[Discussion] Police, White Nationalists, and the Rise of Fascism

The police wouldn’t “suddenly” flip for a fascist figurehead, they as an organization flipped long before any of us were born and are just waiting for someone to fill the role. Had Trump given the order they would have been gunning down protestors in the streets last year. They came pretty close a couple times as it was.

Zona wrote:

That’s not what the base wants, Trump’s stupidity and brash arrogance was a feature not a bug. A smart Trump wouldn’t have attracted Trump’s cult. Look at Brazil and the Philippines, same mold.

There an extremely large gap between “smarter and more subtle than Trump” and “smart and subtle”. Imagine if Trump had a purpose other than “hey look at me now”.

Natus, can you describe the "Constitutional crisis" you have in mind?

Robear wrote:

Natus, can you describe the "Constitutional crisis" you have in mind?

As I posted earlier, Biden wins re-election but this time NO state GOP pol will certify and there is no resolution. Then the fascist militias precipitate armed conflict.

Natus wrote:
Robear wrote:

Natus, can you describe the "Constitutional crisis" you have in mind?

As I posted earlier, Biden wins re-election but this time NO state GOP pol will certify and there is no resolution. Then the fascist militias precipitate armed conflict.

Every state's electoral votes in 2020 were certified and went to the candidate that state's voters voted for. Perfect fifty out of fifty success rate on that. Every challenge in court failed, every obstinant official overruled.

When there is one exception to that rule, I will be concerned about the possibility of a second. When there is a second, I will be concerned about the possibility that there will be enough to flip an election.

In the meantime, I'm more concerned about voter suppression at the state level than anything else in terms of "procedure."

Chumpy_McChump wrote:
Zona wrote:

That’s not what the base wants, Trump’s stupidity and brash arrogance was a feature not a bug. A smart Trump wouldn’t have attracted Trump’s cult. Look at Brazil and the Philippines, same mold.

There an extremely large gap between “smarter and more subtle than Trump” and “smart and subtle”. Imagine if Trump had a purpose other than “hey look at me now”.

Right. With all the GOP's systemic advantages, Trump came very close to getting another 4 years. I'm not 100% sure he would have lost if COVID hadn't happened. It would only take someone marginally more focused on maintaining power and marginally more appealing to non-base voters to finish the job, especially now that he'll have the entire party apparatus from local to national level doing their part to prevent future elections from being "stolen" from the rightful Republican candidate. And if Biden is around and wins again, they just continue the message about that election being stolen, keep riling up the base, obstruct everything and wait until 2028. Eventually they will get back in power and good luck getting them out.

I think the only thing that changes this now is some kind of moral reckoning and course change within the Republican Party (they had their chance recently and it failed spectacularly) or Fox News. Or maybe if the Republicans take an absolute historic drubbing in an election, making it clear their pro-authoritarian path is rejected by a strong majority. Evidence doesn't seem to point to any of these scenarios happening anytime soon.

I don't worry so much about the heavy-handed military takeover Natus is describing but a more insidious slide into single party authoritarianism with few viable options to combat it.

Natus wrote:

As I posted earlier, Biden wins re-election but this time NO state GOP pol will certify and there is no resolution. Then the fascist militias precipitate armed conflict.

If the state legislature refuses to certify a winner by Dec. 8, the US Congress will take up the issue. If it can't agree, then the votes certified by the state's governor hold. There is zero reason for a state governor not to certify one of the electoral slates (after the mess goes down, remember), and plenty of reasons to do so. If they want to push a false narrative, the paper trail will be a mile wide. The worst case is a steal in full view, and the ramifications of that are still civil, not constitutional. Congress can literally pass laws to deal with such an occurence going forward.

As for militias "precipitating" armed conflict, the mechanics of this are absolutely needed. Otherwise this is just handwaving. No offense intended, but so far *every* action that might hint of this has been put down by law enforcement, without any threat that the military would join. The bigger threat these militias pose would be an increase in terrorism, I think.

It seems to me its a race between how much longer McConnell is in congress and the next time the GOP gains power. Do not underestimate that McConnell has procedurally codified and bolstered the shenanigans the GOP has been doing over the last decade.

If McConnell leaves the senate which will have to be through passing because he won't be defeated in any election and he won't leave (unless the investigations into him and his wife bear fruit quickly), who is going to be the legislative validation of the GOP tactics. Nobody will follow Cruz or Hawley. Romney could take up the mantle but he isn't that evil so he won't be effective. Seriously, the GOP cannot hold together in obstruction without McConnell.

