“It’s hardly ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’,” quips the host, but that also begs the question of why they’re talking to Jacob Chansley at all — let alone promoting it today of all days. The House has taken today off after intelligence indicated a rising threat of another potentially violent attack on the Capitol by far-right groups today, under the bizarre theory that Donald Trump can dissolve the government and get sworn back into office.

In other words, this seems like the worst day to offer national media exposure to one of the most recognized figures in QAnon, but YMMV, I guess. It’s a promo for a longer interview on 60 Minutes+, but based on this clip, it looks more like the long tradition of freakshow TV:

The "QAnon Shaman" of the January 6th attack on the Capitol tells his story for the first time from jail, as he faces up to 20 years behind bars.

Jacob Chansley spoke with @60minutes+'s @LaurieSegall pic.twitter.com/uhUuFNHRvf

— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) March 4, 2021

Here’s a question: Where is Chansley’s attorney in this, while Chansley admits to breaching the Capitol on January 6th? Not that denials will do much good, thanks to the rioters’ copious efforts to document their crimes on video and brag about them on social media.

But here’s another question, too: what did we learn from this interview that is of real public interest? Other than his conviction, what item of public interest could Chansley possibly provide?

Hope the ratings are worth it. For those unfamiliar with the importance of March 4th to fringe conspiracy theorists on the far Right, the Washington Post’s Gillian Brockwell provides a brief primer:

But many QAnon crackpots haven’t given up. Some now believe Trump will return to power on Thursday, March 4, and according to U.S. Capitol Police, a militant group may be plotting to breach the Capitol again that day.

Why March 4? Because that was the country’s original Inauguration Day, of course.

The Constitution doesn’t actually set a date for the beginning of a president’s term, only saying it will last four years exactly. But after George Washington’s was scheduled for March 4, 1789, the date stuck. …

The 20th Amendment forever moved up Inauguration Day to Jan. 20. Roosevelt’s first term was thus shortened by two months, though that ended up not mattering since he was reelected.

According to QAnon lore, all presidents since Ulysses S. Grant have been illegitimate, so it follows that the day Trump returns to power to set things right would be the original Inauguration Day.

This isn’t just “QAnon lore.” Some of this has been floating around for years or decades, and is at least related to the crackpot reasoning behind the Sovereign Citizen movement. The QAnon adherents absorbed this into their theories about pedophilic cabals while making Trump their messiah against them — theories that occasionally got broached publicly in PizzaGate and Lin Wood’s deranged rants about Chief Justice John Roberts.

All of this is what CBS is inadvertently promoting today with this worthless interview of the QAnon shaman. Great job, everyone. Hope the ratings are worth it.