Daily Archives: September 2, 2021

Federal officials are preparing for a Sept. 18th rally demanding "justice" for January 6th arrestees that is expected to be attended by the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.

U.S. Capitol Police have been discussing reinstalling the perimeter fence erected after the insurrection, the Associated Press reported Wednesday, citing "three people familiar" with the situation.

"The decision on whether or not to erect the fence again will likely be considered by the Capitol Police Board, according to a House aide familiar with the matter and granted anonymity to discuss it. No decisions have been made," the AP reported.

The three members of the Capitol Police Board are the Sergeant at Arms of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Sergeant at Arms and Doorkeeper of the U.S. Senate, and the Architect of the Capitol.

Members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers have been charged with conspiracy for their roles in the January 6th attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which was won by Joe Biden.

"After January 6, we made Department-wide changes to the way we gather and share intelligence internally and externally. I am confident the work we are doing now will make sure our officers have what they need to keep everyone safe," Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said in a statement to the AP.

The rest is here:

Capitol fence may return as Proud Boys and Oath Keepers prepare to rally for Jan. 6 rioters: report - Raw Story

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One of the loudest voices urging Donald Trumps supporters to push for overturning the presidential election results was Steve Bannon. Were on the point of attack, Bannon, a former Trump adviser and far-right nationalist, pledged on his popular podcast on Jan. 5. All hell will break loose tomorrow. The next morning, as thousands massed on the National Mall for a rally that turned into an attack on the Capitol, Bannon fired up his listeners: Its them against us. Who can impose their will on the other side?

When the insurrection failed, Bannon continued his campaign for his former boss by other means. On his War Room podcast, which has tens of millions of downloads, Bannon said President Trump lost because the Republican Party sold him out. This is your call to action, Bannon said in February, a few weeks after Trump had pardoned him of federal fraud charges.

The solution, Bannon announced, was to seize control of the GOP from the bottom up. Listeners should flood into the lowest rung of the party structure: the precincts. Its going to be a fight, but this is a fight that must be won, we dont have an option, Bannon said on his show in May. Were going to take this back village by village precinct by precinct.

Precinct officers are the worker bees of political parties, typically responsible for routine tasks like making phone calls or knocking on doors. But collectively, they can influence how elections are run. In some states, they have a say in choosing poll workers, and in others they help pick members of boards that oversee elections.

After Bannons endorsement, the precinct strategy rocketed across far-right media. Viral posts promoting the plan racked up millions of views on pro-Trump websites, talk radio, fringe social networks and message boards, and programs aligned with the QAnon conspiracy theory.

Suddenly, people who had never before showed interest in party politics started calling the local GOP headquarters or crowding into county conventions, eager to enlist as precinct officers. They showed up in states Trump won and in states he lost, in deep-red rural areas, in swing-voting suburbs and in populous cities.

In Wisconsin, for instance, new GOP recruits are becoming poll workers. County clerks who run elections in the state are required to hire parties nominees. The parties once passed on suggesting names, but now hardline Republican county chairs are moving to use those powers.

Were signing up election inspectors like crazy right now, said Outagamie County party chair Matt Albert, using the states formal term for poll workers. Albert, who held a Stop the Steal rally during Wisconsins November recount, said Bannons podcast had played a role in the burst of enthusiasm.

ProPublica contacted GOP leaders in 65 key counties, and 41 reported an unusual increase in signups since Bannons campaign began. At least 8,500 new Republican precinct officers (or equivalent lowest-level officials) joined those county parties. We also looked at equivalent Democratic posts and found no similar surge.

Ive never seen anything like this, people are coming out of the woodwork, said J.C. Martin, the GOP chairman in Polk County, Florida, who has added 50 new committee members since January. Martin had wanted congressional Republicans to overturn the election on Jan. 6, and he welcomed this wave of like-minded newcomers. The most recent time we saw this type of thing was the tea party, and this is way beyond it.

Bannon, through a spokesperson, declined to comment.

Tracking a Wave of New GOP Officers

After Steve Bannon called on deplorables to take over the Republican Party from the bottom up, ProPublica interviewed county chairs in competitive states to find out if theyve seen a sudden increase in local-level party officers. Forty-one out of 65 key counties surveyed reported an unusual increase in precinct officers or the local equivalent.

While party officials largely credited Bannons podcast with driving the surge of new precinct officers, its impossible to know the motivations of each new recruit. Precinct officers are not centrally tracked anywhere, and it was not possible to examine all 3,000 counties nationwide. ProPublica focused on politically competitive places that were discussed as targets in far-right media.

The tea party backlash to former President Barack Obamas election foreshadowed Republican gains in the 2010 midterm. Presidential losses often energize party activists, and it would not be the first time that a candidates faction tried to consolidate control over the party apparatus with the aim of winning the next election.

Whats different this time is an uncompromising focus on elections themselves. The new movement is built entirely around Trumps insistence that the electoral system failed in 2020 and that Republicans cant let it happen again. The result is a nationwide groundswell of party activists whose central goal is not merely to win elections but to reshape their machinery.

They feel President Trump was rightfully elected president and it was taken from him, said Michael Barnett, the GOP chairman in Palm Beach County, Florida, who has enthusiastically added 90 executive committee members this year. They feel their involvement in upcoming elections will prevent something like that from happening again.

It has only been a few months too soon to say whether the wave of newcomers will ultimately succeed in reshaping the GOP or how they will affect Republican prospects in upcoming elections. But whats already clear is that these up-and-coming party officers have notched early wins.

In Michigan, one of the main organizers recruiting new precinct officers pushed for the ouster of the state partys executive director, who contradicted Trumps claim that the election was stolen and who later resigned. In Las Vegas, a handful of Proud Boys, part of the extremist group whose members have been charged in attacking the Capitol, supported a bid to topple moderates controlling the county party a dispute thats now in court.

