Matt Taibbi, Tulsi Gabbard and the Alt- Conspiracy Complex

Tulsi Gabbard has a new conspiracy theory to peddle, and Matt Taibbi is more than happy to promote it.

by Ben Cohen

The cottage industry created by journalists like Matt Taibbi, Glenn Greenwald, Michael Shellenberger, and to a certain extent Bari Weiss, is based on a simple idea: liberals are more dangerous than the far right and present an existential threat to human civilization.

Taibbi has been explicit about this, arguing violent MAGA fanaticism isn’t worth paying attention to because Democrats are building a global super state surveillance system to track your every move. He wrote on Substack earlier this year:

The Democrats’ ambitions are significantly more dangerous than those of the Republicans. From digital surveillance to censorship to making Intel and enforcement agencies central players in domestic governance — all plans being executed globally as well as in our one country — they are thinking on a much bigger and more dangerous scale than Republicans. I lived in third world countries and the endless criminal indictments of people like Trump and ongoing lawfare efforts to prevent even third party challenges are classic authoritarian symptoms. The Republicans aren’t near this kind of capability;

Taibbi’s claims are, to put it mildly, not very well substantiated (you can read a full rebuttal here), but the purpose of his inflammatory statements isn’t to provide readers with evidence based journalism, or even an informed opinion. It is instead to implant an idea.

Taibbi’s journalism works only if you subscribe to this idea, and then view the world through that lens. Only then you can see the dystopian world of evil Democratic Deep State operatives, malevolent liberal tech censors, and the shadowy surveillance state working with elected Democrats to suppress free speech. It is world where Tucker Carlson is being spied on by the NSA, Deep State backed non-profits work across the globe in “information warfare”, and Alt hero Tulsi Gabbard is being stalked by Kamala Harris operatives in the Transport Security Operation (TSA).

This new, dark chapter in weird Alt world was outlined at great length in an essay on Taibbi’s Substack last month, where his major sources where Tulsi Gabbard, a QAnon website, and a MAGA supporter who runs a non-profit for Air Marshalls.

The fantasies of Tulsi Gabbard

Gabbard, who is herself a purveyor of dark conspiracies about the Democratic Deep State, is now claiming she is the victim of a nefarious Biden/Harris plot to destroy her. Gabbard asserts that this plot is being orchestrated by “a tyrannical dictator” (Joe Biden), and she has the evidence to prove it all.

Here’s how Taibbi reported on the “explosive” story:

This story began two weeks ago, when the former Hawaii congresswoman returned home after a short trip abroad. In airport after airport, she and her husband Abraham Williams encountered obstacles. First on a flight from Rome to Dallas, then a connecting flight to Austin, and later on different flights for both to cities like Nashville, Orlando, and Atlanta, their boarding passes were marked with the “SSSS” designation, which stands for “Secondary Security Screening Selection.” The “Quad-S” marker is often a sign the traveler has been put on a threat list, and Gabbard and Williams were forced into extensive “random” searches lasting as long as 45 minutes.

“It happened every time I boarded,” says Gabbard. The Iraq war veteran and current Army reservist tends to pack light, but no matter.

Gabbard appears to be on a TSA watchlist that the agency uses to “deploy law enforcement resources to focus on travelers who may present an elevated risk to aviation security”.

After wondering whether she was being paranoid, Gabbard came across a story on a Q-Anon site featuring a hardcore MAGA supporter who runs an advocacy association for Federal Air Marshalls that appeared to corroborate the story. Here’s how Taibbi framed it:

Then she [Gabbard] saw this past Sunday’s report in Uncover DC, a site edited by the well-known Twitter writer Tracy Beanz. Uncover interviewed Sonya LaBosco, the Executive Director of the Air Marshal National Council (AMNC), an advocacy association for Federal Air Marshals. Disclosing Gabbard had been placed on a domestic terror watch list, the former Marshal LaBosco told a disturbing story:

“According to LaBosco… Gabbard is unaware she has two Explosive Detection Canine Teams, one Transportation Security Specialist (explosives), one plainclothes TSA Supervisor, and three Federal Air Marshals on every flight she boards.”

