Pinal County, Arizona, Sheriff Mark Lamb’s adult son hosts a podcast where he has platformed election deniers, QAnon-adjacent activists, and right-wing vigilante Kyle Rittenhouse.

Cade Lamb’s podcast is called Fear Not Do Right, which shares the name of an apparel company initially owned by his father, according to financial disclosures, who has also been a guest on the show. Cade Lamb was listed as the new principal of the company in a subsequent filing.

Mark Lamb recently announced his candidacy for Senate in Arizona, triggering increased scrutiny into his extensive connections with right-wing figures. As Media Matters and others have previously reported, he has close ties to the extremist constitutional sheriffs movement and spoke at an anti-immigrant rally held by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), which has been designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group. He has appeared on at least five QAnon shows and signed a book with a popular QAnon slogan. He also appeared on an antisemitic network and has defended at least two white men who have committed vigilante violence against people of color, including one appearance on a white nationalist program, on the grounds that they had the right to police their property.

Cade Lamb also expresses extremist sentiments. He recently promoted his father’s candidacy on Instagram by posting an image derived from a Rhodesian Army recruiting poster, asking if his apparel company should produce it as a T-shirt. Nostalgia for Rhodesia, the white minority-ruled country in what is now Zimbabwe that was closely linked with neighboring apartheid-era South Africa, is common among overt racist movements and individuals. Dylann Roof, the white man who shot and killed nine Black church parishioners in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015, wore a Rhodesian flag patch on his jacket.

At the height of the uprisings in 2020 in response to the police killing of George Floyd, Cade Lamb tweeted that, “The #BlackLivesMatter movement is the most racist organization since the KKK #ChangeMyMind.” 

“BLM/Antifa are Democratic Party backed rogue leftist militia groups and insurgents,” he also wrote. “We need to be treating them like insurgents.”

When another Twitter user replied that right-wing “boogaloo” movement is a greater threat, Cade Lamb downplayed it. “A threat to what tho?” he wrote.

Like his father, Cade Lamb has also pushed Q-adjacent ideas. “How ironic that the politicians crying about covid killing kids are pedophiles who rape and kill children regularly,” he posted, also in July 2020.

Many of these same themes appear on Cade Lamb’s show, and many of his guests have ties to his father, who appeared on episode eight of the podcast. In that interview, which aired August 21, 2022, Mark Lamb began by promoting Protect America Now, his organization that is considered a recent entrant into the constitutional sheriffs movement. He described Protect America Now’s partnership with election deniers True the Vote and praised a debunked film by Dinesh D’Souza that organization had participated in.

“We saw in 2020, I think it was on full display that the vote was a little swampy, and 2000 Mules exposed a lot of the ways that they were able to to defraud the election,” Mark Lamb said.

“I got involved with Catherine Engelbrecht, Gregg Phillips from True The Vote,” he continued. “They were the people that provided the information for 2000 Mules and we’re working together at something called Protect America-dot-Vote. So this is law enforcement, sheriffs in particular, working together to make sure that we have safe and secure elections and that the people can believe in the election.”

Mark Lamb later said that former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, whose racism is well-documented, was “a legend,” to which Cade Lamb agreed: “Legendary.”

Mark Lamb also advanced a version of the racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory, claiming that President Joe Biden wanted to “undermine” and “reinvent” the United States with immigrants. 

“The more I watched it, I realized on the southern border, this is deliberate,” he said. “They're deliberately attempting to undermine America, the rule of law. And they told us in 2020 they were going to reinvent America. And that's what they're trying to do.” (He would later repeat that sentiment on a QAnon show the following year.)

In the interview, it’s clear that Cade Lamb and his father share a worldview, and other episodes of Fear Not Do Right offer hints at what approach a Sen. Mark Lamb might take.

Craig “Sawman” Sawyer pushes QAnon-adjacent messages

On April 24, Cade Lamb interviewed Craig “Sawman” Sawyer, an ex-Navy SEAL and the founder of Veterans for Child Rescue, which purports to combat child sex trafficking. Mark Lamb has previously praised Sawyer, saying his group is “an amazing organization. I work with Craig Sawyer, I love what he does.”  

