At least take down the razor wire: DC residents, lawmakers chafe at Capitol fence


Riot fencing topped with razor wire near the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 4, 2021.
JOE GROMELSKI/STARS AND STRIP

By MEAGAN FLYNN AND JULIE ZAUZMER | The Washington Post |

 Published: February 28, 2021

WASHINGTON — It was a modest plea from D.C. residents to the Capitol Police during a virtual town hall: If they couldn't take down the 7-foot fence surrounding the Capitol, could they at least remove the razor wire?

"It could be the beginning of normalcy," Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia's nonvoting delegate in Congress, suggested to Assistant Police Chief Chad Thomas at the Feb. 11 meeting.

But days went by, and the razor wire and fencing installed after the Jan. 6 breach of the Capitol remains. Norton, District residents and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have grown more irritated with the unsightly barriers closing people out of the Capitol — and, in the view of at least some lawmakers, closing some in.

"It's kind of like working in a minimum-security prison right now," Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., told acting Capitol Police chief Yogananda Pittman during a Thursday hearing before the House Appropriations Committee.

Pittman and Timothy Blodgett, the House's acting sergeant-at-arms, said they are awaiting several security reviews before making a decision about the fence, but that it would remain at least through President Joe Biden's first address to Congress because of threats of violence from militia groups.

The date of Biden's address has not been announced. Pittman did not describe the source or credibility of the intelligence, and some lawmakers questioned whether the threat is concrete enough to justify what increasingly feels like the new normal in Washington.

Residents' commutes and recreational activities — bike riding, dog walking, picnics — have been disrupted. They have signed petitions, put up signs and contacted their local representatives. Jay Adelstein, an advisory neighborhood commissioner, noted that the fencing surrounds much more than the Capitol itself.

"We have a botanical garden on Independence by the Capitol that is inaccessible. We have the beautiful outdoor Bartholdi Park, which is a gem of the Capitol, that is inaccessible," he said. "No tourist is going to want to come to the Capitol or to Washington, D.C., with the city in such a locked-down state."

Reminiscing about the days when he would take his daughters to sled on the Hill, a childhood rite of passage in this neighborhood, Adelstein said, "We've given up too much for too long."


Fencing topped with razor wire near the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 4, 2021.
JOE GROMELSKI/STARS AND STRIPES

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said Pittman and Jennifer Hemingway, the Senate's acting sergeant-at-arms, briefed lawmakers on Wednesday and also mentioned threats by extremist groups, but without any details.

"I don't think vague allegations about threats cut it and suggest we need to just leave this razor wire up indefinitely," Kaine said. "Senators were asking on that call: OK, well what's the plan? Give us the date. Give us a timeline. Let us all have an understanding of what's going on. They wouldn't do that."

Both Kaine and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said the Jan. 6 riot was largely a failure of intelligence, rather than infrastructure. "The idea of just making a permanent fortress or a permanent fence is too much of a knee-jerk solution," Van Hollen said.

Norton has introduced a bipartisan bill, co-sponsored by Reps. Ted Budd, R-N.C., and Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., to prohibit the use of federal funds for any permanent fencing, and city officials have joined her inthe fight.

D.C. Council member Charles Allen, D-Ward 6, who represents Capitol Hill, spearheaded a council letter to congressional officials opposing permanent fencing. He said the security measures are unnecessary and harmful to the city, particularly the closure of parts of Independence and Constitution avenues, two major east-west thoroughfares that are crucial for both traffic and emergency vehicles.

"It's already having a massive impact. To me, it is beyond insulting for the Capitol complex to continue to do this," Allen said. "They do it with no regard, none, for the 700,000 residents of the District."

Council member Christina Henderson, I-At Large, said many residents' commutes — including her ordinarily quick drive from her toddler's day care on Capitol Hill to her office at the Wilson Building — are a maze of long ways around the fencing. She cast doubt on whether a fence was really necessary to protect the Capitol during Biden's speech.

"We've been able to do how many State of the Unions in the past without that massive type of fence?" said Henderson, who was an aide to Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., until she ran for the council last year. "It has never required permanent fencing in order to keep that type of event safe."


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Alan Hantman, who oversaw security enhancements after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks when he was architect of the Capitol, said similar debates played out then and after other violence: how to balance public accessibility with public safety.

Many of today's physical security measures in Washington, including bollards and planters at federal buildings, can be traced back to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, he said. After the fatal shooting of two Capitol Police officers in the Capitol in 1998, and again after 9/11, officials sought new security enhancements — including the construction of the Capitol's visitors center, which Hantman oversaw.

But debates were always more nuanced than simply whether to build a wall or not, he said. Security officials and urban planners are expected to find creative architectural solutions to address potential threats.