In Phoenix, new precinct officers petitioned to unseat county officials who refused to cooperate with the state Senate Republicans forensic audit of 2020 ballots. Similar audits are now being pursued by new precinct officers in Michigan and the Carolinas. Outside Atlanta, new local party leaders helped elect a state lawmaker who championed Georgias sweeping new voting restrictions.

And precinct organizers are hoping to advance candidates such as Matthew DePerno, a Michigan attorney general hopeful who Republican state senators said in a report had spread misleading and irresponsible misinformation about the election, and Mark Finchem, a member of the Oath Keepers militia who marched to the Capitol on Jan. 6 and is now running to be Arizonas top elections official. DePerno did not respond to requests for comment, and Finchem asked for questions to be sent by email and then did not respond. Finchem has said he did not enter the Capitol or have anything to do with the violence. He has also said the Oath Keepers are not anti-government.

When Bannon interviewed Finchem on an April podcast, he wrapped up a segment about Arizona Republicans efforts to reexamine the 2020 results by asking Finchem how listeners could help. Finchem answered by promoting the precinct strategy. The only way youre going to see to it this doesnt happen again is if you get involved, Finchem said. Become a precinct committeeman.

Some of the new precinct officers were in the crowd that marched to the Capitol on Jan. 6, according to interviews and social media posts; one Texas precinct chair was arrested for assaulting police in Washington. He pleaded not guilty. Many of the new activists have said publicly that they support QAnon, the online conspiracy theory that believes Trump was working to root out a global child sex trafficking ring. Organizers of the movement have encouraged supporters to bring weapons to demonstrations. In Las Vegas and Savannah, Georgia, newcomers were so disruptive that they shut down leadership elections.

Theyre not going to be welcomed with open arms, Bannon said, addressing the altercations on an April podcast. But hey, was it nasty at Lexington? he said, citing the opening battle of the American Revolution. Was it nasty at Concord? Was it nasty at Bunker Hill?

Bannon plucked the precinct strategy out of obscurity. For more than a decade, a little-known Arizona tea party activist named Daniel J. Schultz has been preaching the plan. Schultz failed to gain traction, despite winning a $5,000 prize from conservative direct-mail pioneer Richard Viguerie in 2013 and making a 2015 pitch on Bannons far-right website, Breitbart. Schultz did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

In December, Schultz appeared on Bannons podcast to argue that Republican-controlled state legislatures should nullify the election results and throw their states Electoral College votes to Trump. If lawmakers failed to do that, Bannon asked, would it be the end of the Republican Party? Not if Trump supporters took over the party by seizing precinct posts, Schultz answered, beginning to explain his plan. Bannon cut him off, offering to return to the idea another time.

That time came in February. Schultz returned to Bannons podcast, immediately preceding Mike Lindell, the MyPillow CEO who spouts baseless conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

We can take over the party if we invade it, Schultz said. I cant guarantee you that well save the republic, but I can guarantee you this: Well lose it if we conservatives dont take over the Republican Party.

Bannon endorsed Schultzs plan, telling all the unwashed masses in the MAGA movement, the deplorables to take up this cause. Bannon said he had more than 400,000 listeners, a count that could not be independently verified.

Bannon brought Schultz back on the show at least eight more times, alongside guests such as embattled Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, a leading defender of people jailed on Capitol riot charges.

The exposure launched Schultz into a full-blown far-right media tour. In February, Schultz spoke on a podcast with Tracy Beanz Diaz, a leading popularizer of QAnon. In an episode titled THIS Is How We Win, Diaz said of Schultz, I was waiting, I was wishing and hoping for the universe to deliver someone like him.

Schultz himself calls QAnon a joke. Nevertheless, he promoted his precinct strategy on at least three more QAnon programs in recent months, according to Media Matters, a Democratic-aligned group tracking right-wing content. I want to see many of you going and doing this, host Zak Paine said on one of the shows in May.

Schultzs strategy also got a boost from another prominent QAnon promoter: former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who urged Trump to impose martial law and rerun the election. On a May online talk show, Flynn told listeners to fill thousands of positions that are vacant at the local level.

Precinct recruitment is now the forefront of our mission for Turning Point Action, according to the right-wing organizations website. The groups parent organization bussed Trump supporters to Washington for Jan. 6, including at least one person who was later charged with assaulting police. He pleaded not guilty. In July, Turning Point brought Trump to speak in Phoenix, where he called the 2020 election the greatest crime in history. Outside, red-capped volunteers signed people up to become precinct chairs.

Organizers from around the country started huddling with Schultz for weekly Zoom meetings. The meetings host, far-right blogger Jim Condit Jr. of Cincinnati, kicked off a July call by describing the precinct strategy as the last alternative to violence. Its the only idea, Condit said, unless you want to pick up guns like the Founding Fathers did in 1776 and start to try to take back our country by the Second Amendment, which none of us want to do.

By the next week, though, Schultz suggested the new precinct officials might not stay peaceful. Schultz belonged to a mailing list for a group of military, law enforcement and intelligence veterans called the 1st Amendment Praetorian that organizes security for Flynn and other pro-Trump figures. Back in the 1990s, Schultz wrote an article defending armed anti-government militias like those involved in that decades deadly clashes with federal agents in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and Waco, Texas.

Make sure everybodys got a baseball bat, Schultz said on the July strategy conference call, which was posted on YouTube. Im serious about this. Make sure youve got people who are armed.

The sudden demand for low-profile precinct positions baffled some party leaders. In Fort Worth, county chair Rick Barnes said numerous callers asked about becoming a precinct committeeman, quoting the term used on Bannons podcast. That suggested that out-of-state encouragement played a role in prompting the calls, since Texass term for the position is precinct chair. Tarrant County has added 61 precinct chairs this year, about a 24% increase since February. Those podcasts actually paid off, Barnes said.