In fact, Sawyer pushes a conspiracy theory that a global cabal of elite liberals run global child trafficking rings, a claim nearly identical to QAnon. He also “frequently interacts with pro-Q personalities, and shares a wealth of Q-adjacent material,” although he is sometimes critical of Q, as reported by The Daily Beast. 

In the interview with Cade Lamb – who is also a veteran – Sawyer spoke extensively about his Q-adjacent conspiracy theories. 

“I realized that child trafficking is as pervasive as it is because it enjoys a lot of top cover that people do not know about it,” Sawyer said. “And I think once the American populace is adequately aware, Cade, of what these sickos do to our children — this cabal that is taking over the last of the power structure of planet Earth, they want complete control.” 

“They're not happy with most of the control and wealth,” he continued. “They want all of it. All of it. And they will never stop because really the catalyst behind them, it's demonic. It is sheerly spiritual, it is demonic, and the war on children is part of it. And I think once the populace is adequately aware of what this cabal does to children, and that that’s the center of their demonic culture, it’s over. Then everybody would stand up and see it for what it is and say ‘no more.’”

Later in the interview, Sawyer elaborated on his point, including veering into an antisemitic accusation that liberal philanthropist George Soros, who is Jewish, was controlling the global cabal through his political donations to criminal justice reform candidates and organizations.

“I say that the soul of our nation is sickened because our people are starved for justice. It will not do to have a known and avowed globalist billionaire funding the campaigns of DAs, judges, and attorneys general with the agreement that they will not prosecute entire categories of crimes, including child rape and child trafficking,” Sawyer said. “That will not do.” 

“That's a glaring conflict of interest,” he continued, the clear implication being that these figures are hiding their own involvement in this purported conspiracy. “Even if you had no morality in you at all, if you had no compassion for children, you should see that as a glaring conflict of interest. You can’t pay a judge not to enforce the law against a horribly destructive crime. Why is that allowed?”

“Why is George Soros allowed to fund the campaigns of our judges, and DAs, and attorneys general?” Sawyer asked. “It's unacceptable.” He then plugged an upcoming Texas rally dubbed “How Many More” that featured Ted Nugent and other right-wing figures who advocate for increased militarization of the U.S. southern border under the veneer of combating child trafficking.  

“The cartel are probably the biggest financial beneficiary, but it’s the global cabal who want control of the United States who are ultimately benefiting the most because they’re getting their way through this harm and destruction on our populace,” he concluded.

In the interview, Sawyer repeatedly warned of the dangers of communism and Marxism, including referencing the work of W. Cleon Skousen, a relatively obscure midcentury conspiracy theorist and supporter of the far-right John Birch Society.

“This cabal taking over the globe — they don't say, ‘Hey, how about you sign on for the utter tyranny of global Marxism that we want?” Sawyer said. “They say, ‘No, no no, no, no. It's democratic socialism — doesn't that sound nice? It's for the little guy.’ And behind it's the big donkey kick of global Marxism, what they’re really bringing.” 

Sawyer then implored listeners to “read the 45 communist goals from The Naked Communist,” written by Skousen in 1958. 

“They're insidiously infiltrating all of our key institutions and conditioning our society to give up our freedom without a single shot fired,” Sawyer said.

The Naked Communist was one of many books from the second Red Scare era that purported to expose a vast Soviet-led conspiracy to take over the U.S. government. It shared much with Skousen’s other work, which warned of the so-called “New World Order” and spread sometimes overt racism. The degree to which Sawyer is familiar with that book or Skousen’s other work isn’t clear, though it was previously the subject of Glenn Beck’s campaign to reintroduce the author to a new generation through the tea party movement. 

Shortly after mentioning The Naked Communist, Sawyer went on to praise former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, who is an adherent of the QAnon conspiracy theory.

“This is what’s happening,” Sawyer told Cade Lamb. “It’s an insidious secret type of covert war and the American populace has to be shaken awake and see it for what it is.”

