Terror Attack On The Capitol

In the days following the attack on the Capitol, the question of ‘how’ weighs the heaviest. To answer that, this episode goes back ten years to discover the origin of the attack. And, maybe more importantly, investigates if another Trump-supporter attack will happen again. What happened on January 6th could be the beginning of a dark period for American democracy, or be the end of one.  

Episode Transcript

How much privilege do you have to have to not only commit an act of terror, but also make matching sweatshirts for it?

On this episode, I'm going to get into how the hell the attack on the Capitol happened, and if something like this will happen again. To ruin the ending for you, yes. Yes, there is a possibility. If you'd like to know about that, I would suggest you stick around. This is the world we inherit and I'm your host, Anita Kirti. I know this is a super crazy week and I really appreciate you spending some of your time to listen to this episode. So thank you, and please subscribe.

So first things first, let's get into who were these people and to make our lives simpler, the Proud Boys group chairman came out and said that there were about 2,000 to 2,500 members of their group at the attack of the Capitol, and according to the New York Times, there were people from QAnon and the guy who I'm sure you've seen a picture of. He had a painted face and was wearing these horns. He is part of QAnon and another guy named Tim Geonet, he's a neo-Nazi conspiracy theorist. And according to Time, there were members of the Oath Keepers who are an anti-government armed militia group, who are also white supremacists. And there were the Three Percenters, who along with the Oath Keepers are a very well-known extremist group.

So basically it was a who's who of white supremacists, conspiracy theorists, and anti-government groups. And though they didn't make up the entirety of the people that were there, they had a significant part in planning for this march to happen as well as having a significant presence. So these groups are what are referred to as right-wing terrorist groups, and according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies are sub national or non-state entities that use or threaten violence, whose goals may include racial, ethnic, or religious supremacy, opposition to government authority, and the end of practices like abortion.

So if anyone's thinking that that is a far stretch for these people, just listen to the rest of this episode and let me know what you think at the end, whether or not we should call them a terrorist group. And I get the hesitancy because we have been conditioned to believe that terrorism is equivalent to Islamic extremism, but that is not true because according to a report published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies found that, "White supremacist groups were responsible for 41 to 61 terrorist plots and attacks in the first eight months of 2020 or 67%."

And the Department of Homeland security themselves in an annual assessment in 2020 had said that violent white supremacy was, "The most persistent and lethal threat in the homeland." And if you're still not convinced, according to the Washington Post, "Of 263 incidents of domestic terrorism between 2010 and the end of 2017, a third or 92 attacks were committed by right-wing attackers and Islamic terrorists committed 38 attacks." Which is about like 13%. So with that squared away, I think we can confidently say that what happened at the Capitol on January 6th is a terrorist attack.

Okay, I just wanted to make sure that we had established exactly what happened as opposed to referring to this as rioters or something, because that's not even what it was. So to answer our first question, which is did we know this was coming? We, meaning our intelligence communities, the police apparatus in Washington DC, because for me, even though this kind of rhetoric seemed inevitable to end up like this, when you dig a little deeper, it's not just a spontaneous group of people showing up and ransacking the Capitol, it's right-wing terrorists coming together like it's some kind of terrorist rave.

So to know the origins of right-wing terrorism, I'm going to start with today's modern militia group/white supremacists/anti-government people exponentially rose in numbers after the election of President Barack Obama in 2008, going from 149 groups in 2008 to 512 groups in 2009. The year following that in 2010, it was 824, in 2011, it became 1,274, and it finally peaked in 2012 at 1,360. And according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, these right-wing groups increased because of changing demographics, because of immigration, the economy, and to no one's surprise, the election of the first black president.

So all of those groups that I had listed off in the beginning, like the Oath Keepers, the Three Percenters, those people are the groups that started up during this time. So we fast forward a little bit and we end up in the infamous year of 2016, and what's curious is that during Republican presidents' terms, the activities amongst these right-wing groups is usually pretty calm. They aren't as active, but they have a surge in members when there are Democrat presidents.

So by that logic, following 2016 there should have been a drop-off in the number of members in groups, but that doesn't happen. The increase in the number of right-wing groups between the Obama and Trump administration is larger than the increase in the number of groups that there was between the Bush and Obama administration.

Again, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, these anti-government white supremacist groups were kind of in this weird position because they're usually anti-government so they're not supposed to like the president or federal government in general, but now the president of the United States is talking white nationalists speak so they make the unprecedented move of aligning with the president.

For example, according to an article by the Times from 2016, the former Klan Grand Wizard, David Duke said, "The fact that Donald Trump's doing so well proves that I'm winning." And yeah, okay, they align with him, but it's not just that. Our boy Trump reaches out and legitimizes them. If you remember the 2017 Unite the Right rally, the thing he said about there being good people on both sides, referring to neo-Nazis as good people, his support/protection of Kyle Rittenhouse, who killed two people, and other factors like xenophobia and playing up the threat of Antifa all emboldened these groups even further.