"I don't think we want to see concrete or steel walls around the United States Capitol, because we have this imperative of openness in this free and open society," he said. "This is not Baghdad. What an image that would be around the world to have us fencing ourselves in from our own people."

Still, Hantman said he could understand the need for a temporary fence. He recalled some security measures, including the presence of the National Guard at major intersections and the closure of Pennsylvania Avenue near the White House, dragging on for months after 9/11. "Eleanor Holmes Norton sent us letters and pressed us, just as she is right now," he said.

Norton said her strategy is to start small, by asking for the razor wire to be removed.

She said she was fine with the fence remaining through Biden's address or as long as credible threats warranted it. But the razor wire "makes our country appear unable to protect its own Capitol unless it is fortified like a prison," she wrote in a letter to the Capitol Police Board on Feb. 22.

"I can't say enough what an open Capitol symbolizes for our democracy. You can talk about the White House. You can talk about the Monument. But it's (the Capitol) that really symbolizes what our democracy is," Norton said in an interview. "We cannot let it be fenced in, in this way.

KARMA IS BITCH
A rooster stabbed a man to death with a knife during a cockfight
Julie Gerstein

People place a knife to a rooster's leg before a cockfight at The Tampak Siring Temple in Bali, Indonesia on January 18, 2018. Cockfight is an old tradition in Balinese Hinduism. It is a part of the Tabuh Rah ritual, a religious purification to expel evil spirit through animal sacrifice via the blood of the roosters. Cockfights without a religious purpose are considered gambling in Indonesia. Mahendra Moonstar/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

An Indian man died after being stabbed by a rooster he was training for cockfighting.

The rooster had been outfitted with a three-inch knife on its leg.

Though cockfighting is illegal in most countries, it continues to attract fans.


A rooster fitted with a knife around its foot stabbed its owner to death during practice for an illegal cockfight in India.

Thangulla Satish, 45, died of blood loss after the rooster repeatedly stabbed him in the groin with a three-inch knife that had been tied around the animal's leg, according to the Associated Press.

Satish was among 16 people organizing the cockfight in the village of Lothunur in the Indian state of Telegana, the AP reported.

Authorities are currently searching for the other 15 organizers, who could be charged with manslaughter. They each face up to two years in prison, according to Al-Jazeera.

Animal rights activists say the sport is especially cruel because it takes advantage of the birds' natural survival mechanisms in forcing them to fight.

To make matches gorier, some cockfighting trainers fit their birds with what's known as a "gaff" – a long, dagger-like knife attached to the animal's foot. Birds often will have many of their feathers plucked out before matches to make it more difficult for their opponents to attack, according to the ASPCA.

They are also sometimes drugged with methamphetamines to enhance their aggressiveness.

Even birds that win their matches often suffer injuries so severe that they, too, are killed.


Despite India's Supreme Court outlawing the practice in the 1960s, cockfighting continues to be popular in many of the country's southern states.

In the US, cockfighting is considered a felony in 42 states, though federal authorities continue to regularly break up fighting rings around the country. In August of last year, the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department busted a ring with more than 2,000 birds, USA Today reported.

Authorities in New York — in a 2014 sting they dubbed "Operation Angry Birds" — arrested more than 70 people and confiscated more than 3,000 birds, the New York Post reported.

This is not the first time a bird handler has been killed by a gamecock. Last year, a 55-year-old Indian man from Andhra Pradesh died after a gamecock slashed him in the neck and abdomen during a match held to mark the Hindu festival of Makar Sankranti. And in 2018, a 34-year-old man from Rajavaram, India, bled to death after a rooster gaff pierced his thigh and testicles.

 

GENDER AND WHITE SUPREMACIST VIOLENCE

Women’s March in October 2020. Photo courtesy of Mobilus In Mobili.

• BYELIN BJARNEGÅRD AND JENNIFER M. PISCOPO 
• January 21, 2021

Guest post by Elin Bjarnegård and Jennifer M. Piscopo

Political leaders, media commentators, and academics have swiftly and accurately called those who stormed the US Capitol on January 6 what they are: white supremacists. They are also mostly men, seeking to reclaim privileges based on race—and gender. For instance, one attacker gleefully reported scratching his balls inside Nancy Pelosi’s office suite while other rioters tore her nameplate off the wall, chanting “get her out.” 

The link between white supremacy and misogyny is well noted, but it’s worth being precise about “where the gender is” in the political violence that occurred in the US capital—and that many fear will be repeated during and after the inauguration. In our framework for analyzing gender and political violence, we focus on gender’s presence or absence in three elements of an attack: the motives, the forms, and the impacts. This precision helps law enforcement prosecute crimes and protect vulnerable groups, and helps policymakers understand how political violence shapes the degree to which women and girls feel safe enough to stand for and hold elected office.