For weeks, about five people a day called to become precinct chairs in Outagamie County, Wisconsin, southwest of Green Bay. Albert, the county party chair, said he would explain that Wisconsin has no precinct chairs, but newcomers could join the county party and then become poll workers. Were trying to make sure that our voice is now being reinserted into the process, Albert said.

Similarly, the GOP in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, is fielding a surge of volunteers for precinct committee members, but also for election judges or inspectors, which are party-affiliated elected positions in that state. Who knows what happened on Election Day for real, county chair Lou Capozzi said in an interview. The county GOP sent two busloads of people to Washington for Jan. 6 and Capozzi said they stayed peaceful. People want to make sure elections remain honest.

Elsewhere, activists inspired by the precinct strategy have targeted local election boards. In DeKalb County, east of Atlanta, the GOP censured a long-serving Republican board member who rejected claims of widespread fraud in 2020. To replace him, new party chair Marci McCarthy tapped a far-right activist known for false, offensive statements. The party nominees to the election board have to be approved by a judge, and the judge in this case rejected McCarthys pick, citing an extraordinary public outcry. McCarthy defended her choice but ultimately settled for someone less controversial.

In Raleigh, North Carolina, more than 1,000 people attended the county GOP convention in March, up from the typical 300 to 400. The chair they elected, Alan Swain, swiftly formed an election integrity committee thats lobbying lawmakers to restrict voting and audit the 2020 results. Were all about voter and election integrity, Swain said in an interview.

In the rural western part of the state, too, a wave of people who heard Bannons podcast or were furious about perceived election fraud swept into county parties, according to the new district chair, Michele Woodhouse. The districts member of Congress, Rep. Madison Cawthorn, addressed a crowd at one county headquarters on Aug. 29, at an event that included a raffle for a shotgun.

If our election systems continue to be rigged and continue to be stolen, its going to lead to one place, and its bloodshed, Cawthorn said, in remarks livestreamed on Facebook, shortly after holding the prize shotgun, which he autographed. Thats right, the audience cheered. Cawthorn went on, As much as Im willing to defend our liberty at all costs, theres nothing that I would dread doing more than having to pick up arms against a fellow American, and the way we can have recourse against that is if we all passionately demand that we have election security in all 50 states.

After Cawthorn referred to people arrested on Jan. 6 charges as political hostages, someone asked, When are you going to call us to Washington again? The crowd laughed and clapped as Cawthorn answered, We are actively working on that one.

Schultz has offered his own state of Arizona as a proof of concept for how precinct officers can reshape the party. The result, Schultz has said, is actions like the state Senate Republicans forensic audit of Maricopa Countys 2020 ballots. The audit, conducted by a private firm with no experience in elections and whose CEO has spread conspiracy theories, has included efforts to identify fraudulent ballots from Asia by searching for traces of bamboo. Schultz has urged activists demanding similar audits in other states to start by becoming precinct officers.

The Number of Republican Precinct Committee Members in Maricopa County Surged After Steve Bannons Call to Action

Because weve got the audit, theres very heightened and intense public interest in the last campaign, and of course making sure election laws are tightened, said Sandra Dowling, a district chair in northwest Maricopa and northern Yuma County whose precinct roster grew by 63% in less than six months. Though Dowling says some other district chairs screen their applicants, she doesnt. I dont care, she said.

One chair who does screen applicants is Kathy Petsas, a lifelong Republican whose district spans Phoenix and Paradise Valley. She also saw applications explode earlier this year. Many told her that Schultz had recruited them, and some said they believed in QAnon. Being motivated by conspiracy theories is no way to go through life, and no way for us to build a high-functioning party, Petsas said. That attitude cant prevail.

As waves of new precinct officers flooded into the county party, Petsas was dismayed to see some petitioning to recall their own Republican county supervisors for refusing to cooperate with the Senate GOPs audit.

It is not helpful to our democracy when you have people who stand up and do the right thing and are honest communicators about whats going on, and they get lambasted by our own party, Petsas said. Thats a problem.

This spring, a team of disaffected Republican operatives put Schultzs precinct strategy into action in South Carolina, a state that plays an outsize role in choosing presidents because of its early primaries. The operatives goal was to secure enough delegates to the partys state convention to elect a new chair: far-right celebrity lawyer Lin Wood.

Wood was involved with some of the lawsuits to overturn the presidential election that courts repeatedly ruled meritless, or even sanctionable. After the election, Wood said on Bannons podcast, I think the audience has to do what the people that were our Founding Fathers did in 1776. On Twitter, Wood called for executing Vice President Mike Pence by firing squad. Wood later said it was rhetorical hyperbole, but that and other incendiary language got him banned from mainstream social media. He switched to Telegram, an encrypted messaging app favored by deplatformed right-wing influencers, amassing roughly 830,000 followers while repeatedly promoting the QAnon conspiracy theory.

Asked for comment about his political efforts, Wood responded, Most of your facts are either false or misrepresent the truth. He declined to cite specifics.

Typically, precinct meetings were a yawner, according to Mike Connett, a longtime party member in Horry County, best known for its popular beach towns. But in April, Connett and other establishment Republicans were caught off guard when 369 people, many of them newcomers, showed up for the county convention in North Myrtle Beach. Connett lost a race for a leadership role to Diaz, the prominent QAnon supporter, and Woods faction captured the countys other executive positions plus 35 of 48 delegate slots, enabling them to cast most of the countys votes for Wood at the state convention. It seemed like a pretty clean takeover, Connett told ProPublica.