So McConnell + GOP power = America is f*cked.
GOP regaining power - McConnell = America is in limbo for however many years this takes place. Which ultimately means we lose because China certainly isn't going to be standing still.

Robear wrote:

If they want to push a false narrative, the paper trail will be a mile wide. The worst case is a steal in full view, and the ramifications of that are still civil, not constitutional. Congress can literally pass laws to deal with such an occurence going forward.

Does that seem like a safeguard to you? Still? “Can” by no means means “will”.

hbi2k wrote:
Natus wrote:
Robear wrote:

Natus, can you describe the "Constitutional crisis" you have in mind?

As I posted earlier, Biden wins re-election but this time NO state GOP pol will certify and there is no resolution. Then the fascist militias precipitate armed conflict.

Every state's electoral votes in 2020 were certified and went to the candidate that state's voters voted for. Perfect fifty out of fifty success rate on that. Every challenge in court failed, every obstinant official overruled.

This time. The GQP is now purging hardline conservatives. They'll purge anyone else who resists Trumpism.

hbi2k wrote:

When there is one exception to that rule, I will be concerned about the possibility of a second. When there is a second, I will be concerned about the possibility that there will be enough to flip an election.

In the meantime, I'm more concerned about voter suppression at the state level than anything else in terms of "procedure."

I'm concerned about voter suppression, too, but I can be concerned about both at the same time. Voter suppression has been part of the GOP brand for many decades. This rabid authoritarian streak mixed with violence is relatively new.

They don't feel they have a choice. They are going to go deeper into this cesspool and rewarding increasingly deranged behavior. Your entire response hinges on perceiving the Trump election lawsuits and 1/6 as singular, failed initiatives, instead of perceiving them as trial balloons.

JC wrote:
RawkGWJ wrote:
OG_slinger wrote:

Recall them all to active duty and court martial them. They can enjoy their retirement in Leavenworth.

I read that article too. Is this when I’m supposed to say, “Ok boomer.” Very disappointing.

Yup. More old, angry, impotent, white men....

The letter, mostly signed by ex-military leaders who have been out of uniform for decades, was organized by retired Army Maj. Gen. Joe Arbuckle, a Vietnam veteran who retired in 2000.

"The only positive sign," added Golby, "is that most of the retired officers who signed this letter have been out of the military for almost two decades, and that no recent retirees joined this shameful effort to use their rank and the military's reputation for such a gross and blatant partisan attack."

Mullen also pointed out that no retired four-stars signed it and only a handful of three-stars. "It's not very senior," he said. "In our world it's not very significant in terms of people."

You know, maybe we ought to wonder how legit this is when one of the signatories allegedly is named Rear Admiral Jack Meehoff.

Rat Boy wrote:

You know, maybe we ought to wonder how legit this is when one of the signatories allegedly is named Rear Admiral Jack Meehoff.

That guy's a dick.

hbi2k wrote:

Every state's electoral votes in 2020 were certified and went to the candidate that state's voters voted for. Perfect fifty out of fifty success rate on that. Every challenge in court failed, every obstinant official overruled.

When there is one exception to that rule, I will be concerned about the possibility of a second. When there is a second, I will be concerned about the possibility that there will be enough to flip an election.

In the meantime, I'm more concerned about voter suppression at the state level than anything else in terms of "procedure."

One exception?

147 Republican members of Congress objected to the election results. 147. In an election where there was zero evidence of fraud, where there were repeated audits that still showed zero evidence of fraud, and when the Republicans didn't control the House of Representatives so there was zero chance that their votes would mean anything. They could all have voted to certify and shown people that the process is still working, and instead, 147 members chose to blindly discard any pretense of following the Constitution and the will of the people.

If the Republicans actually DID control the house, and their votes COULD have made a difference, what might have happened? How many more of them might have voted to object? In the 2022 election it is entirely possible that the Republicans will take the house. It is also entirely possible that, due to these events, most of those Republicans will be frothing-at-the-mouth anti-Democracy the-elections-are-rigged lunatics because of the false narratives continuing to be pushed that are convincing the people on the right that only by objecting to the results are they going to get anywhere. The "sane" Republicans will get pushed out or pressured to change, and we'll be left with a bunch of crazies whose only goal is making sure the GOP wins the next presidential election.