Cade Lamb expresses jealousy that Kyle Rittenhouse got to “punch that time card”

On January 12, Cade Lamb spoke with Kyle Rittenhouse – who killed two people and wounded a third during a Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August 2020 – and openly expressed his admiration and envy of his guest. 

“I’m here with — I don’t know if you’re more notorious or legendary, but your accolades precede you — the one and only Kyle Rittenhouse.”

Cade Lamb then spoke about his frustration that he hadn’t had a chance to engage in the kind of violence that Rittenhouse had, despite being deployed in Iraq. 

“I'm not going to lie, me and all my buddies were really jealous,” Cade Lamb said, less than a minute into the show. “We were in Iraq at the time, and, you know, when you're in Iraq, you think of war and being in a war zone. And, you know, we train for so long, so much to have the opportunity to just punch that time card, right?” 

“So when we saw, dude, this kid, the 17-year-old kid in Wisconsin is out there getting action when we're not,” Cade Lamb continued gleefully. “A lot of my buddies were like, ‘Oh, dude, we should be home right now, we should — because it was so frustrating to be overseas when all that stuff was going down.’”

Later in the interview, Rittenhouse described death threats and harassment he’s received. Cade Lamb responded by celebrating his guest’s violence. 

“I mean, anybody who would come after you, especially physically, has the wrong idea,” he said. “You definitely, more than likely have a higher body count — not to be not to make light of it.”

“After the fact it’s like, you know, what do they say, ‘fuck around and find out,’” he added.

Cade Lamb continued to indulge in vigilante fantasies throughout the interview. 

“It’s one of those things where, like, you know, back in the Old West, when everyone walked around with a gun and everyone, like — it was that Wild West dictation of if you were going to run your mouth, there were consequences,” he said. 

Rittenhouse and Cade Lamb then offered vague attacks on gun safety laws that appeared to be derived from the constitutional sheriff ideology — which incorrectly holds that sheriffs are the supreme law enforcement body in the country — though they didn’t use that term. 

“Sheriffs have the right to enforce laws,” Rittenhouse said.

“Yes,” the host responded.

“So if we elect the right sheriffs, so like for your dad, for instance, he can tell people, to his deputies: No, we are not going to enforce that law,” Rittenhouse replied. “That law is bullshit, 18- or 20-year-olds should be allowed to carry [a firearm]. So you are not to arrest anybody who is caught with a firearm on their body, because I don't believe in that — they have the right to do that.”

“Absolutely,” Cade Lamb said, adding that “any federal agency, they have to have to go through the approval of the sheriff or they have to at least report it up.” (The idea that sheriff’s authority supersedes federal authority is a bedrock of the constitutional sheriff movement.)

Rittenhouse later stacked common conservative grievances and conspiracy theories upon one another in a bizarre collage of right-wing victimhood. 

“I’m just out and strong like a die-hard conservative now,” he declared. “Like I’m a far-right Republican.”

“I’m guessing the whole experience [of the Kenosha shooting and its aftermath] and everything kind of helped that process?” Cade Lamb asked.

“And eye-opening to our George Soros prosecutors, the people prosecuting innocent people, how they’re coming after our guns, they’re killing our babies, they’re taking away our voices, and they’re censoring us on social media,” Rittenhouse said.

In discussing Rittenhouse’s potential future in public life, Cade Lamb referred to him as “the Kenosha Kid,” calling back to his earlier boyish fascination with the Wild West. He added that if Rittenhouse sought public office, he’d face opposition from the Clinton Foundation, and claimed that “the Clintons have stacked a lot of bodies,” another common but debunked right-wing conspiracy theory.  

Rittenhouse ended the interview by plugging his video game, which has players shoot “fake news turkeys” who display a “liberal bias.”

Cade Lamb’s podcast also hosts election denialism, the “Three Percenter” myth, and anti-trans conspiracy theories

Cade Lamb’s other episodes of Fear Not Do Right are filled with more common but still destructive conservative tropes. In his first episode, he interviewed election deniers Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips, both leaders of election denial group True the Vote who also, as noted earlier, have partnered with Mark Lamb to manufacture narratives of widespread voter fraud. 