In Greenville, the states most populous county, Wood campaign organizers Jeff Davis and Pressley Stutts mobilized a surge of supporters at the county convention about 1,400 delegates, up from roughly 550 in 2019 and swept almost all of the 79 delegate positions. That gave Woods faction the vast majority of the votes in two of South Carolinas biggest delegations.

Across the state, the precinct strategy was contributing to an unprecedented surge in local party participation, according to data provided by a state GOP spokeswoman. In 2019, 4,296 people participated. This year, 8,524 did.

Its a prairie fire down there in Greenville, South Carolina, brought on by the MAGA posse, Bannon said on his podcast.

Establishment party leaders realized they had to take Woods challenge seriously. The incumbent chair, Drew McKissick, had Trumps endorsement three times over including twice after Wood entered the race. But Wood fought back by repeatedly implying that McKissick and other prominent state Republicans were corrupt and involved in various conspiracies that seemed related to QAnon. The race became heated enough that after one event, Wood and McKissick exchanged angry words face-to-face.

Woods rallies were raucous affairs packed with hundreds of people, energized by right-wing celebrities like Flynn and Lindell. In interviews, many attendees described the events as their first foray into politics, sometimes referencing Schultz and always citing Trumps stolen election myth. Some said theyd resort to violence if they felt an election was stolen again.

Woods campaign wobbled in counties that the precinct strategy had not yet reached. At the state convention in May, Wood won about 30% of the delegates, commanding Horry, Greenville and some surrounding counties, but faltering elsewhere. A triumphant McKissick called Woods supporters a fringe, rogue group and vowed to turn them into a leper colony by building parallel Republican organizations in their territory.

But Wood and his partisans did not act defeated. The chairmanship election, they argued, was as rigged as the 2020 presidential race. Wood threw a lavish party at his roughly 2,000-acre low-country estate, secured by armed guards and surveillance cameras. From a stage fit for a rock concert on the lawn of one of his three mansions, Wood promised the fight would continue.

Diaz and her allies in Horry County voted to censure McKissick. The countys longtime Republicans tried, but failed, to oust Diaz and her cohort after one of the people involved in drafting Wood tackled a protester at a Flynn speech in Greenville. (This incident, the details of which are disputed, prompted Schultz to encourage precinct strategy activists to arm themselves.) Wood continued promoting the precinct strategy to his Telegram followers, and scores replied that they were signing up.

In late July, Stutts and Davis forced out Greenville County GOPs few remaining establishment leaders, claiming that they had cheated in the first election. Then Stutts, Davis and an ally won a new election to fill those vacant seats. They sound like Democrats, right? Bannon asked Stutts in a podcast interview. Stutts replied, They taught the Democrats how to cheat, Steve.

Stutts group quickly pushed for an investigation of the 2020 presidential election, planning a rally featuring Davis and Wood at the end of August, and began campaigning against vaccine and school mask mandates. I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery, Stutts had previously posted on Facebook, quoting Thomas Jefferson. Stutts continued posting messages skeptical of vaccine and mask mandates even after he entered the hospital with a severe case of COVID-19. He died on Aug. 19.

The hubbub got so loud inside the Cobb County, Georgia, Republican headquarters that it took several shouts and whistles to get everyones attention. It was a full house for Salleigh Grubbs first meeting as the countys party chair. Grubbs ran on a vow to clean house in the election system, highlighting her December testimony to state lawmakers in which she raised unsubstantiated fraud allegations. Supporters praised Grubbs courage for following a truck she suspected of being used in a plot to shred evidence. She attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally as a VIP. She won the chairmanship decisively at an April county convention packed with an estimated 50% first-time participants.

In May, Grubbs opened her first meeting by asking everyone munching on bacon and eggs to listen to her recite the Gettysburg Address. Think of the battle for freedom that Americans have before them today, Grubbs said. Those people fought and died so that you could be the precinct chair. After the reading, first-time precinct officers stood for applause and cheers.

Their work would start right away: putting up signs, making calls and knocking on doors for a special election for the state House. The district had long leaned Republican, but after the GOPs devastating losses up and down the ballot in 2020, they didnt know what to expect.

Theres so many people out there that are scared, they feel like their vote doesnt count, Cooper Guyon, a 17-year-old right-wing podcaster from the Atlanta area who speaks to county parties around the state, told the Cobb Republicans in July. The activists, he said, need to get out in these communities and tell them that we are fighting to make your vote count by passing the Senate bill, the election-reform bills that are saving our elections in Georgia.

Of the fields two Republicans, Devan Seabaugh took the strongest stance in favor of Georgias new law restricting ways to vote and giving the Republican-controlled Legislature more power over running elections. The only people who may be inconvenienced by Senate Bill 202 are those intent on committing fraud, he wrote in response to a local newspapers candidate questionnaire.

Seabaugh led the June special election and won a July runoff. Grubbs cheered the win as a turning point. We are awake. We are preparing, she wrote on Facebook. The conservative citizens of Cobb County are ready to defend our ballots and our county.

Newcomers did not meet such quick success everywhere. In Savannah, a faction crashed the Chatham County convention with their own microphone, inspired by Bannons podcast to try to depose the incumbent party leaders who they accused of betraying Trump. Party officers blocked the newcomers candidacies, saying they werent officially nominated. Shouting erupted, and the meeting adjourned without a vote. Then the party canceled its districtwide convention.

The state party ultimately sided with the incumbent leaders. District chair Carl Smith said the uprising is bound to fail because the insurgents are mistaken in believing that he and other local leaders didnt fight hard enough for Trump.

You cant build a movement on a lie, Smith said.

In Michigan, activists who identify with a larger movement working against Republicans willing to accept Trumps loss have captured the party leadership in about a dozen counties. Theyre directly challenging state party leaders, who are trying to harness the grassroots energy without indulging demands to keep fighting over the last election.

Some of the takeovers happened before the rise of the precinct strategy. But the activists are now organizing under the banner Precinct First and holding regular events, complete with notaries, to sign people up to run for precinct delegate positions.

We are reclaiming our party, Debra Ell, one of the organizers, told ProPublica. Were building an America First army.

Under normal rules, the wave of new precinct delegates could force the party to nominate far-right candidates for key state offices. Thats because in Michigan, party nominees for attorney general, secretary of state and lieutenant governor are chosen directly by party delegates rather than in public primaries. But the state party recently voted to hold a special convention earlier next year, which should effectively lock in candidates before the new, more radical delegates are seated.

Activist-led county parties including rural Hillsdale and Detroit-area Macomb are also censuring Republican state legislators for issuing a June report on the 2020 election that found no evidence of systemic fraud and no need for a reexamination of the results like the one in Arizona. (The censures have no enforceable impact beyond being a public rebuke of the politicians.) At the same time, county party leaders in Hillsdale and elsewhere are working on a ballot initiative to force an Arizona-style election review.

Establishment Republicans have their own idea for a ballot initiative one that could tighten rules for voter ID and provisional ballots while sidestepping the Democratic governors veto. If the initiative collects hundreds of thousands of valid signatures, it would be put to a vote by the Republican-controlled state Legislature. Under a provision of the state constitution, the state Legislature can adopt the measure and it cant be vetoed.

State party leaders recently reached out to the activists rallying around the rejection of the presidential election results, including Hillsdale Republican Party Secretary Jon Smith, for help. Smith, Ell and others agreed to join the effort, the two activists said.

This empowers them, Jason Roe, the state party executive director whose ouster the activists demanded because he said Trump was responsible for his own loss, told ProPublica. Roe resigned in July, citing unrelated reasons. Its important to get them focused on change that can actually impact future elections, he said, instead of keeping their feet mired in the conspiracy theories of 2020.

Jesse Law, who ran the Trump campaigns Election Day operations in Nevada, sued the Democratic electors, seeking to declare Trump the winner or annul the results. The judge threw out the case, saying Laws evidence did not meet any standard of proof, and the Nevada Supreme Court agreed. When the Electoral College met in December, Law stood outside the state capitol to publicly cast mock votes for Trump.

This year, Law set his sights on taking over the Republican Party in the states largest county, Clark, which encompasses Las Vegas. He campaigned on the precinct strategy, promising 1,000 new recruits. His path to winning the county chairmanship just like Stutts team in South Carolina, and Grubbs in Cobb County, Georgia relied on turning out droves of newcomers to flood the county party and vote for him.

In Laws case, many of those newcomers came through the Proud Boys, the all-male gang affiliated with more than two dozen people charged in the Capitol riot. The Las Vegas chapter boasted about signing up 500 new party members (not all of them belonging to the Proud Boys) to ensure their takeover of the county party. After briefly advancing their own slate of candidates to lead the Clark GOP, the Proud Boys threw their support to Law. They also helped lead a state party censure of Nevadas Republican secretary of state, who rejected the Trump campaigns baseless claims of fraudulent ballots.

Law, who did not respond to repeated requests for comment, has declined to distance himself from the Las Vegas Proud Boys, citing Trumps stand back and stand by remark at the September 2020 presidential debate. When the president was asked if he would disavow, he said no, Law told an independent Nevada journalist in July. If the president is OK with that, Im going to take the presidential stance.

The outgoing county chair, David Sajdak, canceled the first planned vote for his successor. He said he was worried the Proud Boys would resort to violence if their newly recruited members, who Sajdak considered illegitimate, werent allowed to vote.

Sajdak tried again to hold a leadership vote in July, with a meeting in a Las Vegas high school theater, secured by police. But the crowd inside descended into shouting, while more people tried to storm past the cops guarding the back entrance, leading to scuffles. Let us in! Let us in! some chanted. Riling them up was at least one Proud Boy, according to multiple videos of the meeting.

At the microphone, Sajdak was running out of patience. Im done covering for you awful people, he bellowed. Unable to restore order, Sajdak ended the meeting without a vote and resigned a few hours later. Hed had enough.

They want to create mayhem, Sajdak said.

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Soon after, Laws faction held their own meeting at a hotel-casino and overwhelmingly voted for Law as county chairman. Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald, a longtime ally of Law who helped lead Trumps futile effort to overturn the Nevada results, recognized Law as the new county chair and promoted a fundraiser to celebrate. The existing county leaders sued, seeking a court order to block Laws fraudulent, rogue election. The judge preliminarily sided with the moderates, but told them to hold off on their own election until a court hearing in September.

To Sajdak, agonizing over 2020 is pointless because theres no mechanism for overturning an election. Asked if Laws allies are determined to create one, Sajdak said: Its a scary thought, isnt it.

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Heeding Steve Bannons Call, Election Deniers Organize to Seize Control of the GOP and Reshape Americas Elections - ProPublica

we fear that it is only a matter of time before violence in Oregon escalates with deadly consequences unless we take the threat of domestic violent extremism seriously.

August 31, 2021 - Washington, D.C. Oregons U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, alongside Representatives Earl Blumenauer (D-OR-3) and Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR-1), are pushing the U.S. Department of Justice to prioritize investigating the networks that exist across state lines to support, operationalize, and recruit people into extremist and hateful ideological groups.

(Left) Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon)

The lawmakers letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland follows the Proud Boys most recent incursion into Portland, which left a wake of violence and chaos and resulted in a man opening fire at counter-protesters.

The principle of freedom of speech does not preclude the Proud Boys and other right-wing extremist groups from espousing hateful, repugnant ideologies. However, the Constitution does not provide protection for the criminal behavior that we have seen in Portland such as assault, firearms violations, potential hate crimes, and moresome of which may rise to the level of federal offenses,the lawmakers wrote. We respectfully request that the Department of Justice open an investigation into interstate criminal activity and coordination between extremist groups across state lines with the intent to commit acts of violence in connection with recurring violent altercations in Portland.

Investigating domestic violent extremist groups that target otherwise peaceful demonstrations to incite violence must be a high priority, for the country has already seen the deadly results when extremists feel emboldened to acts of violence, vigilantism, and terror. We have seen these acts of hate and violence in mass shootings, in the shooting of demonstrators, in the plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, at the January 6thInsurrection, and more,they continued.We are grateful that Sundays clash in Portland did not claim any lives, but like many others, we fear that it is only a matter of time before violence in Oregon escalates with deadly consequences unless we take the threat of domestic violent extremism seriously.

To that end, the lawmakers requested answers to the following questions:

Merkleys full statement in response to the Proud Boys most recent violent provocations in Portland is available//medium.com/@SenJeffMerkley/white-nationalism-in-portland-8b214e3ff0e5" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 133, 184); text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">here.

Full text of the letter is availablehereand follows below.

###

Dear Attorney General Garland:

On Sunday, August 22, 2021, local and out-of-state far-right extremists, including the Proud Boys, descended on Portland, Oregon, leaving a wake of violence and chaos. During Sundays events, a man opened fire at counter-protesters in downtown Portland. Photographs and videos have surfaced of violent interactions between the Proud Boys and counter-protesters, in what has become an all-too-common scene for Portland.

The Proud Boys are a known right-wing violent, nationalistic, extremist group with views that aremisogynistic, Islamophobic, transphobic, and anti-immigrant. In addition, some members espouse white supremacist and antisemitic ideologies and engage with white supremacist groups. It has become increasingly clear that the tactics of this group, and others like it, involve some members traveling across state lines with the intention of eliciting violent altercations with counter-protesters, sometimes with seemingly lethal intent. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has designated the Proud Boys a hate group, the Proud Boys stage frequent rallies around the country. Many have descended into violent street riots where members openly brawl with counter-protestersthrough 2019 and 2020, the Proud Boys were one of a handful of far-right groups instrumental in instigating violence and civil unrest in the Pacific Northwest.[1]

The principle of freedom of speech does not preclude the Proud Boys and other right-wing extremist groups from espousing hateful, repugnant ideologies. However, the Constitution does not provide protection for the criminal behavior that we have seen in Portland such as assault, firearms violations, potential hate crimes, and more some of which may rise to the level of federal offenses. We respectfully request that the Department of Justice open an investigation into interstate criminal activity and coordination between extremist groups across state lines with the intent to commit acts of violence in connection with recurring violent altercations in Portland.

Investigating domestic violent extremist groups that target otherwise peaceful demonstrations to incite violence must be a high priority, for the country has already seen the deadly results when extremists feel emboldened to acts of violence, vigilantism, and terror. We have seen these acts of hate and violence in mass shootings, in the shooting of demonstrators, in the plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, at the January 6thInsurrection, and more. We know the significance and deadly impact of domestic violent extremism is not lost on you, and we applaud the work the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) has done to increase their investigative focus on domestic terrorism.

We are grateful that this most recent clash in Portland did not claim any lives, but like many others, we fear that it is only a matter of time before violence in Oregon escalates with deadly consequences unless we take the threat of domestic violent extremism seriously. We urge the Department to prioritize investigating the networks that exist across state lines to support and operationalize the violent intent of groups such as the Proud Boys and to radicalize and recruit people into their extremist and hateful ideologies. We are committed to providing the resources that the Department of Justice needs to combat domestic violent extremism, and we look forward to working with you on this matter.

To that end, please provide responses to the following questions by September 10th, 2021:

Sincerely,

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US Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden Push Department of Justice to Investigate Hate Group Networks - Follows the Proud Boys' Most Recent Incursion...

A gunfight in Portland, Oregon, last weekend is intensifying concerns over escalating violence during contentious rallies in the city, as far-right demonstrators and anti-fascist counter-protesters have repeatedly faced off. On Sunday afternoon, about 200 Proud Boys and members of other far-right groups clashed with a smaller group of anti-fascists near an abandoned Kmart in the citys outer northeast. The confrontation became a running street battle, with participants fist-fighting and attacking each other with pepper spray. At one point on Sunday, a firework thrown by an anti-fascist exploded in the forecourt of a gas station, raising alarm on all sides of the confrontation.

The Portland Police Bureau (PPB) charged a 65-year-old man from Gresham, Oregon, over a gunfight in the citys downtown during violent clashes on Sunday. Authorities say Dennis Anderson drew a concealed handgun and shot at a group of anti-fascists who were trying to expel him from the area. At least one of the anti-fascists shot back, according to authorities, with seven shots exchanged between the two sides.

Proud Boys and members of other far-right groups openly displayed handguns during the protest, and the shootout fueled the growing concern about the presence of firearms at rallies taking place across the US. But other violent incidents in Portland on Sunday showed how participants have also increasingly adopted less lethal, but still dangerous, technologies as weapons for political street fighting. The PPB Chief, Chuck Lovell, announced in repeated statements in advance of the unpermitted rally that protesters should not expect to see police officers standing in the middle of the crowd trying to keep people apart. The tactic gave rally-goers and counter-protesters free rein, while employees of businesses located near the fracastold local mediathat they felt abandoned by law enforcement.

Some Proud Boys, on the other hand, were carrying airsoft guns, replica firearms that fire pellets with compressed air and are usually used in recreational combat games or combat training. The use of airsoft and paintball guns, just like any weapon, can be prosecuted when they are used to threaten others. Earlier this month, a Portland resident was arrested for pointing an airsoft weapon at a journalist, under astatutethat penalizes the misuse of dangerous or deadly weapons. But they are not subject to any specific federal or state laws, and nor are they covered by firearms laws.

