Morning Briefing: State Lawmakers Target of Threats and Vandalism
Morning Briefing: State Lawmakers Target of Threats and Vandalism
A New York state lawmaker was the target of bomb threats, and a Minnesota lawmaker's home was the target of racist graffiti.
Morning Briefing: New York Assemblyman Jonathan Jacobson was the target of a bomb threat via email which “forced the evacuation of several offices,” and local law enforcement is reportedly investigating the incident.
The home of Minnesota state Rep. Kim Hicks was the target of racist graffiti, as political yard signs were “defaced with the N-word and white supremacist language,” and another window and shed were “spray-painted with a swastika.”
In January, there were at least “six state capitol complexes across the U.S.” that were forced to evacuate due to of bomb threats, the Illinois State Capitol building was evacuated “after a threatening 911 call,” the Pennsylvania State Capitol was evacuated “due to a bomb threat.”
In Charleston, West Virginia, local law enforcement reportedly found several flyers that “blamed the 9/11 terrorist attacks, negative aspects of gun control measures and the LGBTQ movement on the Jewish faith,” and a suspect was arrested after the individual “presented a Nazi salute and yelled obscenities after being given a citation.”
Local law enforcement is reportedly investigating vandalism “targeting the LGBTQ+ community in the Hillcrest neighborhood of San Diego,” and the vandalism “included a swastika and an anti-LGBTQ+ slur spray painted on a trash can and a wall.”
In Topeka, Kansas, Austin Shoemann “pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to hate crimes by waving a gun and using racial slurs to threaten two Black juveniles entering a convenience store,” and Shoemann admitted to previously targeted another women with by making threats to “shoot or kill any Black people who visited her home.”
Members of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA), a far right group, are “running as Republicans for sheriff in at least five Michigan counties in Tuesday's primary.”
Nicholas Smotherman was arrested for his alleged “role during the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol,” and is charged with “obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder and assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers.” A body camera reportedly captured Smotherman “among a group of rioters that advanced toward a police line despite being told to move back,” and he is “accused of pushing an officer with both hands.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) “issued its long-awaited findings on the Secret Service’s handling of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol,” and the “report praised agents for safeguarding top officials that day but also said it could improve communication with law enforcement and other procedures.”
The report also found that Kamala Harris was “just feet away from the explosive device planted in bushes outside the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters.”
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Ali Winston and Jake Hanrahan write that Joshua Caleb Sutter is a “longtime occultist and neo-Nazi, Sutter became an FBI informant roughly 20 years ago after being sent to prison for trying to buy a silencer and a defaced Glock .40 pistol from an undercover fed in Philadelphia. At the time of his arrest, Sutter was living on an Aryan Nations compound in Pennsylvania. Since then, he’s earned at least $140,000 infiltrating a range of far-right organizations, most notoriously the Atomwaffen Division (AWD) starting in 2017. Details of Sutter’s involvement—which the government has yet to officially confirm—emerged in 2021 during the federal trial of AWD leader Kaleb Cole, information first revealed that August. Being outed as a federal informant did not force Sutter into the shadows. Sutter kept publishing extremist books through his Martinet Press imprint, which helped fuel the ascent of the Order of Nine Angles (O9A), a murderous blend of Satanism and neo-fascism that is now pervasive in the global far right and has inspired violence in Russia, Great Britain, the United States, Canada, and elsewhere, a WIRED investigation found.” [Wired]
Alice Herman writes that Dar Leaf “has made a national name for himself in far-right circles with his fruitless investigation to uncover evidence for Donald Trump’s lies that the 2020 election was stolen. But that wasn’t what he wanted to discuss at his rally. Having come under intense scrutiny in the last three years for his election investigation and militia affiliations, Leaf spoke to his supporters about his office’s more mundane work—upgraded vehicles and new training—and urged them to ignore the attacks he’s faced. ‘Our eyes are forward, that’s why God put ‘em in front of our head,’ he said to laughter and applause. ‘We’ve got to keep moving towards that finish line.’ Still, it’s his relentless effort to uncover voter fraud and his associations with far-right groups that has come to define him as he seeks to defeat three rivals in next week’s Republican primary. Taking up Trump’s unfounded grievances, Leaf sent deputies to interrogate local election officials and tried to seize voting machines, which he claimed flipped votes from Trump to Joe Biden. His activities fit in a broader network of far-right sheriffs who responded to Trump’s lies by wanting to police elections, and who may soon double down if the former president challenges the results of November’s elections.” [Bolts]
Matt McManus writes that “the threat of counter-revolution should not be underestimated. Despite Trump rhetorically distancing himself from the radically transformative Project 2025 and calling for unity after last month’s assassination attempt, his vice presidential pick, J.D. Vance, shows how radical the modern Right’s ambitions are. Vance’s intellectual influences read like a who’s who of modern counter-revolutionary authors. They include Patrick Deneen, who wrote an entire book calling for ‘regime change’ and the installation of a new aristocratic conservative elite; the neo-reactionary monarchist Curtis Yarvin, who’s urged Republicans to get over their ’phobia’ of dictatorship; and Silicon Valley billionaire donor Peter Thiel, who’s said that democracy threatens capital and that he ’no longer believe[s] that freedom and democracy are compatible.’ It should be no surprise that in such a fertile atmosphere many are insisting that ’conservatism is no longer enough’ and calling for a ‘counter-revolution’ against what they see as a long decaying and decadent liberal order.” [In These Times]
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.
In North Dakota now. Headed to Minnesota tomorrow and plan to get the local scoop.