Morning Briefing: Aryan Freedom Network Hosting Event in Missouri
[CORRECTION] The Texas-based Aryan Freedom Network (AFN), the nationwide neo-Nazi White Supremacist group, has announced the group will hold a ‘meet and greet’ in Kirksville, Missouri.
Morning Briefing: The Aryan Freedom Network (AFN), the nationwide neo-Nazi White Supremacist group that “embraces antisemitic, racist and national socialist ideas,” has announced the group “will hold a ‘meet and greet’ in Kirksville on Saturday,” however, the group has not “publicly disclosed a location or time.
The AFN has been active in recent months, often spreading various type of White Supremacist propaganda. In Wisconsin, AFN recently distributed White Supremacist propaganda in Washington and Ozaukee counties, with messages reportedly “promoting closing the border to undocumented immigrants.”
A member of the Goyim Defense League (GDL), the antisemitic neo-Nazi White Nationalist group, has reportedly “been charged in connection to assaults and racial intimidation in July 2024.” Louis Edward Dunn is the second member of GDL to be charged in connection to an incident in Nashville, Tennessee, and Dunn is currently “being held as a fugitive in the Maricopa County Jail in Phoenix, Arizona.”
Kyle Christopher Benton, U.S. Army veteran, was sentenced to two years in prison for “possessing illegal high-powered firearms.” An investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) revealed that Benton “operated multiple social media accounts where he posted violent extremist content, neo-Nazi propaganda, and anti-Semitic materials,” and participated in ‘hate rallies’ and “other gatherings located in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho in furtherance of his white supremacist views,” according to a statement by the U.S. Attorney's Office.
In Waukegan, Wisconsin, William Ramlow is “accused of making an online threat against a Lake County, Illinois, LGBTQ+ organization and has been charged with a hate crime,” and Ramlow is scheduled to appear today in court in Lake County.
Must Reads
Tess Owen writes that “during his campaign, Donald Trump promised on several occasions to declassify the Epstein files, which would include the ‘list’. Before they joined the government, Trump’s FBI chief, Kash Patel, and deputy FBI chief, Dan Bongino, spent years on podcasts and TV appearances winking at QAnon and Epstein conspiracy theorists and demanding the files’ release, even suggesting that the Biden administration was withholding them to protect its own. Then, on the heels of the Fourth of July holiday weekend, the justice department quietly dropped a bombshell in the form of a memo. A ‘systematic review’ of the Epstein files by justice department officials ‘revealed no incriminating ‘client list’,’ the memo stated, nor did they find evidence that Epstein blackmailed powerful figures. The memo also affirmed that Epstein died by suicide in his Brooklyn jail cell while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges in 2019. Since the memo’s release, Maga has been in turmoil – and some of Trump’s most loyal foot soldiers have been in open revolt against his administration, accusing it of now being part of a cover-up and calling for the resignation of the attorney general, Pam Bondi, over her handling of the Epstein files.” [The Guardian]
Heather Digby Parton writes that “the Justice Department’s memo was a slap in the face to the MAGA faithful. They were stunned. And when Trump rudely dismissed their concerns in a cabinet meeting and then admonished them on Truth Social in a long rant blaming former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, demanding that his followers focus on the scandals he wants them to focus on, the crushing betrayal was personal. Never before has a Trump post received such a massive negative response on his own platform. Even his most loyal influencers, including popular MAGA commentator Benny Johnson and Fox News, were hostile. Trump’s loyal base has taken all that heat for so long, defending Trump through everything, and now it appears their Dear Leader is just another deep state operative covering up the crimes of his accomplices — and possibly his own. They are confused and angry and inconsolable. Have they had a mass epiphany and collectively awakened to the fundamental dishonesty and corruption of the man they worshipped for the past ten years? It’s hard to believe.” [Salon]
Anna Merlan writes that “the MAGA base, especially its more QAnon-y quadrants, feel deeply betrayed and increasingly suspicious by what they see as an unforgivable level of inaction and obfuscation on Epstein from the Trump administration. ‘Please understand the EPSTEIN AFFAIR is not going away,’ General Michael Flynn tweeted recently at Trump. (While Flynn has denied being a QAnon believer, he was an early promoter of elements of the conspiracy theory before disavowing it; he continues to make claims about a secretive group of evildoers engaged in child trafficking and sexual abuse.) ‘You’re going to lose 10 percent of the MAGA movement,’ warned former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. At the Turning Point USA conference in Florida over the weekend, much of the crowd booed when asked if they were satisfied with Trump’s handling of the Epstein case. All of this could have been avoided, had Trump officials not committed themselves to a spectacular series of own-goals. The mess began when Epstein died by suicide on August 9, 2019 after understaffed, overworked, and negligent Bureau of Prisons staff, even after a previous suicide attempt, left Epstein alone for long periods of time in a cell well-stocked with bed linen.” [Mother Jones]
What to expect from Radical Reports: Morning Briefing provides a daily round-up of reporting on the Radical Right; Extremist Links offers a weekly round-up of extremists activities including the white supremacist and militia movements; Narratives of the Right delivers weekly analysis of the current narratives in far right online spaces and promoted by right-wing media; and Research Desk provides monthly highlights research and analysis from academia on the Radical Right.
I would love to see counter protesters come in from all over the country. And also it would be nice if local businesses would not serve them.
Put them on a terrorist list , ban them