Those weapons, along with paintball guns, first made an appearance during clashes in August 2020, when a group of far-right brawlers used them to shoot gas-propelled pellets at a far larger group of leftwing protesters. Participants had planned for weeks to employ the devices in a way that maximized their destructive impact. Since then, the weapons have been used at every Portland protest where far-right groups have shown up, including last August, when passengers in vehicles participating in a pro-Donald Trump truck convoy shot pedestrians with the devices. Hours after those vehicle attacks, Jay Danielson, a supporter of Patriot Prayer, a far-right street protest group that made high-profile incursions into Portland throughout the Trump era, wasshot deadby a self-identified anti-fascist, Michael Reinoehl. Reinoehl himself was later shot dead by police in Lacey, Washington.

Between January 2020 and July 2021, Portland saw 128 demonstrations that were violent and/or destructive, amounting to 31% of the total number of demonstrations in the city in that period. This was more than 10 times higher than the national average of 3% of demonstrations becoming violent or destructive.

In the same time period, Portland saw 21 armed demonstrations about 4% of all armed demonstrations across the country in that time. Fourteen of those or 67% turned violent or destructive in that period, whereas only 16% of armed demonstrations did in the country as a whole.

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Street Violence From Portland Proud Boys Fuels More Concerns Over Use of Weapons at Rallies - HillReporter.com

Freelance photojournalist Maranie Staab has been covering Portlands political conflicts since July 2020. So when a street brawl broke out between political adversaries on Aug. 22, it was like muscle memory: Staab began documenting.

She was among about two dozen journalists and livestreamers covering a fight that began when anti-fascist protesters arrived at a Proud Boys rally in an empty Kmart parking lot.

Some participants didnt want to be on camera.

As the skirmish spread to the sidewalk and Northeast 122nd Avenue, video shows at least three people in the leftist crowd assaulted Staab. An anti-fascist protester dressed in identity-concealing black bloc clothing threw Staabs cellphone to the ground and smashed it with their foot. Someone then yanked her to the pavement by her camera strap and sprayed her with either bear mace or pepper spray as she stood up.

Staabs camera and phone were damaged as a result.

The attack on Staab is only the latest incident of anonymous, purportedly anti-fascist crowds in Portland attacking observers trying to document their actions. In May, for example, a participant in a daytime police brutality protest tackled WW contributor Justin Yau, clawed at his face, and broke his glasses. Extreme right-wing groups like the Proud Boys and their allies have also attacked Portland reporters.

Journalists are often reluctant to report intimidation because they dont want to insert themselves into a story or overshadow the harm that befalls the subjects they cover. However, the assault on Staab gained national attention after a colleague of hers posted video of the incident on Twitter.

Staab, 34, has had her work appear in national publications like The Atlantic, The Washington Post and Vice. She spoke to WW about the incident and what it says about the safety of press covering Portlands conflicts. The conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.

WW: Can you describe what happened on Aug. 22 after you were maced?

Maranie Staab: My colleagues were there and they got me out of there. They tended to me and Im very grateful for that.

Theres a lot of things messed up about what happened, but there were no less than 25 other photographers there. There were people livestreaming. I was literally singled out.

Do you have a theory for why you were singled out?

A lot of press get flak from black bloc about filming and photographing. To me, I dont care who you are: If were on a public street and a newsworthy event is occurring, youre not going to tell me what I can and cannot film.

I am one of a handful of photographers and journalists that have been out on the street more nights than not over the last year. So Im not the only one, but Im known. It is not the first time that people have taken issue with me being out there.

I should say that Ive had quite a few people from that community reach out and say, That wasnt acceptable, we dont condone that. In the same breath, there are plenty of people online defending the actions of that person, and some suggesting that I should have received worse.

Were you injured?

Im pretty durable. Physically, Im OK. I was a little banged up but, like I said, Im pretty tough.

I got hit with a paint balloon in the head. I still do have purple paint on my back that I cant get off. It was like a triple whammy: It was the ground, it was the mace, the paint balloon. They ruined my favorite hat! [laughs] Everybody knows me because of that hat.

The anonymity aspect of it is cowardly. If you want to do this, (a) dont attack me from behind, (b) dont do it anonymously and then run off.

Do you think gender played a role in your assault?

I dont know for certain. I do my best not to play that card. But I was called a slut, and a cota, which I was later told is a dog. So Ill leave it to somebody else to interpret that, because thats some pretty misogynistic language.

Are you glad the incident was filmed and posted online?

The short answer is yes, Im very happy it was recorded, because thats our job.

Im somebody that, for the last year, has been pretty vocal about threats against the press. I was assaulted by federal agents. I was assaulted by the Portland police numerous times while I was a member of the pressclearly marked. I have been threatened and assaulted by people on the right, and now this happened.

In an effort to be fair across the board, it needs to be discussed. We have a right to be out there. I believe in the importance of documenting what is happening. If we start allowing anyone to control what can and cannot be recorded in a public space, where does that leave us?

The next day, Mayor Ted Wheeler stated that the people who chose to engage in violence are the only ones who were harmed. What are your thoughts on that?

At best, thats disappointing. What happened was not just in the parking lot; it was out in the street. And I know people in the gas stations there were alarmed and fearful. And a member of the pressmyselfwas assaulted, and it would be shocking if he didnt know about it.

Is there an argument to make to appeal to those who dont want the press to film their actions at protests?

I want people to know that Im not interested in involving the police, and I am open to dialogue.

What I would say is, those same individuals are the same ones that want us to document the police and the right, but they want to dictate when and where and if or how they can be documented, and thats just not how it works.