So starting from the election of Obama, the stage was being set for the attack on the Capitol, meaning that right-wing extremism was becoming a more substantial threat over time. So taking that situation, something that the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, our intelligence organizations, were all raising an alarm about, which by the way, was ignored by the Trump administration. With that situation developing, and then you add in their leader, Donald Trump, making claims about election fraud and having the country stolen from them is a recipe for disaster.

Extremism experts saw that coming from a mile away. According to NPR, "Domestic terrorism analysts are raising concern about the security implications of millions of conservatives buying into baseless right-wing claims." And I'm not sure that you need to be an expert in domestic terrorism or really anything to know that it was coming because shortly before the election, there was a plot to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer because of COVID-19 restrictions. And according to Politico, the group that was planning to do this were, "Allegedly training the intent of instigating a civil war in kidnapping the Michigan Governor in retaliation for strict Coronavirus controls."

In a report from the Department of Homeland Security, they went as so far to pinpoint the possibilities of this disinformation and conspiracy theories about election fraud becoming a rallying cry for right-wing groups and where they're going to possibly attack. They said that they were most likely to converge on places that had to do with the electoral process, that they would be quote, "Likely flashpoints for potential violence."

And in the months following that, you see Trump tweeting about showing up to the Capitol on January 6th, through multiple tweets through December and early January. And on top of that, these people were outwardly planning to attack the Capitol and threatening violence on social media. And you're telling me that our National Guard, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, the Washington DC Police, nobody saw violence coming because there are reports now of people saying that, "Oh, we were never briefed about security in case of an attack and we just didn't see it coming." That's just not possible.

That being said, Trump and these right-wing groups basically painted you a word picture on what they were going to do, where they're going to do it, how they're going to do it, everything. And if not for that, only minutes before they started marching towards the Capitol, Trump himself told people, "Hey, let's go March to the Capitol." And encouraged people to be violent and "strong". and even then it didn't occur to you like, "Hey, maybe we should get our shit together and provide some security to a God damn federal building with all of our senators and representatives inside of it."

I mean, come on. And you know what? I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that it's not that they didn't know, they just didn't care. As soon as you have white skin, everything you do is acceptable, understandable, pitiable even, so not only will terrorist activities be allowed, they're even encouraged so long as you are the right skin color.

Hell, there were actually people who made sweatshirts that said "Civil War, January 6th, 2021", which is crazy because if you have ever had to make a group shirt of any kind, you will know exactly how painful it is. There will be somebody who doesn't like the design and then somebody doesn't like the font and somebody who wants a hood and the other people don't. You have to figure all of these things out, and that kind of seemingly innocent activity with the backdrop of trying to instigate a civil war only tells you how flippant these people are.

How much privilege do you have to have to not only commit an act of terror, but also make matching sweatshirts for it. You're treating this like a kid's summer camp, and what's more insane is that they are not out of touch with reality because as we saw, they were treated fairly well for what they were doing.

Anyway, I digress. Okay, let me get back on track here. Sorry, all. The last point I wanted to make, and what makes this whole thing much scarier, is that ordinary common people are becoming radicalized by what's now mainstream conspiracy theories and disinformation that it's not just the right-wing groups that are doing this. In that crowd, it wasn't just the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys and the Three Percenters that were there. There were also just regular people that flew down to DC and showed up to this march and engaged in terrorism. And that is very troubling when you have more than 70 million people that voted for Trump, and what was once fringe is now becoming mainstream is terrifying.

According to NPR, "Extremism trackers say the threat of unrest isn't just from a radical fringe, but from ordinary people who are whipped up by partisan conspiratorial messages. Already Trump voters are coalescing by the tens of thousands in Facebook groups associated with the hashtag campaign #stopthesteal. One group amassed more than 350,000 members before it was removed for spreading disinformation. The group had called for, "boots on the ground to protect the integrity of the vote.""

So if radicalization is being driven by disinformation and conspiracy theories, hell, that's a dime a dozen amongst Republicans and that means that number of people or moving further and further to the right. In a Quinnipiac University poll, 77% of Republicans believe that there was widespread voter fraud with 34% of people thinking that Biden's victory is not legitimate, which think about that, that's one out of every three. So more than 70 million people, one out of every three of them don't see Biden's administration as legitimate.

And if you want to get more depressed, which honestly, this just shocked the hell out of me, according to a YouGov poll of 1,397 American voters that were polled, 45% supported the actions of pro-Trump extremists at the Capitol and only 43% opposed them, and 58% of Republican respondents say that the protest was more peaceful rather than more violent. And on top of that, after this attack, these right-wing terrorist groups are having higher rates of recruitment than they had previously.

And if you think that this will go away after the Biden administration comes, that's not what experts think. They see a post-Trump America being littered with violent attacks from right-wing terrorist groups. That being said, what we saw on Wednesday or on January the 6th is likely not the last attack we'll see, because now the force of disinformation and conspiracy theories and the establishment of right-wing terrorist groups will continue to radicalize people. And they will be empowered to commit more and more attacks, especially on minorities.

And frankly, I don't have an uplifting message after that. I'm still figuring out what to think of all of this. Sorry, if this bummed you out, it's been a hard week for everyone. So take care of yourself, take a break. Okay, I am done depressing everyone. This is the world we inherit and I'm your host, Anita Kirti. Thanks for listening.

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