In the case of the storming of the US Capitol, gender doesn’t appear to have been an explicit motive. The perpetrators’ primary aim was not to suppress women’s political participation or drive women from politics. Rather, attackers aimed to halt the confirmation of Joe Biden as the next president of the United States, preserving the office for Donald Trump, who has become the standard-bearer of white nationalism. In this sense, the attackers didn’t target Nancy Pelosi just because she is a woman—they targeted her because she leads the party that opposes Trump’s agenda. Their enemies included anyone seen as insufficiently loyal to Trump, even the vice president, about whom they chanted, “Hang Mike Pence.”

The attacks did, however, include gendered forms and gendered impacts. The perpetrators performed hypermasculinity and their actions sent distinctive, even chilling messages to women politicians about their place in a white supremacist world. 

The insurrectionists’ masculinity ideals and views of women may well have shaped the form of attacks they carried out. Research demonstrates that individuals with sexist attitudes are not just more prone to violent extremist views and religious intolerance, they are also more likely to support and choose to participate in political violence. 

Indeed, many of the attackers have a history of abusing women, from sending angry messages about women in power to protesting at abortion clinics. It is no accident that Richard “Bigo” Barnett attempted to reassert masculine dominance by scratching his genitalia in Nancy Pelosi’s office. The insurrectionists also touted their masculinity in other ways, parading through the Capitol bare-chested or in full combat gear. 

The attackers’ masculine performance shows how white supremacy and heteropatriarchy go hand-in-hand. White nationalism cannot be separated from the nostalgia that its partisans feel for an imagined era where ethnic minorities, women, LGBTQ+ minorities, non-Christians, and other marginalized groups knew their place. 

The victims know this. Pelosi’s daughter, Democratic strategist Christine Pelosi, responded to an article titled “Misogyny in the Capitol: Among the insurrectionists, a lot of angry men who don’t like women,” by distinguishing between the attackers’ political motives and their gendered enactment. She writes, “They tried to kill her because she’s the Speaker whom Trump opposes; they took extra gleeful vengeance because she is a powerful woman.”

Women interpret these attacks as speaking to them because women politicians are no strangers to uncivil behavior, hateful messages, and death threats that use gendered slurs or express misogynist viewpoints. Similarly, two leading congresswomen of color—Ayanna Pressley and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—described the Capitol assaults as particularly chilling, given white supremacists’ stated aim to visit violence upon Black and brown bodies. For these congresswomen, their experiences with political violence cannot be separated from their gendered and raced identities.

When leaders like Pelosi, Pressley, and Ocasio-Cortez receive hateful messages, the senders are not just angry about their political views. They are angry that women or women of color dare to claim political power. Research shows that women politicians who are more powerful and publicly visible, and those who are nonwhite, draw disproportionate amounts of abuse, relative to men politicians and to other women in office. These patterns tell us that while politics is frequently unpleasant and occasionally harmful, the abuse that many women politicians experience is more than “business as usual”—it is political violence amplified and even driven by misogyny and racism. 

It’s not surprising, then, that feminist commentators swiftly recognized the gendered dimensions of the disrespect shown in Pelosi’s office suite, or connected this behavior to the widely circulated image of a destroyed display case that contained books about women in politics. (Though it’s worth noting that many parts of the Capitol building were damaged, not just those imbued with gendered meaning.) Given that gendered harassment and abuse already drives women away from politics and discourages other women from entering in the first place, the latest violence may further convince US women and girls that politics is not safe for them.

The interconnected nature of white supremacy and misogyny makes gender central to discussions of white nationalist violence, but as with any political violence, gender shapes the different elements of attacks in different ways. In the case of the US Capitol insurrection, the perpetrators’ motives were not explicitly gendered, but hypermasculinity, sexism, and misogyny shaped their performance and their messaging. 

As Washington DC, state capitals, and other large cities brace for more political violence from Trump supporters, understanding how gender operates within white supremacist violence will help law authorities protect vulnerable groups. Attackers may aim to occupy buildings or disrupt events in order to protest the Biden presidency, but women—especially women of color—may draw attackers’ particular attention and therefore face heightened risk of pursuit or assault. Women’s family members, staff, and property might be similarly targeted. Targeting women aims to keep politics an all-male, all-white space.

Preventing political violence during the presidential transition is only a short-term solution. The long-term solution lies with countering white supremacists’ exclusionary vision, and ensuring that individuals of all genders, backgrounds, and faiths can run for and occupy political office safely and freely.

Elin Bjarnegård is Associate Professor of Political Science at Uppsala University. Jennifer M. Piscopo is Associate Professor of Politics at Occidental College.

40% of people do not understand  

coercive control – survey

Safeguarding Ireland is calling for laws on coercive control to be expanded.

