7 chapters across the catalog
60 Minutes reports that QAnon became a violent threat only after Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. The segment features footage of Officer Eugene Goodman confronting rioters and mentions Ashli Babbitt, who was killed while wearing a QAnon-themed tank top. The hosts prepare to discuss Babbitt's death as a "counterbalance" to the George Floyd narrative, acknowledging the high emotional triggers involved in the comparison.
The hosts thank Dreb Scott for his work on show chapters and transcripts before diving into the final segment. They frame Ashli Babbitt as the 180-degree opposite of George Floyd in the media landscape. While thanking producers like Alejandro Alocer and Miguel Espinal, they note that Babbitt's death as an unarmed white female veteran was treated with "crickets" or justification by the same media outlets that championed Floyd, highlighting a total lack of ideological consistency in mainstream reporting.
Dr. Todd Grande provides a background on Ashli Babbitt, a 35-year-old Air Force veteran with multiple deployments to Iraq. On January 6, she was shot by a Capitol Police officer while attempting to climb through a broken window into the Speaker's Lobby. The hosts discuss the "mind screw" of the public reaction, where those who typically oppose police shootings of unarmed individuals justified Babbitt's death because it fit a specific political narrative.
Babbitt had prior legal issues, including a 2016 road rage incident in Maryland, though she was found not guilty of the charges. The hosts compare the media's focus on her past to the way George Floyd's criminal history was used by some to deflect from his death. They argue that both sides of the political spectrum use "whataboutism" and past behavior to justify or condemn police violence based on the victim's "team."
The hosts note the unusual use of the word "militant" to describe Ashli Babbitt, a term they claim is rarely applied to white women in the media. They analyze QAnon's "Great Awakening" and "Storm" as a secular religion that mirrors the technocratic "trust the science" paradigm. Both groups claim to possess secret or specialized knowledge that the "dumb" general population cannot understand, creating a new form of religious conflict between experts and "digital soldiers."
Radio hosts Clay Travis and Buck Sexton critique Lieutenant Michael Byrd's NBC News interview, where he claimed he showed "tremendous courage" in shooting Ashli Babbitt. They argue that if a white officer had made similar comments after shooting an unarmed black protester, there would be mass rioting. The hosts point out the "outrageous" politics involved in providing Byrd with a favorable media platform while he remained unnamed for months.
Lieutenant Byrd justified the shooting by stating Babbitt posed a threat to the "United States House of Representatives," rather than a direct threat to his life. The hosts find it "fascinating" that a black officer shot an unarmed white woman in a climate where property is usually deemed less valuable than human life. They suggest the entire scenario is so perfectly balanced for maximum social friction that it resembles a sophisticated psychological operation.
