'Shaman' Jacob Chansley to Newsmax: 'Mockingbird Media' Used Me for 'Shock, Awe'

"Shaman" Jacob Chansley, vilified for his protest at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, is running for Congress as a libertarian to fight the establishment and stand for America and Arizona voters, he told Newsmax in an exclusive interview Monday.

"The fact of the matter is the mockingbird media chose to use my image to create a shock and awe campaign," Chansley told "National Report" in his first national TV appearance since the protest and his prison release.

"Of course, breaking the law, there's no excuse, and if I could go back and know what was going to happen, I would stop everything from happening as much as I possibly could. Now, whether or not that would be possible, considering the police threw concussion grenades and tear gas into an otherwise peaceful crowd, I don't know.

"I mean, who's going to listen to the guy in horns and face paint telling everybody calm down, right?"

Chansley horned fur hat, bare chest, and face paint made him one of the more recognizable figures of the chaos at the Capitol. Now running for Congress, he intends to speak to America First voters and fight back against the Washington, D.C., establishment.

"We don't live in a democracy," Chansley said. "We live in a constitutional republic. A democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what's for dinner. A republic is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote."

Chansley, 35, said American law is far more complex than it needs to be, something he hopes to help change after he said he was targeted by President Joe Biden's Justice Department.

"The DOJ can call anybody or can convict anybody on anything," Chansley said. "I believe it was Clarence Thomas that said the average American citizen breaks six federal laws each day. So our list of rules for the government is a page or two. It's called the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, but their list of rules for us are thousands, hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of pages at this point – hence why the average American citizen breaks six federal laws a day.

"That's a problem. And, so, in my opinion, if the American people are looking for change, then I guarantee you they're not going to find it in the establishment. They're not going to find it in any of the people that are currently in Congress because those people are banking on keeping the status quo. That's how they keep their jobs. These people want careers in D.C. They don't want to make change."

Asked if he regrets the "optics" of his Jan. 6 garb, Chansley said he brought a bare chest to the Capitol as he will "bear all" for his constituents.

"It's a symbol of that I'm willing to bear all — that what people are getting with me is exactly what it is that I'm showing them, that I'm not afraid," he said. "I'm not trying to paint some image the way all of these puppet politicians do.

"I'm not disingenuous in any way, shape, or form. I come bare chested. I come in full regalia. This is who I am. This is what I represent. And guess what? I think that once people hear me speak, then they can and will want to vote for me."

The images of his Jan. 6 costume does not destroy his credibility, but enhance it, Chansley argued.

"Literally decades here in the United States of America we have had swindlers in suits and liars in ties stealing our tax dollars, moving our public money into private hands," he said. "And I'll say this: If it takes horns and face paint with no shirt to end up disrupting the establishment and the established, corrupt politics and the dinosaur circus that we call D.C., then I'm fine with that."

Chansley filed a candidate statement of interest Thursday, indicating he wants to run as a libertarian in next year's election for Arizona's 8th Congressional District. He laid out his anti-establishment platform Monday on Newsmax.

"You cannot believe anything anymore in the mockingbird media, and the fact of the matter is if people actually got a chance to hear what it is that I'm running on, I think everybody Republican and Democrat voters would agree," he said.

"Because what I'm running on is single-bill-voting law; what I'm running on is an amendment for term limits for Congress, members and staff. What I'm running on is a criminalizing of lobbying and seven-figure fines and expulsion prosecution for insider trading.

"And these are part of the systemic issues that I would like to fix as a representative of the American people of the people of District 8 here in Arizona, and the fact of the matter is we're not really seeing accurate representation whatsoever in the Congress, and this is because they are representing the lobbyists and the non-government organizations, the international corporations, the international banks that are funding their campaigns.

"So I'm not going to Washington D.C., to make a career. I'm going to Washington D.C. to make a change."

Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., a 64-year-old Republican representing the district since 2018, announced last month she will not seek re-election. Her term officially ends in January 2025.

Chansley pleaded guilty to a felony charge of obstructing an official proceeding in connection with the Capitol protest.

He was sentenced to 41 months in prison in November 2021 and served about 27 months before being transferred to a Phoenix halfway house in March 2023. Chansley grew up in the greater Phoenix area.

Chansley is among the more than 700 people who have been sentenced in relation to the Capitol protest. Authorities said Chansley was among the first to enter the Capitol building, and he acknowledged using a bullhorn to address Trump supporters seeking to support attempts to contest the 2020 election.

Labeled the "QAnon Shaman," Chansley has disavowed the QAnon movement and has preferred to be recognized as "America's Shaman."

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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