Hey Matt Baker, Don't California My Arizona.
Infowars-friendly clout chaser appears at Maricopa County Board of Supervisors meeting
On Wednesday November 16, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors held their first open meeting post-midterm election. It went about as well as one would expect in conspiracy-heavy Arizona.
The day before, Turning Point USA Chief Operating Officer and local precinct committeeman Tyler Bowyer made a call to action: “I hope you’ll join activists at the County meeting tomorrow and express your delight with how well they ran the election last week!” Bowyer shared the public information and a screenshot from EZ-AZ making a similar call for people to make their voices heard at the upcoming Board of Supervisors meeting.
The Kari Lake “War Room” Twitter account replied: “We have thoughts. If you were disenfranchised by @maricopacounty, show up and tell your story. Don't accept apologies. Ask how they're going to make it right.”
The early morning meeting featured about two dozen public speakers repeating every election disinformation talking point Kari Lake, Mark Finchem, and Turning Point USA have generated post-loss. Several called for a new election or a “re-do.” Which might sound ridiculous, but the same demand is being repeated by the newly-elected LD-13 representative Liz Harris (known for the rogue Cyber Ninjas “canvas” and housing QAnon’s Ron Watkins).
ABC15’s Nicole Grigg notes Maricopa Board meeting the highlights:
WATCH MORE: The full 2-hour Maricopa Board of Supervisors meeting, if you dare.
Grigg’s montage features a screaming dreadlocked man in a green Statue of Liberty anti-mask shirt. This man is Matt Baker, and he’s not even from Arizona.
Baker lives in San Diego and makes a “career” out of being a screaming far-right personality in the F-tier Alex Jones/Infowars ecosystem. He’s also a familiar face amongst the SoCal fascists, appearing at LA Proud Boy rallies and harassing people at family-friendly drag shows. Baker regularly appears with Alison Steinberg, both before and after she got her neo-Nazi platforming gig at One America News Network.
READ MORE: OANN Features Neo-Nazi Gang Member on Air to Defend January 6th Capitol insurrectionist by VPS Reports
Before COVID changed the world, Baker appeared to occupy his time with glass blowing and stanning Alex Jones. By March 2020, his social media began to fill with anti-vaccination, anti-lockdown, and anti-Anthony Fauci posts. He also started filming himself around Ocean Beach voicing his complaints about the shutdowns or entering a business with “NWO slave WHO” handwritten on his medical mask.
By September 2020, Baker was promoting his new Instagram account, “Slave2Liberty,” where he said he would be moving his “more controversial posts to.” The account features his “career” as the wannabe far-right personality he’s become. This includes his Board meeting performances, Infowars and OANN appearances, SoCal anti-vax rallies, and tons of advertising for his own self-promoting merchandise. The masked Statue of Liberty “SLAVE” shirt he’s always seen wearing is Baker’s own logo, with his “Slave2Liberty,” online handle stamped at the bottom.
As of now, the “Slave2Liberty” Instagram account has been inactive since Baker filmed himself harassing families celebrating Halloween at a drag show but he continues to share his anti-vaccine conspiracies and Infowars content on his ban-evading “MattBaker_Unhinged” handle.
Back in August 2021, Baker finally fulfilled his dream of going viral for screaming out against so-called “vaccine passports” at a San Diego County Board of Supervisors meeting. You can just feel the failed actor in him as he incoherently yells:
You’re about to open a pit of hell. You do not get a vaccine passport put on us! You KNOW as the population who’s in control, you know that the people are the politicians once you get in power will never relinquish it. Do you think that the four feet of marble that holds you above, high in this chamber will help you from the FATE of humanity which you are UN-LEASH-ING. NOOOO, IT WON’T.
Your children and your children’s children will be subjugated. They will be asked: how many vaccines have you had? HAVE YOU BEEN A GOOD LITTLE NAZI?
HAIL FAUCI! (x4)
Full August 17th, 2021 speech (content warning loud and annoying):
The Late Night with Stephen Colbert would feature Baker’s performance in a segment on California anti-vaxxers commenting at public meetings. Portuguese YouTube guitar-playing personality André Antunes also remixed Baker’s speech with a Metal riff.
On August 20, Baker was invited as a video guest on Infowars.
”I am very exciting about having Matt Baker on. I thought he looks familiar, he’s been on the War Room before and he’s a longtime Infowars listener,” Alex Jones said before Baker’s appearance. Jones played Baker’s viral clip and praised his speech. Baker fanboyed at Jones, and Jones fanboyed at Baker before they both shared a mutual scream.
Jones promoted Baker’s “MattBaker_Unhinged” Instagram account on the show. At the time it only had 49 followers, the account currently has 17.3K followers.