There are a few things worth mentioning here. Firstly, it is strange that Taibbi takes Gabbard and her extremely dubious sources at face value. Given Gabbard’s penchant for lying and spreading Russian propaganda, Taibbi was remarkably generous in repeating her story without any legitimate sources. Tracy Beanz is a QAnon conspiracy theorist, and Sonya LaBosco is a conspiracy theory prone MAGA supporter who runs a dubious “advocacy” non-profit for Federal Air Marshalls. The non-profit has almost no publicly available information about who funds it, its non-profit status, or who works there other than LaBosco.

It is entirely possible that Gabbard and LaBosco are correct and Gabbard is on a watch list (my sense is she probably is), but that still doesn’t mean Gabbard is being targeted by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

Given Tulsi Gabbard has a) knowingly spread Russian propaganda, b) traveled to Syria to meet an official enemy of the United States, Bashar al-Assad, in recent years, and c) switched political allegiances to a convicted criminal who tried to overthrow the US government, it isn’t hard to see why the TSA might be at least interested in her.

There is another explanation that Taibbi touches on but doesn’t explore in his piece. Taibbi contacted the TSA and their response was interesting. Here’s how he reported it:

It [the TSA] did issue a general reply, saying Quiet Skies “uses a risk-based approach to identify passengers and apply enhanced security measures on some domestic and outbound international flights,” but the TSA “does not confirm or deny whether any individual has matched to a risk-based rule.” It added: “Simply matching to a risk-based rule does not constitute derogatory information about an individual.” In short, people may be selected for Quiet Skies based on certain rules, and though the TSA doesn’t confirm or deny it when that happens, we shouldn’t infer that a person’s selection in the program is always a negative.

In other words, the TSA might actually be protecting Tulsi Gabbard from threats she may be unaware of.

Of course Taibbi and Gabbard aren’t interested in the more likely explanations. They want to hold liberals responsible and propagate their dark fantasies about the liberal Deep State.

The deception

Taibbi is ostensibly still a journalist, and his style of writing indicates he is at least pretending to be one. But upon closer inspection, Taibbi isn’t so much a reporter, but a sophisticated peddler of disinformation and conspiracy theory. Just look at this manipulative attempt to pin the blame for this on Kamala Harris:

Neither Gabbard nor, apparently, the whistleblowing Marshals know why the former congresswoman would be on a terror watch list. Gabbard has been a persistent, pointed critic of politicians in the current administration. The day before her reported placement on the TSA list, Gabbard appeared on the Ingraham Angle and criticized the “proxy war” in Ukraine, saying the administration was selling the public “crap” excuses for expanding its military commitment, with intent to turn Ukraine into “another Afghanistan.” A debate clash in the 2020 primary was also a factor in ending Harris’ run that year, featuring the viral line: “She put over 1500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when asked if she ever smoked.”

The insinuation is obvious: Tulsi Gabbard is being targeted by the Biden administration because she opposes US support for Ukraine, and she “owned” Kamala Harris in a debate four years ago. Gabbard makes the claim more explicitly in her comments to Taibbi:

Gabbard’s recent political career has already been marked by bizarre attacks and harassment. A feature describing her as a favorite of the Putin government was timed to the launch of her 2020 presidential campaign, and Hillary Clinton made waves by denouncing her as a Russian “asset.” After this episode, she intends to fight back. “I’m going to be encouraging former colleagues of mine in Congress who I know are concerned about this to exercise their oversight authorities,” she says.

“These actions are those of a tyrannical dictator. There’s no other way to describe what they’re doing.”

There are no other ways to describe what “they” are doing only if you have already made up your mind. And this is exactly what Taibbi and Gabbard are guilty of.

Regardless of whether you think the Quiet Skies program is necessary, there are many legitimate reasons why Gabbard should be on their watch list. Instead of exploring those reasons, Taibbi acted as a stenographer for Gabbard and helped promote her baseless right wing conspiracies theories.

This is of course deliberate, and a tried and tested formula in the Alt political reality bubble. Gabbard is a victim of the Deep State, and Taibbi the brave journalist covering the stories no one else dares.

It is a racket though, and one that needs to be exposed before Gabbard inflicts more damage to her former party and helps elect a fascist in November.

Correction: an earlier version of this piece referred to Michael Shellenberger as Jake Shellenberger. It has been updated.

If you are enjoying The Banter, please consider supporting us by becoming a paid member. You can get 50% off a membership and get access to all Members Only articles, The Emergency Meeting Podcast, and exclusive member chat threads!: