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Election Threats Persist 4 Years Later 10/29 06:11
WASHINGTON (AP) -- After the 2020 presidential election, thousands of Donald
Trump's most fervent supporters heeded his call to join a "wild" protest of his
defeat. Following Trump's lies about a stolen election, hundreds of them
stormed the U.S. Capitol under the banners of the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and
other extremist groups and movements.
Many of those far-right networks have dissolved, splintered or receded from
public view since the Jan. 6, 2021, attack. But the specter of election-related
chaos hasn't vanished with them. Political violence remains a persistent threat
heading into the Nov. 5 election, experts warn.
Election officials have been inundated with threats, misinformation and the
prospect of " election denialist " organizations wreaking havoc. The FBI was
investigating on Monday after fires destroyed hundreds of ballots inside drop
boxes in Portland, Oregon, and in nearby Vancouver, Washington.
Trump has used social media to promote violent conspiracy theories that have
become mainstream features of Republican politics. Many, including Trump
himself, have tried to recast Capitol rioters as 1776-style patriots and
political prisoners. Trump also has vowed to use the military to go after
"enemies from within."
Four years ago, most of the Trump supporters in the mob had no criminal
record or any group affiliations beyond their shared allegiance to a president
who exhorted them to "fight like hell." That helps explain why it can be
difficult for authorities to identify and ward off threats.
"It only takes one person to cause a lot of damage," said American
University professor Kurt Braddock, who studies extremism.
Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism,
said the extremists she monitors don't seem to be fixated on this year's
election -- at least in their public chatter online. Many likely learned a
lesson from the Capitol riot defendants who flooded social media with
self-incriminating posts before, during and after the siege.
"We have no idea if there's something going on in encrypted chats," she
added.
During this election cycle, Trump and his allies have stirred up anti-LGBTQ
and anti-immigrant discourse in a way that galvanizes extremists, experts say.
After Jan. 6, the Proud Boys staged protests at drag queen story hours. More
recently, Springfield, Ohio, was overwhelmed with hoax bomb threats after Trump
and running mate JD Vance amplified bogus, xenophobic rumors about Haitian
immigrants in the city.
All manner of far-right conspiracy theories are spreading virtually
unchecked on mainstream platforms, including a firehose of lies about the
federal government's response to hurricane-ravaged North Carolina, a swing
state.
Trump and his allies often use his rallies as a platform for spewing racism
and xenophobia, including one Sunday at New York's Madison Square Garden that
drew comparisons to a pro-Nazi rally in 1939. Vice President Kamala Harris said
she believes Trump is a fascist after his former chief of staff, John Kelly,
said the former president praised Adolf Hitler while in office.
Trump was struck in the ear by gunfire during one of two assassination
attempts against him this year. He has accused Democrats of fostering a
volatile political climate by accusing him of being a threat to democracy.
Beirich said it could be difficult for authorities to curb election-related
threats "because it can happen all over the country." She and other experts
fear extremists will try to disrupt ballot counting, possibly in battleground
states.
"It feels a bit like a calm before the storm," she said.
Extremism experts are hardly alone in their fears: About 4 in 10 registered
voters say they are "extremely" or "very" concerned about violent attempts to
overturn the results of next month's election, according to a new poll
conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Of the more than 1,500 defendants charged in the Jan. 6 attack, more than
200 have been linked to extremist groups or movements by federal authorities,
according to an Associated Press review of court records.
That includes approximately 80 leaders, members or associates of the
far-right Proud Boys and over 30 defendants linked to the anti-government Oath
Keepers. Other groups, including the Groyper movement, have had smaller numbers
of followers charged in federal court.
Four years ago, Trump told the Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by"
during his first debate against Democrat Joe Biden. Group leaders celebrated
Trump's shout-out and eagerly joined the fray when Trump invited supporters to
Washington for his "Stop the Steal" rally.
Today, some of the top leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers are
serving prison terms of up to 22 years for violent plots to stop the peaceful
transfer of presidential power from Trump to Biden.
Imprisoning the groups' national leaders left a void. For the Proud Boys, it
was partially filled by local chapters that consider themselves autonomous and
tend to promote more extreme ideologies, said Jared Holt, a senior research
analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, which tracks online hate.
"Their organizational capabilities are greatly diminished from where they
were in 2020," Holt said. "There's always the possibility that, in a
post-election period, these groups will all of a sudden find the motivation to
mobilize and start showing up at events. But they've been pretty docile this
year."
The Oath Keepers, which the Yale Law School-educated Stewart Rhodes founded
in 2009, has withered since his arrest and incarceration.
"It was his baby, and no one has really stepped up to fill his void," Holt
said.
Dozens of Capitol rioters were followers of the anti-government Three
Percenters movement or belonged to militia groups with names like the Gray
Ghost Partisan Rangers, the Southern Indiana Patriots and the Patriot Boys of
North Texas. The government's response to Jan. 6 seems to have placed a "huge
damper" on militias, Beirich said.
"They don't disappear," she said. "They might pop up somewhere else, but I
have to say: Militias in the last year or so have been relatively inactive
compared to earlier eras."
Many other Jan. 6 rioters were inspired by QAnon, which centered on the
baseless belief that Trump was secretly fighting a Satan-worshipping, child sex
trafficking cabal of prominent Democrats and Hollywood elites. The
self-described "QAnon Shaman" remains one of the most recognizable figures from
the riot.
Mike Rothschild, author of "The Storm Is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a
Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything," said the QAnon movement
has evolved beyond its bizarre web of "riddles and codes."
Twitter, Facebook and YouTube cracked down on QAnon after Jan. 6, driving
believers to platforms like Telegram or Trump's Truth Social. Rothschild said
many of them flocked back to Twitter, now called X, after Elon Musk bought it.
He believes QAnon adherents remain "extremely dangerous."
"They've had four years to build up their anger and grievance," he said.
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