Matt Baker: “They are building this insane hologram of lies in front of us. And they managed to build their next hologram off the last hologram through some weird satanic magic that they do. Even though we’ve defeated the last hologram, they’re building the new hologram on top of the old one. So we’re almost like Neo, we’re beating these Holograms and we’re knocking each one down.”
Alex Jones: What you said is totally it. Exactly.
Since his original feature on Infowars, Baker has appeared on the fascist conspiracy show again as both a call-in and in-studio guest. The appearances surely boosts merch sales.
In an obvious attempt to keep his shtick going, Baker continued to attend Board of Supervisors meetings to scream out more performances. When San Diego declared a local health emergency due to the Monkeypox, he showed up to the next San Diego Board of Supervisors meeting to recreate his previous speech.
”The Great Awakening is upon us…” Baker started before going into his rant. Baker’s social media is also littered with similar QAnon references. But he’s also so down far the conspiracy rabbit hole, he’s also shared content about QAnon itself being a “globalist neocon psyop.” Baker has also been a featured speaker at the QAnon-friendly ReAwaken America Tour alongside Sean Feucht, Eric Trump, Roger Stone, and Michael Flynn.
Leading up to his big Phoenix performance, Baker’s social media shows him appearing with, interviewing, and reposting the “content” of other far-right wannabe influencers, like Alex Stein. Baker is also friendly with Arizona neo-nazi Ethan Schmidt-Crockett, appearing in videos with him and sharing his hateful videos with his own Statue of Liberty logo stamped on it. Schmidt-Crockett has repeatedly threatened the LGBTQ+ and Jewish community with threats of violence, “content” that Baker happily shares in support.
Baker’s appearance at the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors again earned him a viral moment. But this time it wasn’t due to the Infowars ecosystem, but the coalition of losers still impossibly hoping Kari Lake will become Governor. (Infowars still shared it too, of course.) In his short speech, Baker references the now-popular “Box 3” conspiracy about Maricopa election day. His bank comparison is almost a word-for-word repeat from Steve Bannon’s War Room.
“Once again the eyes of the world are on Maricopa County, for another botched election. Am I here to accuse you of stealing the vote? Heaven’s no, for that would make me a terrorist, wouldn’t it? Let me ask you, if you took your life savings to a bank and the teller put them in the machine and the machine kicked out 1 out of 4 of your bills and the teller said ‘don’t worry we’ll put them in box 3 over here and we’ll let you know how many were in there later. We’ll send them off to a seperate location and someone will be sure to get back to you and tell you how much money you have.’
Would you be okay with that? NO! You would not be okay with that! Now, ask yourself the question: which is more valuable, your vote or your money? Now ask a lobbyist that same question. Now ask a campaign manager that question. Now ask Mark Zuckerberg that question. Which is more valuable? Your money or your vote or your country or this world or the corruption that is taking over every single county in this nation? And then you look into your own soul and you look back at yourself in the mirror and realize that you are the cancer that is tearing this nation apart. GOOD DAY!
READ MORE: Counting Through Conspiracy Theories in Arizona’s Midterms
AND MORE: Arizona’s ‘Tricky Voting Machines’ Sounds Suspiciously Familiar
Mark Finchem repeatedly shared the video through an article on the disinformation website The Gateway Pundit that described Baker as an “Arizonian,” both incorrect and not a word.
Oath Keeper state senator Wendy Rogers shared Baker’s video: “Oh. My. Gosh. WATCH THIS. #HardscrabbleArizona #SpeaksMyLanguage.”
Actor James Woods shared the video saying:
”I am ashamed to say I would not give this fellow a second thought if I passed him in the street. Having watched this speech, however, I am now in awe of his eloquence and patriotism. Maricopa County is the new Zimbabwe.”
Kari Lake reposted Woods commenting: “Arizona’s current mood.”
The downtown area of Phoenix has failed to generate protests similar to the 2020 “Stop the Steal” era, but Lake and Finchem’s lies have still produced a few grifters like Baker. More concerningly is the ongoing threats against election workers and officials.
Despite the lack of action in Phoenix, Baker still made some additional footage for his Banned.Video and Instagram accounts. He interviews a man named Michael Schaefer who lied about the voting machines at the Maricopa Board meeting, claiming they weren’t legally certified. Baker also interviewed failed state senate candidate and ex-NFL player Jerone Davidson.
READ MORE: Arizona Congressional Candidate Confirms QAnon Influencer is Running His Campaign
Filming himself outside the Maricopa County Tabulation and Elections Center, Baker shows nobody is outside protesting alongside him and says a nearby cannabis festival is drawing much more attention.
Until next time!
“Angertainment” is what Adam Frisch calls this schtick.