We already have 147 exceptions. I'm not going to sit around and wait for something worse to happen before I get "concerned". I'm terrified now.

Voting in Congress is complicated. In this case, Republicans knew that Biden would be confirmed, no matter what. So they were free to vote in a way that *their* constituents supported and demanded. This is not at all indicative of what would happen if the election had actually been on the line.

The problem in Congress is the people who elected these folks and want them to do irrational things. Many people will give in to that pressure when the stakes are low. Not so many when history is on the line, or violence in play.

What I'm saying is that there are many chances to evaluate the overall situation, in a real crisis, and back out of it. Those were not needed here, so the Party gave the crazies free reign to mess around after the election. Will that come back to bite them? Probably. But it's *not* an indicator of how the majority will act when things get real. It's pandering to a constituency that is literally dying off. Every year, their situation gets more precarious. And remember, none of the 67 or so court cases changed an outcome. That's reassuring.

We are closer than ever to the GOP becoming the Party of Q. But we are not there yet, in Congress. Let's see what Biden does to make changes before we decide it's all over.

Robear wrote:

Voting in Congress is complicated. In this case, Republicans knew that Biden would be confirmed, no matter what. So they were free to vote in a way that *their* constituents supported and demanded. This is not at all indicative of what would happen if the election had actually been on the line.

If the election had actually been on the line then *every* Republican would have voted not to certify the election. OK, maybe not every Republican. There would have been one or two Republicans who wouldn't have turned what should be a purely administrative task into a coup attempt (and they'd be primaried the next election for the high crime of being a RINO).

Republicans don't give a f*ck about anything but staying in power even if they have to use the most anti-democratic means possible to do so.

Robear wrote:

The problem in Congress is the people who elected these folks and want them to do irrational things. Many people will give in to that pressure when the stakes are low. Not so many when history is on the line, or violence in play.

You have a lot more faith in Congressional Republicans and, for that matter, human nature in general, than I do. I’d seriously like to know what evidence you’re basing this on- it’d probably help me sleep better at night.

The judgements in the courts were uniformly against any material change in any election. The states actually checked and certified the votes in a timely fashion and the processes worked. There is no evidence of organized voting fraud that I am aware of. And the "off the record" conversations before Jan 6, and the on the record ones after it, show that most Congressional Republicans are deeply frustrated by the situation they have been put in by the Trumptists. They are able to avoid trouble by making the right noises for their base because Biden is not pushing them hard. This gives us time to deal methodically with the problems.

For example, why would voting rights not be a trade for a smaller infrastructure bill? Or, conversely, the target of a budget bill push after McConnell turns down a deal? We just don't know yet what actions will be taken, but what we *do* have is time. One good law in Congress and hundreds of the state bills go down in flames. Let's see what happens. The Dems are aware of the stakes and are planning and working strategies. Let's see how the summer unfolds.

There's a lot of heat and light right now, but curiously little fire. Biden is smart enough not to feed the flames. Don't mistake that for an unwillingness to move until he shows that to be true.

Robear wrote:

We are closer than ever to the GOP becoming the Party of Q. But we are not there yet, in Congress. Let's see what Biden does to make changes before we decide it's all over.

Biden doesn't have anything to do with it. He can be the second incarnation of Washington, Lincoln, and FDR rolled into one and the GQP will still fight tooth and nail to depose him.

With all due respect, I think your analysis is based on logic and sound statesmanship, not the fever-dream swamp the MAGAS are in. They cannot retreat or moderate now, they can only get crazier, more fanatical, and more violent.

Natus, you have a lot of fears, but they depend on many things going wrong in sequence over a pariod of months, and then kicking off a violent revolution by some means which you haven't explained. You don't have a plausible scenario for how the military, the courts, the Guard and Reserves, Congress and the state houses collapse, along with law enforcement. You have fears but no real mechanism that would overcome our defenses. At this point, we have good evidence that we have already weathered one crisis. And we have no good evidence that things will break down in the ways you fear, and there are an awful lot of things that would have to go sideways for your fears to materialize.

I mean, that's what I've got. You can worry, but if you can't come up with a scenario that's *plausible*, maybe it's more worrying about possibilities than likelihoods, you know? I get it, the current situation sucks, but it's hardly 1933. We still have lots of tools in the toolbox that have not failed.

Robear wrote:

We still have lots of tools in the toolbox that have not failed.

