Morning Briefing: Oath Keepers on Trial
Morning Briefing: Oath Keepers on Trial
Five members of the Oath Keepers, the far-right militia group, are on trail charged with seditious conspiracy for attempting to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power on January 6, 2021.
Morning Briefing: Stewart Rhodes, founder of the far right militia group the Oath Keepers, and members of his organization allegedly “plotted to oppose the peaceful transfer of power, stockpiling guns in ‘quick reaction forces’ just outside of D.C. that could be brought into the city at a moment's notice.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Nestler told the jury that the Oath Keepers "concocted a plan for an armed rebellion to shatter a bedrock of American democracy.”
The U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security held a hearing “that focused on violent extremism, with an emphasis on a raft of antisemitic threats made recently in New Jersey.”
Washington State Rep. Rob Chase, ally of former state lawmaker and far right extremists Matt Shea, is “leading a push among Washington state lawmakers to question the legitimacy of the elections process, and he’s kept the central tenets of Shea’s far-right ideology — like splitting Washington into two states — alive.”
Michael Peroutka, far right Republican candidate for Maryland attorney general, promised “to prosecute public officials who carried out COVID restrictions like lockdowns and vaccine mandates.”
Three men involved with the alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer are in court facing charges for providing material support for terrorist acts, “just weeks before voters consider whether to reelect Gretchen Whitmer to a second term.”
The dissemination of hundreds of articles full of right-wing “disinformation is saturating the widely used social media platform WeChat and poses a growing threat to Chinese American voters in the November midterm elections,” according to a new report by Chinese for Affirmative Action.
Join the conversation on Twitter Spaces on Friday, October 7 at 12:00pm EDT (11:00am CDT / 9:00am PDT) ― This Week in Extremism: Christian Nationalism and Spiritual Warfare
Must Reads
Sarah Posner writes that “subversions of church-state separation, and the imposition of fundamentalist religion to deprive others of their civil and constitutional rights, are in and of themselves signs of a democracy in danger. But since the 2020 election, the Christian right’s embrace of Trump’s stolen election lie — fueled by the belief that Trump is a savior of the Christian nation — has contributed to direct threats to the electoral process itself. Sixty percent of white evangelicals believe the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. The QAnon movement, which claims that a deep state cabal of satanic pedophiles is running a secret sex trafficking ring inside the government and seeks to drive Trump out of power, is not just a conspiracy theory. It is another means of energizing right-wing white Christian voters, who have been steeped in this kind of conspiracism for decades, to take extreme steps to “save” the Christian nation that (they believe) Trump has so ardently defended.” [Talking Points Memo]
Bradley Onishi and Annika Brockschmidt write that “one of the geniuses of Christian nationalism is its agility. As a cultural identity, Christian nationalism is nimble and flexible enough to include militia groups, QAnon theorists and election deniers who believe Trump is the rightful president — not to mention conservative Christians for whom the rhetoric of spiritual warfare and apocalypse are everyday parlance. Flynn is a particularly high-profile leader who has seamlessly married faith, conspiracy, politics and militancy. But he is not exactly unique. Plenty of Christian nationalists on the American right are becoming MAGA celebrities. Some earn significant sums by claiming the election was stolen and asking God to restore the country to greatness, even if it takes a civil war.” [NBC News]
Tess Owen writes that Gab Founder Andrew Torba has “pivoted from being a free speech zealot to a hardcore Christian nationalist. This year, he’s gone full-tilt on the once-fringe ideology that blends patriotic fervor with religious zeal. He’s also made it clear that he fancies himself a kingmaker to the GOP’s political fringes, just as Christian nationalist rhetoric has crept from church pulpits into the mainstream, and is now looming large over the upcoming midterms. Today, more than a million of Americans—in particular, young American men—visit Gab each month. When Torba founded Gab in 2016, the site quickly—and for good reason—gained a reputation as a safe haven for neo-Nazis and white supremacist shitposters who’d been booted from mainstream platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Among them, the man who opened fire on the Tree of Life Synagogue.” [Vice]
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; Research Desk provides monthly highlights research and analysis from academia on the Radical Right; Field Notes delivers research on key organizations and analysis of the strategies and tactics of the Radical Right.
