Morning Briefing: Trump Pardons Anti-Abortion Activists, Proud Boys and Patriot Front Join 'March for Life'

President Donald Trump pardoned anti-abortion protesters, and members of the Proud Boys and Patriot Front join anti-abortion activists during the March for Life in San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

Members of Patriot Front, the neo-fascist White Nationalist group, rally near the Washington Monument on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., during the annual "March for Life." (Image: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP)

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Morning Briefing: In addition to pardoning more than 1,500 Capitol rioters, President Donald Trump also “signed pardons for 23 anti-abortion protesters whom the White House said were prosecuted under his predecessor Joe Biden's administration,” the protesters were “convicted of blocking access to abortion clinics.”

During the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., members of Patriot Front, the neo-fascist White Nationalist group, joined the march and handed out flyers. It was Patriot Front’s “third time doing so in four years.”

Thousands of anti-abortion march in downtown San Francisco during the annual Walk for Life, and there were reportedly “at least seven Proud Boys — a far-right, neo-fascist group known for its role in organizing the Jan. 6 insurrection — who held black flags declaring their affiliation.”

Stewart Rhodes, the former leader of the far right militia group the Oath Keepers, “was among other Trump supporters standing near the president” during a rally in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In New Haven, Conneticutt, flyers were reportedly found with anti-immigrant propaganda written with English, Spanish and several other languages, and included phrases such as "GET OUT Nobody wants you here" and "Report all illegal immigrants and those harboring them."

Must Reads

• Tess Owen writes that “whatever stigma may have been attached to the Proud Boys appears to have dissipated. Trump has defended his decision to pardon or commute the sentences of January 6-ers, including those of notorious Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. And when asked by a reporter whether he could envision a place for members of those groups in politics. ‘Well, we have to see,’ Trump responded. ‘They’ve been given a pardon. I thought their sentences were ridiculous and excessive.’ But even with talks of revenge and plans for the future, the gang is far less cohesive than it was prior to January 6. The arrests of members and leaders in connection to the Capitol riot fueled paranoia about informants and exacerbated existing rifts—especially after a report published in late January 2021 exposed Tarrio’s history as a ‘prolific’ police informant. The Proud Boys claimed that they dissolved the group’s ‘Sovereign Chapter’ in the years following, leaving the chapters to operate autonomously. The group also struggled to find its place in the broader far-right ecosystem, with some chapters cozying up to even more extreme factions like neo-Nazis as others sought legitimacy by seeking alliances with conservative influencers. [Wired]

• Brandy Zadrozny writes that “when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visited in June 2019, Samoa was on the brink of crisis. The government had suspended measles vaccinations the year before after an improperly prepared vaccine killed two babies. Though the vaccinations resumed months later, many parents weren’t convinced that the shots were safe, leaving thousands of their smallest children unprotected against a highly contagious disease as it was resurging across the globe. With fewer than a third of Samoa’s babies vaccinated, experts and officials feared for the Pacific Island nation. But Kennedy saw an opportunity… Months after Kennedy’s visit, the question of what would happen to Samoa’s unvaccinated babies was answered. A measles outbreak swept the country, sickening thousands and killing 83, mostly small children. As measles raged, Kennedy stayed connected to the island, writing to the prime minister to raise concerns about the vaccine and providing medical guidance to a local anti-vaccine activist who posted false claims about the vaccination campaign and promoted unproven alternative cures.” [NBC News]

• Jason Wilson writes that “in a series of newly unearthed podcasts, Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, appears to endorse the theocratic and authoritarian doctrine of ‘sphere sovereignty’, a worldview derived from the extremist beliefs of Christian reconstructionism (CR) and espoused by churches aligned with far-right Idaho pastor Douglas Wilson. In the recordings, Hegseth rails against ‘cultural Marxism’, feminism, ‘critical race theory’, and even democracy itself, which he says ‘our founders blatantly rejected as being completely dangerous’. For much of the over five hours of recordings, which were published over February and March 2024, Hegseth also castigates public schools, which he characterizes as implementing an ‘egalitarian, dystopian LGBT nightmare’, and which the podcast host Joshua Haymes describes as ‘one of Satan’s greatest tools for excising Christ from not just our classrooms but our country’. Elsewhere in the recordings, Hegseth expresses agreement with the principle of sphere sovereignty, which, in CR doctrine, envisions a subordination of ‘civil government’ to Old Testament law, capital punishment for infringements of that law such as homosexuality, and rigidly patriarchal families and churches.” [The Guardian]

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.

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