Just over a quarter of a representative sample

 of 1,000 adults said that they understood it

 (Dominic Lipinski/PA)


By Cate McCurry, PA

February 28 2021 


Greater public awareness of coercive control has been called for after new research found that 40% of people do not understand this type of abuse.

The research, commissioned by Safeguarding Ireland and carried out by RED C, found that 25% of adults said they were not familiar with coercive control at all, while 15% said they had heard the term but did not understand it.

Just over a quarter of a representative sample of 1,000 adults said that they understood it.

When then provided with an explanation of coercive control, 30% said they had witnessed this happening to someone they knew and 13% said they had experienced it themselves.

However, Safeguarding Ireland chairwoman Patricia Rickard-Clarke said she believes coercive control to be even more prevalent because of the low level of understanding, particularly in relation to it happening to vulnerable adults.

30%

Percentage of adults who say they had witnessed coercive control happening to someone they knew Red C

“Domestic abuse within an intimate couple is widely reported to have increased significantly during Covid-19 and this is generally what is understood to be coercive control,” Ms Rickard-Clarke said.

“However, coercive control is much broader than physical assault, can be subtle and can occur in any close adult relationship, with vulnerable adults particularly at risk.

“Coercive control could be detaining a vulnerable person at home, keeping their phone from them, controlling their money or medical care, preventing contact with family and friends, or constant undermining of a person’s independence and making decisions on their behalf.

“It is the use of threats, humiliation, intimidation, or assault to make a person dependent, to isolate them in order to exploit and deprive people of their rightful independence.”

The RED C research found that almost a quarter of cases witnessed happened outside of intimate relationships, including between frail older people and family members, or in the care of people with intellectual or physical disabilities either at home or in an institution

Our current laws only recognise coercive control as an identifiable crime in the setting of an intimate relationship between a couplePatricia Rickard-Clarke

Ms Rickard-Clarke said the law also needs to change to recognise that coercive control occurs outside of intimate relationships.

“Our current laws only recognise coercive control as an identifiable crime in the setting of an intimate relationship between a couple,” she added.

“However, this research shows that despite a low level of understanding of coercive control, people can still readily recognise significant levels of this abuse in settings outside of intimate relationships.

“I suspect that, if understanding of coercive control was higher, people would identify an even higher incidence of it occurring, particularly involving psychological abuse of vulnerable adults.

“Safeguarding Ireland is calling for our laws on coercive control to be expanded to include the coercive control of another person as a crime in any close adult relationship. This is particularly important for vulnerable adults.”

More information on coercive control is available on the Safeguarding Ireland website at safeguardingireland.org


PA

THE OTHER QANON GOP REP

At CPAC, Gun-Toting Rep. Lauren Boebert Rails Against Metal Detectors and Pelosi
By Kristen Doerer | February 28, 2021 

Rep. Lauren Boebert released an ad on Jan. 3, 2021

 declaring, "I will carry my glock to Congress." (Screenshot)


Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado joined her comrades from the so-called Stop the Steal rallies Saturday for a panel on the Second Amendment at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida. The American Conservative Union-endorsed congresswoman used the elevated stage as an opportunity to promote her gun-toting image and rail against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“We are in the gunshine state,” moderator Dana Loesch told the assembled crowd to kick off the panel, before introducing Republican Reps. Andy Biggs and Boebert and former Georgia state Rep. Vernon Jones.

The three politicians had spoken at numerous Stop the Steal rallies and used the campaign’s language and messaging in contesting the 2020 presidential election. Jones was a fixture of Stop the Steal rallies, particularly those in his home state of Georgia, while QAnon-supporting Boebert spoke at the first “Million MAGA March” in Washington, D.C. Biggs, meanwhile, was cited by far-right activist and lead Stop the Steal organizer Ali Alexander as one of three congressmen who helped plan the D.C. rally that immediately preceded the insurrection at the Capitol. (Rep. Paul Gosar, who was another, spoke at last night’s far-right alternative to CPAC before taking CPAC’s main stage this morning.) Loesch herself had spoken at an early Stop the Steal rally in Texas in November.

“For the first time ever, I don’t think I’m the biggest fire starter on the stage,” Loesch said, as Biggs pointed to Boebert. “Thank you, Congresswoman Beobert.”

“Are you worried about your safety in D.C., in the Capitol, both?” Loesch asked Boebert, referring to the congresswoman’s declaration that she would carry her glock to Congress. Boebert released a viral ad on Jan. 3 showing her walking around in an alley of a wealthy D.C. neighborhood spouting claims about violent crime and declaring that “I am my best security.”