“As I was watching this 2000 Mules — just blew my mind,” Cade Lamb said, referencing the election denialist film that heavily featured Engelbrecht and Phillips. “So for those that are watching this podcast, listening and you haven't seen 2000 Mules, I highly recommend it.” 

He then asked them to lay out their so-called evidence, which doesn’t stand up to even remote scrutiny.

“We believe that approximately — and a little bit of this is an extrapolation, but approximately 7% of the mail-in votes — and this is very conservative in our opinion — that approximately 7% of the mail-in votes in the country are problematic,” Phillips said, minutes later.

In another episode, failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake was even more explicit in her election denial. 

“In 2020, we know for a fact the election was stolen,” Lake said.

Cade Lamb interviewed former Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), who pushed the right-wing myth that only 3% of colonists fought against the British in the U.S. war for independence. 

Cawthorn described a painting in the U.S. Capitol rotunda, claiming “the reason they painted this, I believe, is because when you think about it, only 3% of the actual population of the colonies actually rose up and agreed to fight against England in that time.” Those numbers are much too low, but they form the basis of the right-wing “Three Percenter” ideology, a subset of the broader anti-government militia movement.

“I just love the idea to remind people that that small force, that small 3% of our colony was able to defeat and fight a war of attrition that ultimately led to our breaking of our chains from this English empire,” Cawthorn added.

In another rambling episode, Cade Lamb interviewed Morgan Zegers, who hosts a podcast on the Salem Radio Network and founded Young Americans Against Socialism. Zegers claimed that increased identification with LGBTQ identities among young people was a “fad,” which she compared with social pressure toward disordered eating.

“Bulimia, anorexia, eating disorders used to be the thing, that was when we were kids and that was the whole fad at the time, and young impressionable minds were falling into it,” Zeger said. “And now it has become the gender spectrum.” 

“And when we look more and more into it, I mean, looking at the chemicals that we’re eating, how it's feminizing men and then everything's being normalized,” she continued. 

The idea that cis men are being “feminized” is another common trope on the right, whether from an incorrect interpretation of science writing about non-human animals or fears of supposed declining testosterone levels.

Like Sawyer, Zegers sees communist threats where there are none. 

“The other thing was that because we won that war, Cold War, against the USSR, we thought we’d defeated communism, when in reality the USSR itself collapsed,” Zegers said. “But the communists inside of America were more stronger than they had ever been.”

Cade Lamb’s mother and Mark Lamb’s wife, Janel, also recently appeared on the show and made anti-trans comments. She claimed in the May 1 episode of Fear Not Do Right that the lack of God in public life was responsible for increasing rates of trans identification among young people, a version of the debunked social contagion theory. 

“Back in the day, we all had one thing in common, and that was what?” Janel Lamb said. “That we were children of God.” 

“Well, now I really feel like society has really tried to erase God as much as possible,” she continued. “OK, so now maybe you’re part of a family. Well, what’s happening to our families? Also getting erased.”

“So now you have these kids who are out — who innately, their human nature is to want to belong — and it’s so easy now to be, like the trans kids at high school are the cool kids,” she added. “You can stand out because you can say, ‘I’m a cat and I need a litter box in our school cafeteria or bathroom, whatever.’ You know what I mean? Like, that’s how they’re trying to belong is they’re trying to do this, and there are so many evil forces that are exploiting that.”  

The myth that teachers were forcing or allowing children to use litter boxes because they identify as a cat is a common and completely baseless anti-trans talking point.

Most of this content would be standard fare for right-wing media, which tends toward conspiratorial thinking, and largely forgettable under different circumstances. Cade Lamb’s podcast is obscure, and doesn’t appear to hold much sway. But it is also an extension of the family business, as his father’s close participation makes clear, and Mark Lamb is very much in the public spotlight. 

Sheriff Mark Lamb presents himself as an aw-shucks mainstream figure but Fear Not Do Right undermines that act, showing that both Lambs appear to share an ideology on the far-right fringe of Republican politics.