And so which one are you going to pick?

I mean, I'm going to be the White House Press Secretary. Thank you very much. I mean, yeah, I got to say, I guess say that sounds like a more influential. kind of position. Yeah, QAnon Press Secretary. I just Googled Ken Paxton just to see what he's up to lately. And the latest is that he partied in Dubai with fugitives ahead of high stakes, Texas Senate race. From 22 hours ago. Oh, man, that fucking rocks that that is how races are these days where you'll have that.

And then opposite, it's like, yeah, we think he was in a mental health facility. And we got this little fucking barely sentient, like, German. nationalist or whatever Rhine Abakha is. And we had him call a hospital and like bother a fucking nurse there for approximately the right amount of time so that one of the patients loses their life at the facility. And yeah, it's just pathetic. Fucking pathetic. The other headline that's come up is fugitive donated 25,000 to Ken Paxton days after

being indicted for embezzlement. I mean, yeah. So like they don't care about that at all, but they're like, I think he might have had like a sad moment and like sought the advice of like real professionals like how fucked up is that in our culture oh man well we don't know though i mean you say well you're right i mean there's good fugitives like pot farmers that get arrested for growing what comes naturally from the earth so that we can relax yeah there's good fugitives like harrison ford who didn't really kill his wife exactly so we just need to figure out what kind of fugitive and then we'll figure out what kind of person we want to be

and then we'll figure out this whole government thing everything's going fine. Thank you for listening to another episode of the QAA podcast. You can go to patreon.com slash QAA and subscribe for five bucks a month to get a whole second premium episode for every regular one plus access to our entire archive of premium episodes. For everything else, we've got a website, QAAApodcast.com. You can also check out my side project, superstructure podcast. That's at superstructurepodcast.com. We are about to jump into harassing John Gabris with the Russian Revolution. So yeah, we're tackling quite a few interesting topics like US arms exports and the rise of the far right in Europe. See you there. Listener, until next week.

May the Deep Dish bless you and keep you. We have auto-keyed content based on your preferences. Good morning. Good morning. I am so honored to work for President Trump and the American people as the new White House press secretary. I want to thank President Trump for his trust that he has placed in me. I have wanted to work for him for a very long time. I'm looking forward to working with each of you as well, especially as we are in the middle of the midterm blitz with energy and excitement. Never seen before in the history of midterms, thanks to President Trump.