Boebert went on to tell viewers how after a man was beaten to death in her hometown of Rifle, Colorado—the only town named after a gun, she noted—she started openly carrying in her restaurant and encouraged her waitresses to do the same. In response to questions about proposed gun legislation, Boebert turned the discussion to what she really wanted to talk about: her battle with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who ordered the installation of metal detectors in the House chambers following the Capitol insurrection and reports of Congress members giving large tours days before.

Boebert has tried to circumvent the metal detectors—as has Biggs—and bring her gun on to the House floor, claiming she needed it to protect herself should there be another insurrection; she was granted a conceal carry permit earlier this month. As Right Wing Watch wrote at the time, “Despite the fact Boebert was allied with the very activists who breached security and stormed the Capitol, she is now trying to use the insurrection as justification for being allowed to carry a gun in Washington, D.C., and in Congress.”

“Speaker Pelosi has called us the enemy within. There’s metal detectors,” Boebert said. “I am there to defend our Second Amendment rights. This isn’t about attacking my gun; this is talking about taking your gun and I will stand up for your God-given rights every single day.”

“In Washington D.C., I wouldn’t be surprised if we start quartering soldiers in the committee hearing rooms. There are plenty in the parking garage at ‘Fort Pelosi,’” Boebert said. “Maybe we could unreasonably start seizing and searching members of Congress. Oh wait. We’re already doing that on the House Chambers. Yes, yes. We are. With the metal detectors and all that.”

Later, she was more direct: “I cannot wait until they take that gavel from Speaker Pelosi in 2022.”

The conversation at another point veered to legislation introduced by Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida to prevent suspected terrorists from buying firearms.

“Well, what’s the definition of domestic terrorist? Does it mean that Vernon Jones, if I go to the United States Capitol, and I want to protest peacefully, now I’m under terrorist watch, and I haven’t done anything wrong? Wait a minute, something’s not right,” Jones said, before likening himself to the late civil rights icon John Lewis who was put on a no-fly list. “So what is a terrorist? You and me could be a terrorist in their definition, and that legislation doesn’t define what a terrorist is.”

“They want us to be called domestic terrorists and be put on lists,” Boebert said at another point. “Well then, aren’t we all domestic terrorists?

GOP congressman headlines conference where organizers push white nationalist rhetoric

The group's leader said of Jan. 6, 

"We need a little bit more of that energy."

By Will Steakin
27 February 2021

Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Rep. Paul Gosar speaks during a panel discussion about the Devaluing of American Citizenship .

GOP Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona was the surprise keynote speaker at a conference Friday night in Orlando, Florida, where speakers spread white nationalist rhetoric, organizers railed about the U.S. losing its "white demographic core," and some called for further engagement like the ire that drove the Capitol attack on Jan. 6.

Gosar, who skipped Friday's House votes -- including the vote on the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package -- spoke Friday night at the America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC), where he blamed former President Donald Trump's election loss on "big business, big tech, and the swamp," and pushed anti-immigration arguments to the crowd of "Groypers," a loose coalition of mostly young alt-right extremists led by organizer Nick Fuentes.

In the days leading up to the event and while marketing tickets online in part by using his Twitter account, Fuentes teased that there would be a special guest, which turned out to be Gosar. Other speakers Friday night included former Iowa Representative Steve King, who's known for his long history of racist comments, and conservative commentator Michelle Malkin.

After speaking at the event, less than 12 hours later Gosar was featured on a panel Saturday morning at the ongoing Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) happening concurrently to AFPAC in the Orlando area. Speaking on a panel moderated by CPAC's own Mercedes Schlapp, Gosar criticized the Biden administration's immigration policies.

At the start of the panel, Gosar -- unprompted and without mentioning Friday's event or Fuentes by name -- attempted to distance himself from "racism."

"I want to tell you, I denounce when we talk about white racism. That's not appropriate. I believe in a strong immigration system," Gosar said.

Neither Gosar nor representatives for CPAC responded to ABC News' requests for comment on the congressman's speech at the AFPAC event.

On Friday night, Gosar's keynote was followed by a speech by Fuentes that was filled with white grievance and far-right anti-immigration rhetoric. "If [America] loses its white demographic core … then this is not America anymore," the AFPAC founder told the crowd.

Fuentes went on to praise the Capitol attack, boasting about it leading to a delay in the certification of the election results.

"While I was there in D.C., outside of the building, and I saw hundreds of thousands of patriots surrounding the U.S. Capitol building and I saw the police retreating ... I said to myself: 'This is awesome,'" Fuentes said to the applause of the crowd.
MORE: Funding behind 'Stop the Steal' movement shrouded in mystery

And amid security concerns over threats to disrupt President Joe Biden's expected speech to a joint session of Congress, Fuentes encouraged more of the kind of commitment shown by rioters on Jan. 6.

