Morning Briefing: Leaders of Right-Wing Election Conspiracy Group Jailed For Contempt of Court
Morning Briefing: Leaders of Right-Wing Election Conspiracy Group Jailed For Contempt of Court
Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips, leaders of the right-wing election conspiracy theory group True the Vote, were jailed for contempt of court.
Morning Briefing: Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips, leaders of the right-wing election conspiracy theory group True the Vote, were escorted out of the courtroom by Federal Marshals and have “been held in contempt of court for refusing to release the name of a person of interest in the defamation and computer hacking case against them, who they claim, without proof, is a confidential FBI informant.”
Graydon Young, a former member of the far right militia group the Oath Keepers, testified during the seditious conspiracy trial of the Oath Keepers that “he believed they were participating in a historic ‘Bastille-type event’ reminiscent of the French Revolution.”
Members of the Proud Boys, a far right street gang, staged a protest “outside of Hugger Mugger Brewing in downtown Sanford, site of a Halloween Drag Brunch event benefiting Sanford Yoga Community Center’s LFGTQ+ Resource Center.”
Two former members of the Proud Boys “have qualified to serve as poll workers in Miami-Dade County and will be interacting with voters on Election Day.”
Members of the Nationalist Social Club, a neo-fascist White Supremacist group, “descended on a hotel parking lot in Kingston, exposing anti-refugee beliefs and distributing pamphlets before police told them they weren’t welcome on the private property.”
Jared Hudson, Republican candidate for Jefferson County Sheriff in Alabama, is having to answer questions regarding “his connection with Covenant Rescue Group, which he founded in 2019 and a Facebook post by CRG two years ago used hashtags #boogaloomobile and #readytoroll.”
This Week in Extremism: A conversation with Molly Jong-Fast about the influence of far right extremists on Republican political candidates ahead of the midterm elections. Join the discussion Friday, November 4th at 12:00pm EDT (11:00am CDT / 9:00am PDT).
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Christopher Mathias reports that many far right activists “have flocked to Idaho in recent years, where a large and growing radical MAGA faction in the state’s Republican Party has openly allied itself with extremists to a shocking extent, even for the Trump era. This faction is accruing more and more power in Boise, the state capital: Imagine a statehouse full of Marjorie Taylor Greenes and Steve Kings. At the local level, they have seized seats on school boards and county commissions at a fast clip. They’ve accomplished this, in part, by targeting their opponents with frightening cruelty and harassment, embracing a strategy called ‘confrontational politics,’ which has helped drive more moderate officials across the state to resign or retire.” [Huffington Post]
Maurice Chammah writes that many of the sheriffs he interviewed said “they have a fine working relationship with state and federal law enforcement. But others complained about them, particularly in Western states with lots of federal land. ‘My backyard is a national forest,’ said Sheriff Cameron Noel of Beaver County, Utah (population 7,250). ‘We’d have forest rangers that would come in. They don’t live here … and if a guy is up there with his family to recreate, if he’s got a taillight out, they’re going to write him a federal violation.’ The Constitutional sheriff movement gave such conflicts over authority a more right-wing cast, according to Mark Pitcavage, a senior research fellow with Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism. ‘Mack is successful in part because he plays to conceptions sheriffs have of themselves already, but with an ideological twist,’ he said.” [The Marshall Project]
Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry write that “while fewer Americans say they agree with a core Christian nationalist tenet, its influence on our political life may nevertheless be expanding. The U.S. Census reports older Americans like those ages 65 to 74 vote at rates about 25 percent higher than Americans ages 18 to 24. Our research finds older Americans are also most likely to embrace Christian nationalism. And powerful people and lobbying groups like the Family Research Council, the National Association of Christian Lawmakers, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) are working to promote Christian nationalist policy goals in government, the courts, and at the polls. Recent experimental research shows when Christian Americans are told their numbers are declining, they respond with a greater commitment to Christian nationalism and Trump support. In other words, learning that they are or may soon be a minority pushes them toward extremist beliefs.” [The Washington Post]
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.