Put it this way: The person that assaulted me and the people that support ittheyre not particularly interested in the protections of the First Amendment, so I dont think going that route would help.

But freedom of assembly and freedom of the press are both protected by the First Amendment.

The hypocrisy is palpable. I also dont think assaulting people is anti-fascist behavior. And trying to control and dictate what can be done is not anti-fascist. If you are someone who is truly invested in anti-fascism, and your priority is going after me, I question your commitment to anti-fascism.

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A Portland Photojournalist Describes Being Attacked by an Anonymous Leftist Protester in the Street - Willamette Week

Recently, an exclusive Reuters report claimed the FBI has little evidence of a single overarching plot to overturn the election on January 6. The headline: "FBI finds scant evidence US Capitol attack was coordinated sources." The story kicked off a self-serving game of telephone by right-wingers spinning an already threadbare dispatch into ever-more exculpatory narratives. Steve Bannon pronounced it a "massive win" while Republican Senate hopeful JD Vance tweeted, "Another narrative collapses." These strained readings of the report culminated in the bizarre Washington Examiner headline: "FBI confirms there was no insurrection."

In fact, the government has already uncovered far-reaching conspiracies to attack the Capitol and stop the certification of the election. It alleges that three major paramilitary groups the Oath Keepers, The Proud Boys, and the Three Percenters conspired within their own ranks to commit violence to keep Donald Trump in power. In addition to plotting within their own ranks, these groups reportedly coordinated with each other. The point that Reuters' anonymous sources were making was that there is as-yet little evidence these paramilitary operations were part of a single overarching plot orchestrated by a "civilian" leader, like Trump confidante and self-proclaimed dirty trickster Roger Stone. Maybe the paramilitaries acted on their own. This is a truly terrifying possibility given it would indicate the civilian wing of the Republican Party has finally lost control of the party's paramilitary wing.

Members and associates of the Oath Keepers militia have already pleaded guilty to conspiring to disrupt the certification of the election, and many others are working their way through the courts on similar charges. The government alleges extensive coordination among the Oath Keepers in the run-up to January 6 and ongoing communication with their leader while they stormed the Capitol. Multiple Proud Boys have also been charged with conspiracy and other serious offenses stemming from the assault on the Capitol. The government alleges, and independent media reports confirm, that teams of Oath Keepers and Proud Boys were in the vanguard of the assault on the Capitol.

Moreover, all three paramilitary groups were an integral part of the Trumpist "Stop the Steal" movement that staged a series of violent protests to intimidate election officials in swing states, cement the myth of voter fraud, legitimize the Trump team's frivolous legal challenges and radicalize supporters. "Stop the Steal" had an established M.O. by January 6: besiege public officials and attempt to bully them into certifying the contest for Trump based on wild allegations of voter fraud and the ever-present threat of violence.

There's no question that the civilian architects of "Stop the Steal" wanted to intimidate the lawmakers certifying the election. Organizer Ali Alexander explained his plan was to put "maximum pressure" on the lawmakers in a bid to coerce the GOP representatives they had not been able to lobby to join their cause. "If they [certify the election], everyone can guess what me and 500,000 others will do to that building," Alexander tweeted on Dec. 30. "1776 is *always* an option""

"I want to hear a huge shout-out for Enrique and the Proud Boys right now," "Stop the Steal" organizer Cindy Chafian commanded the crowd gathered in Washington on January 5 on the eve of the certification of the election. Chafian went on to thank the Oath Keepers, the Three Percenters and other paramilitary groups as unsung heroes. "I'm tired of the left telling us we can't talk about them," Chafian said.

Chafian was referring to Enrique Tarrio, the supreme leader of the Proud Boys, who had been scheduled to speak at the gathering, but found himself unable to attend because he'd been arrested two days earlier for burning a Black Lives Matter flag at a previous "Stop the Steal" rally in Washington. Chafian's fellow speaker, Cordie Williams thundered that, "Enrique is in jail right now for burning a flag that bastardizes everything we stand for, it makes me sick."

The "Stop the Steal" slogan was coined by Stone in 2016 and revived by his proteg Ali Alexander to transmute lies about election fraud into incandescent rage that it hoped to harness to keep Donald Trump in power. "'Stop the Steal' is a highly coordinated partisan political operation intent on bringing together conspiracy theorists, militias, hate groups and Trump supporters to attack the integrity of our election," Ben Decker, the CEO and founder of Memetica, a digital investigations consultancy, told CNN in November of 2020.

As the votes were being counted, Alexander organized a series of armed, violent protests in swing states geared at intimidating state election officials. The Oath Keepers provided security for "Stop the Steal" organizers, including Stone. The Proud Boys turned out in force to brutalize counter-protesters and even organized their own protest at the home of United States Senator Marco Rubio to pressure him not to certify. Stone addressed the crowd by speaker phone.

Tarrio and other high-ranking Proud Boys were so close to Stone they were allowed to post to his social media accounts. Stone was even kicked off instagram for his ties to the Proud Boys. Stone was so accustomed to surrounding himself with Proud Boys that The Daily Beast proclaimed the neo-fascist street brawlers "Roger Stone's Personal Army" in 2019.

Stone and Alexander's longstanding relationships with the paramilitaries are tantalizing circumstantial evidence, but hard proof that they or any "civilian" ordered shock troops to attack the Capitol remains elusive.

Stone and Alexander like to cast themselves as skilled operatives very much in control, even as they deny responsibility for the violence swirling around them. But if Reuters' sources are correct, they paint a very different picture: That Stone, Alexander and all their Republican allies and enablers are ineffectual dupes who have lost control of the toxic forces they sought to command.

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The civilian wing of the Republican Party has lost control of its paramilitary wing - Raw Story