"To see that Capitol under siege, to see the people of this country rise up and mobilize to D.C. with the pitchforks and the torches -- we need a little bit more of that energy in the future," he said.

Gosar, who was elected to Congress in 2011, has emerged as one of the most far-right Republicans in Washington. In January, The New York Times first reported that a leading member of an Oath Keepers chapter in Arizona, Jim Arroyo, posted a video on YouTube claiming Gosar attended one of their meetings and supported the group's calls for a war in the country.




Erin Schaff/The New York Times via Redux
Attendees listen to speakers at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, 

"We did a meeting a couple of years ago where our elected representative from Washington, Paul Gosar, came out and we asked him flat out at that time, 'Do you think we're heading into a civil war?'" Arroyo said. "And his response was just flat out, 'We're in it. We just haven't started shooting at each other yet.'" Gosar did not respond to the Times' request for comment.

During the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Gosar posted a message on Twitter calling for protesters not to "get carried away." But over on the right-leaning Parler service, he shared a far more sympathetic message, using the same photo of people scaling the walls of the Capitol and writing, "Americans are upset."

Gosar's featured appearance at Friday's event will be another major test for a Republican Party that is being pulled between traditional conservatives and a growing radical extremist element as it searches for a path forward following the pro-Trump Capitol attack.
MORE: Awkward moment as House Republican leaders clash over Trump speaking at CPAC

Earlier this month, the House approved a resolution that removed newly elected Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from her assigned committees due to a long history of pushing QAnon rhetoric and baseless conspiracy theories, including that the Sandy Hook and Parkland shootings were staged "false flag" operations. Green apologized to House members for her previous comments prior to the vote.

And former President Trump issued the first blow of his revenge tour on Republicans who voted to impeach him, endorsing Max Miller, a former Trump aide, in his primary challenge against Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R-Ohio), who was among 10 House Republicans to vote for impeachment.

Trump's name was a recurring theme at Friday night's event, with Fuentes also promising to target Republicans who were not sufficiently loyal to the former president.

"He is one of us," Fuentes told the crowd.




NurPhoto via Getty Images, FILE
Nick Fuentes speaks to his followers, the Groypers, while flying a flag reading "America First"

Friday night's AFPAC event marked one of the first major gatherings of far-right extremists since the Jan. 6 insurrection. The event featured at least two people, Fuentes and AFPAC speaker Vincent James Foxx, who were present near the Capitol building during the siege.

Fuentes, who has denied involvement in the storming of the Capitol itself, has been spotted in videos and photos rallying outside the Capitol on Jan. 6. In one video, Fuentes can be seen on a megaphone telling the crowd not to "leave this Capitol until Donald Trump is inaugurated president." Foxx, who on Friday night said, "We must not be afraid of the idea of secession," was photographed with Fuentes on Jan. 6. Neither man was charged in connection with the riot.

Fuentes, who attended the 2017 "Unite the Right" rally at Charlottesville, has a long history of making racist and anti-Semitic comments. Since the Capitol insurrection, a handful of America First followers have been arrested for their participation in the Jan. 6 attack.

After spending parts of his speech Friday night celebrating the Capitol riot, Fuentes at one point attempted to walk back his comments.

"I disavow all violence. I disavow all vandalism. I respect the government is sovereign over us," he said -- then added, "Alright, I think that'll stand up in court.

Rep. Paul Gosar and Former Rep. Steve King Address White Nationalist, Christian Nationalist AFPAC

By Peter Montgomery | February 27, 2021

Nick Fuentes gave the keynote at the 2021 America First Political Action Conference

Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., and former Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, spoke at the America First Political Action Conference Friday night, where they shared the stage with AFPAC founder Nick Fuentes, the leader of a white nationalist youth movement whose record of bigotry and extremism has led to him being banned from social media platforms and from CPAC, the right-wing political conference being held nearby in Orlando. Gosar’s appearance at AFPAC did not disqualify him from speaking at CPAC on a Saturday morning panel.

AFPAC held its inaugural conference last year with a speaker line-up that read as a who’s who of white nationalist and hard-right figures. Right-wing pundit Michelle Malkin returned to this year’s AFPAC, which she claimed had triple the number of attendees as last year’s event.

“We have God on our side,” said Fuentes in his keynote address, repeatedly invoking God and Jesus in support of his anti-immigration, anti-globalist, anti-Republican-establishment, white nationalist and Christian nationalist “America First” agenda.

America is not an idea, Fuentes said at AFPAC, but a particular people in a particular place. “If America ceases to be this people, if America ceases to retain that English cultural framework and the influence of European civilization, if it loses its white demographic core, and if it loses its faith in Jesus Christ, this is not America anymore,” Fuentes said.

