QAnon-affiliated podcast airs Truth Social CEO Devin Nunes interview on same day Trump names him to chair President's Intelligence Advisory Board

Nunes, who has gone on X22 Report at least 6 times, promoted an “X22” referral code for his wine company

Written by Alex Kaplan

Published

On December 14, Donald Trump announced that he would appoint Truth Social CEO and former GOP Rep. Devin Nunes to be chairman of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, which provides “independent analysis on the effectiveness of the intelligence community and the ability of U.S. agencies to meet ‘the nation’s intelligence needs.’” 

That same day, X22 Report, a podcast supporting the QAnon conspiracy theory, streamed a new interview with Nunes on Rumble. Nunes has appeared on X22 Report at least six times, during which he said he is a “big fan” of the show; praised host David Marc Fishman for “getting the truth out”; and called the podcast “the poster child for people who get canceled and get revived by places like Truth Social.” 

During the interview, Nunes lauded Trump’s announced nominees for positions related to intelligence agencies and the Justice Department, including FBI director nominee Kash Patel, who has been a Truth Social board member and has also appealed to the QAnon community (and appeared on X22 Report multiple times). He also criticized the bureau’s outgoing director, Christopher Wray, adding that “I don’t know how anybody can trust the FBI,” and claimed that Trump was “not going to hold back if he finds malfeasance in these agencies.”

From the December 14, 2024, edition of X22 Report, streamed on Rumble

DAVID MARC FISHMAN (HOST): Now that Trump is picking his different nominees — you work very, very closely with Kash [Patel]. What do you think of Kash coming in as the FBI director? Do you think this is a good move by Trump?

DEVIN NUNES (TRUTH SOCIAL CEO): Well, I mean —

FISHMAN: No, tell the truth.

NUNES: Your audience all knows this. So — and you know this, but, you know, look, Kash is a close friend of mine. He was a lead investigator on the Russia hoax. He is very qualified. 

…

So I would argue that, you know, he has the type and breadth of experience that the FBI needs, because we have to have a — look, these are not my numbers. These are the fake news numbers that 41% of the people, you know, have — don’t — or only 41% have trust in the FBI, which — it’s fake news so that means it’s probably lower than that. 

FISHMAN: Right. 

NUNES: I don’t know how anybody can trust the FBI. What did President Trump say the other day? That — I think they asked him if he was going to replace Wray and he just said, “He broke into my home and then when I nearly got killed and shot, he said that I was hit by shrapnel.” I mean, you can’t have an FBI like that. I mean, it’s just — there’s too many — you know, crime is on the rise. It’s going to continue to be on the rise with all the people that got into this country illegally.

The FBI just needs a complete, just new leadership at the helm. The ship needs to be righted, and we need to focus on going after criminals, not, like, political targeting that happened with, you know, my staff back in — this was back, remember, it’s 2017 and ‘18 that they were doing this. This is not — that’s what, eight years ago.

FISHMAN: Right. 

NUNES: So.

FISHMAN: So what do you make of Wray saying that he’s going to leave before Trump fires him?

NUNES: Well, it was an interesting — it was interesting that Trump nominated someone when there wasn’t even a vacancy at FBI, but I just don’t see, you know, how the guy can stay. I mean, he should have resigned probably already, but whatever.

…

NUNES: If you’re going to be corrupting the intelligence agencies or any part of government, like, Trump’s going to be — I think he’s not going to hold back if he finds malfeasance in these agencies.

FISHMAN: So do you think he has enough time to drain the entire swamp? I mean, you — you’ve been in government. You saw what was there. And, I’m sure seeing over these many, many years, people are starting to understand and realize that, yeah, they knew there was corruption there. But now you see it. It’s like it’s really bad. I mean, I think people have seen much more than they ever wanted to see within these last four years of how bad government really is. And you’ve been there. Does he have enough time to drain the swamp?

NUNES: Look, there’s always going to be a swamp, right? Unless you believe in global warming, then maybe there won’t be a swamp. Maybe it’ll go away.

…

NUNES: I just think his appointments top to bottom this time seem to be, you know, just — he knows who the bad guys are, so I think he’s not — I mean, look. There’ll be some mistakes. There’ll be some jerk that wants to write a book that’ll get fired or what have you, but, I think for the most part, he’s got a lot of really good people that he’s picked so far at the top. And, obviously, I’m excited about John Ratcliffe, who I worked closely with on the Russia hoax, Kash Patel, FBI. John Ratcliffe has been nominated for CIA. And then you have Pam Bondi, who I spent a lot of time in Florida, which is our headquarters. So, you know, she did a great job as Florida attorney general. And, so she’ll be, I think, great running attorney general for the United States. So that’s a nice team right there to start to clean up some of the mess.

Nunes later urged viewers to buy wine he is producing, saying that if you “put in X22” on his website, “we’ll do the shipping for free,” and bragged that “we have a lot of people that listen to your show that join the wine club.” Fishman also said he has met with Nunes in person, saying, “We just like talking about wine.” (Nunes has previously said that he has met with Fishman and has promoted his X22 wine offer on the podcast before as well.)

Nunes has repeatedly promoted a “Q” account on Truth Social, including replying, “Who is Q?” soon after the account was created, and he was recorded holding up a business card for a QAnon influencer — actions that another QAnon influencer claimed showed Nunes was “playing with us” and were “giving me so much hope.”