Republican ties to extremist groups under scrutiny

[BumRushDaShow]

Last edited Fri Jan 29, 2021, 04:24 PM - Edit history (1)

Republican ties to extremist groups under scrutiny

Jan. 29, 2021 at 3:30 am



By Matthew Rosenberg and Luke Broadwater
The New York Times

WASHINGTON — The video’s title was posed as a question, but it left little doubt about where the men who filmed it stood. They called it “The Coming Civil War?” and in its opening seconds, Jim Arroyo, who leads an Arizona chapter of Oath Keepers, a right-wing militia, declared that the conflict had already begun.

To back up his claim, Arroyo cited Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, one of the most far-right members of Congress. Gosar had paid a visit to the local Oath Keepers chapter a few years earlier, Arroyo recounted, and when asked if the United States was headed for a civil war, the congressman’s “response to the group was just flat out: ‘We’re in it. We just haven’t started shooting at each other yet.’”

Less than two months after the video was posted, members of the Oath Keepers were among those with links to extremist groups from around the country who took part in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, prompting new scrutiny of the links between members of Congress and an array of organizations and movements that espouse far-right beliefs.

Nearly 150 House Republicans supported President Donald Trump’s baseless claims that the election had been stolen from him. But Gosar and a handful of other Republican members of the House had deeper ties to extremist groups who pushed violent ideas and conspiracy theories and whose members were prominent among those who stormed the halls of Congress in an effort to stop certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.

Read more: https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation-politics/republican-ties-to-extremist-groups-under-scrutiny/

(Original NYT link - https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/28/us/republican-ties-to-extremist-groups-under-scrutiny.html)

Updated NYT link - https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/29/us/republicans-trump-capitol-riot.html

[hedda_foil]

1. Thanks. BTW, NYT changed their link.

It's now at https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/29/us/republicans-trump-capitol-riot.html

[BumRushDaShow]

4. Thanks - just added it to the OP

When they popped up the Breaking News banner for that article, it took me about 10 minutes to even find the damn thing on their site (they usually stick a link on their twitter feed but didn't at the time and I had to dig through the site to find it).

[Hermit-The-Prog]

2. The Radical Republican Reich, formerly the Republican Party, -is- an extremist group.

[Turbineguy]

3. A nice, thorough

investigation by the FBI and a NSA check on their relations with Russian intelligence groups.

[BComplex]

5. And why in the hell any black, brown or native american people would even BEGIN to hang

with these racists is so far beyond me, I can't even begin to reach it.

[BumRushDaShow]

6. They get "attention" and are coddled

It becomes a "win-win"... The loons can claim "See? We're not racists!!1!!1!!!" and the POC can be the focus of attention because there are only a handful and as such, they stand out like a bonfire on the dark side of the moon.

Until... those attention-starved POC are no longer "needed" and are subsequently "discarded", like... Omarosa!

[MagickMuffin]

8. I had to look to see if perhaps someone was doing blackface

Since the KKKGOP likes dressing up in blackface.

It definitely wouldn't surprise me!

[LeftInTX]

9. Oh I live near plenty of Latino racists...

They really don't see themselves as "brown". They see themselves as "Texans"

[LeftInTX]

7. From the article:

But in signaling either overt or tacit support, a small but vocal band of Republicans now serving in the House provided legitimacy and publicity to extremist groups and movements as they built toward their role in supporting Trump’s efforts to subvert the outcome of the 2020 election and the attack on Congress.

Aitan D. Goelman, a former federal prosecutor who helped convict Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, said that when elected officials — or even candidates for office — took actions like appearing with militia groups or other right-wing groups, it “provides them with an added imprimatur of legitimacy.”

Also Gosar attended an Oath Keepers event.

They need to avoid attending this types of events and avoid photo ops with these types. You can't really ban them from town halls (public, govt sponsored events), but you can refuse to attend their fundraisers and you can refuse to be a speaker at their events etc. I believe they could probably put something in the House rules...

[BumRushDaShow]

10. But what happened with Gosar and Biggs was worse than "photo ops" or fundraisers per the article

In the days after the 2020 election, Paul Gosar and Biggs helped turn Arizona into a crucible for the Stop the Steal movement, finding common cause with hard-liners who until then had toiled in obscurity, like Ali Alexander. The two congressmen recorded a video, “This Election Is A Joke,” which was viewed more than 1 million times and spread disinformation about widespread voter fraud.

Recording a loon video that is "viewed more than 1 million times" on youtube, sortof puts you front and center, unable to claim - "Well I can't help who attends my fundraisers or my town halls".

[LeftInTX]

11. Agree!