“America is a Christian nation,” he said. “And that’s not just a slogan. When I say that America is a Christian nation, I’m saying that Jesus Christ is the son of God and this is one nation under that God.” Fuentes and other AFPAC speakers were interrupted by chants of “Christ is king!”—Blaze TV’s Jon Miller after declaring that the movement’s opponents “hate Christ.”

Fuentes was at the rally outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, he told the AFPAC crowd. When he saw “patriots” surrounding the building and police retreating and heard that politicians were “scurrying” to safety, “I said to myself, ‘This is awesome!’”

“We have been beat up and betrayed and spit on, stepped on, for decades, and to see the tables turned for once was a little bit refreshing actually,” he said.

“We need a little bit more of that energy in the future,” he said, referring to people rising up with torches and pitchforks. Then he smilingly disavowed violence, adding, “I think that will stand up in court.” The country was not founded by following the rules, he said, praising the “light hearted mischief” on display at the Capitol.

Besides, he said, the Capitol is not a sacred temple of democracy, but the seat of an “evil empire.” Fuentes said the real struggle in American politics is between a populist America First movement and “the evil people that now rule this country”—a regime that in his telling includes media, Hollywood, academia, the “deep state,” the national security apparatus, the “billionaire class,” Big Tech, Big Pharma, Big Agriculture, and Big Energy. Mocking the messages from the conservative establishment, he said the real battle is not to “stave off socialism in America” but a battle between “the globalist American regime and the people that they rule.”

Fuentes took part in the 2017 Unite the Right gathering in Charlottesville and so-called  “Stop the Steal” events after the 2020 election. In 2018, Fuentes said that violence against racial and ethnic minorities would be an acceptable trade-off for restoring “a core American identity centered around ethnicity and race” and ending the “gang-rape of America by the Third World.”

At AFPAC, Fuentes denounced “anti-white agenda of the mainstream media” and “the creation of a new racial caste system in this country with whites at the bottom.” He said this is a sovereignty issue because it is an attack on the country’s white “demographic core.” Black Lives Matter is “challenging the very existence of the United States of America as it is and the historic American nation,” Fuentes said. “This challenge to the existence of our country must be matched and exceeded with equal ferocity and intensity in defense of America.”

“White people founded this country,” he declared. “This country wouldn’t exist without white people. And white people are done being bullied.” He acknowledged that the U.S. is a multicultural society and said it would only work if white people were treated with the same dignity and respect they deserve.

Fuentes made a name for himself by mobilizing fellow white nationalist  activists—“groypers”—to publicly criticize right-wing groups and speakers like Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk and Donald Trump, Jr. for not being sufficiently devoted, in Fuentes’ eyes, to the principles of the America First movement.

That was also a major theme of his AFPAC speech in which he said the biggest threat to the America First movement comes from politicians who use the movement’s rhetoric and draw from its energy while promoting an establishment agenda. Among his targets were right-wing Reps. Dan Crenshaw and Madison Cawthorn, the latter of whom Fuentes mocked for talking about “standing up” for principles even though he uses a wheelchair.

Fuentes described former President Donald Trump as the “rightful ruler” of the Republican Party and leader of the America First movement, someone whose trash-talking showed people that he is a “real human being” and not someone “grown in a petri dish in a laboratory at the Heritage Foundation” and “groomed for power by the same establishment that we are fighting against.”

Fuentes touts his movement as the real followers of Donald Trump. Like other right-wing activists, he is calling for Republican politicians who did not stand with Trump after the 2020 elections—“traitors”—to be defeated in primaries.

But he will not accept just any challenger. He mocked Catalina Lauf, a Republican who has promoted a pro-Trump and America First message in announcing her challenge to impeachment-supporting Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois. Fuentes dismissed Lauf’s promotion of her status as a daughter of legal immigrants from Guatemala, suggesting that immigrants who come to the U.S. to pursue the American Dream are basically selfish. Fuentes criticized conservatives who differentiate between legal and illegal immigration, saying all immigration is a challenge to the power, influence and sovereignty of “native” Americans.

Fuentes closed his remarks by asserting that “We have God on our side” and that “God has the final victory.” And he declared, “This is the real America First movement and we are inevitable!”

King and Gozar spoke before Fuentes took the stage.

Steve King, who was defeated by primary voters in 2020 after his House Republican colleagues took action against him following years of racist rhetoric, was introduced with a video that included a clip of him declaring, “I have nothing to apologize for.”

King praised attendees, saying that if you had to go somewhere and find the people to start a country from scratch, it would be the people in that room. He encouraged them to get married and have a lot of babies and raise them as the next America First generation. “We can restore this country, and we can do it with our babies, and we can do it with our values,” King said.

King defended the Confederate battle flag as an emblem of “Southern pride” and said those who have “turned it into a symbol of evil slavery” are out to destroy western civilization. He said the U.S. derives its strength from free enterprise capitalism, Western civilization, and “Judeo-Christianity.”

King belittled the movement for reparations for slavery, saying that it disregards “the price that was paid in blood” to end slavery during the Civil War. He said that “three African Americans have acknowledged this to me”—two of them being right-wing media personalities and conspiracy theorists Diamond and Silk.

King read a prayer spoken by English settlers in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607, which dedicated the settlers to raising up “godly generations” that would “take the kingdom of God to all the earth.”

King was followed by Gosar, whose introductory video included a clip of him on the floor of the House of Representatives in January where he challenged the counting of Arizona’s Electoral College votes.

“We’re in the fight of our lifetime,” Gosar said, warning about “shadowy elites in the deep state” colluding with Big Tech to “usurp” the White House from Trump, “the people’s president” and disenfranchise his supporters.

Gosar said the Republican Party can run and win on an America First agenda, including immigration and ending “censorship” of Big Tech. Gosar mentioned deplatformed right-wing activist Laura Loomer, who was in attendance, saying she had been “relegated to a third-class citizenship” and “unpersoned,” calling her a “our canary in the coal mine.”

Gosar said the U.S. is experiencing a “climate crisis of intolerance” led by angry, violent communists who suppress free speech, votes, and citizens. He said the “China virus” was “weaponized” against Trump and the American people.

“The Biden administration is gearing up to attack Americans” and “put America last,” Gosar claimed. But “men don’t gripe about fairness,” he said, praising the “high energy” and “stoic spirit” of the America First movement.

In her remarks, Malkin sounded similar themes, slamming “Con Inc. and their funders” and telling people, “Unless you’re praying to God, you better get off your knees.” She called out CPAC’s “audacity” for choosing “America Uncancelled” as this year’s theme, saying that CPAC had cancelled half the people in the room.

“Red Elephants” podcaster Vincent James and Blaze TV’s Jon Miller also spoke. James focused heavily on Republicans he said betrayed Trump and have repeatedly stabbed right-wing voters in the back. He called for a “true right-wing opposing force” and said Republicans have to assert “sovereignty” over states and counties they control, adding, “We cannot be afraid of the idea of secession.”

Fuentes has a history of making anti-Semitic remarks, as do followers of his white nationalist America First movement. At some point during Gosar’s remarks, clearly visible on the livestream was a Star of David that someone in the audience was apparently projecting onto the side of the lectern.

Ted Cruz mocked Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at CPAC after the congresswoman raised millions for his Texan constituents

Kevin Shalvey THE INSIDER 

Senator Ted Cruz speaks at CPAC. John Raoux/AP Photo

Sen. Ted Cruz mocked Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for her response to the Capitol insurrection.

Cruz said: "Especially now, the left, they are shrill. They are angry."

Speaking at CPAC, Cruz also took aim at Sen. Bernie Sanders for wearing mittens. 

Senator Ted Cruz on Friday mocked New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has raised millions for his Texas constituents, for her response to the January 6 Capitol riots.

"We are gathered in dark times," Cruz told the crowd at the CPAC in Orlando on Friday.

Cruz's CPAC address was billed as a discussion of the "Bill of Rights, Liberty, and Cancel Culture." On stage, Cruz also took aim at Senator Bernie Sanders for wearing mittens to President Joe Biden's inauguration.

He said: "We're gathered at a time where the hard left, where the socialists control the levers of government, where they control the White House, where they control every executive branch, where they control both houses of Congress. Bernie is wearing mittens, and AOC is telling us she was murdered."

Cruz seemed to be referring to comments Ocasio-Cortez made in the wake of the January 6 assault on the Capitol. Speaking on Instagram Live, the congresswoman said: "I thought I was going to die."

Ocasio-Cortez called for censures or resignations from colleagues who she said encouraged the insurrection, including Cruz and Senator Josh Hawley.

To Cruz, she said: "You almost had me murdered three weeks ago."

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Rep. Sylvia Garcia load boxes at their work station at the Houston Food Bank on Saturday. Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle/Pool via Reuters

The political rivalry between Cruz and Ocasio-Cortez was amplified this month as a winter storm knocked out power to millions in Texas.

During the storm, Cruz flew to Cancún with his family. He returned a day later amid growing criticism.



Ocasio-Cortez raised millions for Texans suffering after the storms. She flew to Houston to volunteer at the Houston Food Bank with Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee and Sylvia Garcia.

Speaking in Orlando on Friday, Cruz urged Americans to "have fun."

"Just lighten up," he said. "Especially now, the left, they are shrill, they are angry. How many leftists does it take to screw in a light bulb? That's not funny. God bless, who would want to be around these people?"