It’s odd that you seem to have faith in the tools as independent things that have value, rather than behavioral suggestions implemented by people. If the last six months have shown anything, tools are only useful if they’re used by people. It’s fundamentally a good faith exercise, and that’s been in short supply from Republicans.

Robear wrote:

Natus, you have a lot of fears, but they depend on many things going wrong in sequence over a pariod of months, and then kicking off a violent revolution by some means which you haven't explained. You don't have a plausible scenario for how the military, the courts, the Guard and Reserves, Congress and the state houses collapse, along with law enforcement. You have fears but no real mechanism that would overcome our defenses. At this point, we have good evidence that we have already weathered one crisis. And we have no good evidence that things will break down in the ways you fear, and there are an awful lot of things that would have to go sideways for your fears to materialize.

Republicans control 30 state legislatures. Last year was a Census year, meaning this year Congressional districts get redrawn. Republicans will continue their decades long tradition of gerrymandering the f*ck out of those districts to make unassailable Red districts and dilute the f*ck out of Democratic votes.

Here in Ohio Democrats sued after Republicans redistricted after the 2010 Census and it took through 2019 for the case to work its way through the federal court system. The 2010 redistricting was declared unconstitutional, but there wasn't enough time to redistrict for the 2020 election so we had an entire decade of elections based on partisan districts that f*cked Democrats.

Republicans will do the same this year and it will take years and years to correct their partisan efforts in courts, if ever.

Republicans are pushing through 200+ laws to restrict voters this year. That's because they witnessed Democrats overcome partisan redistricting and existing voter suppression laws during the 2020 election and it scared the piss out of them.

These new laws, like the ones in Georgia, essentially allow state-level election officials--who are controlled by Republicans--to take over county election offices and override county election officials. They can come in and literally throw an election because at the end of the day they just need to toss out a few thousand votes here and a few thousand votes there. And they'll be the ones "investigating" any legitimate concerns about voter suppression.

Any lawsuit contesting the actions of those state election officials will take months to sort out--possibly longer than when those newly elected officials are supposed to take power--and the entire time every conservative media outlet and personality will be screaming that the dirty Democrats are trying to steal the election *again* and that real American patriots should do something about it.

Some of the new laws even allow the state legislature to essentially overturn any election result they don't like.

Republicans will push everything to the brink of a Constitutional crisis and likely well beyond that. They've learned over the years that Democrats will always be the adults in the room and make some sort of compromise so that the country doesn't blow up. All that's done is encourage Republicans to be political bullies.

There doesn't have to be a violent revolution here. It can just be a bunch of militia f*cks showing up with their AR-15s to state legislatures like happened in Michigan and other states during the pandemic. Or they show up at the homes of elected officials, again like they did during the pandemic. Either way they send the message "don't fight this" and it could work. Hell, it worked all throughout the South for more than a century.

We know from last summer's protests that our law enforcement has absolutely no problem beating down anyone except fascists and white supremacists.

I have little faith in state Supreme Courts when several are nothing but rubber stamps for Republicans. I have little faith in Federal courts because basically there's a one in four chance any lawsuit is going to end up in front of a Trump appointee who is either incompetent as f*ck or partisan as f*ck and we all know the Supreme Court itself has been stacked to hell and back with right wingers.

I have little faith in the military because Trump used them and during the summer protests and the one thing they learned from that was to stay out of anything that smacks of politics. Our entire military will stand by and watch our democracy get overthrown from within rather than risk being branded as being partisan or political meddlers. Hell some of them would probably eagerly turn a blind eye if Republicans promised them a blank check when they consolidated power.

We got f*cking lucky in 2020. And the GOP has been busy purging state and federal officials and politicians who aren't backing the Big Lie. There's no guarantee that there will be one or two Republicans at the state level who will resist the immense political pressure to change a vote here or there in 2022 and beyond. I guarantee you Republicans are hunting down those civil servants as we speak.

OG_slinger wrote:

Here in Ohio Democrats sued after Republicans redistricted after the 2010 Census and it took through 2019 for the case to work its way through the federal court system. The 2010 redistricting was declared unconstitutional, but there wasn't enough time to redistrict for the 2020 election so we had an entire decade of elections based on partisan districts that f*cked Democrats.

Republicans will do the same this year and it will take years and years to correct their partisan efforts in courts, if ever.

Same thing in NC. GOP lost, redrew maps, and they were still bullsh*t, and had to redraw them again.

Having independently drawn maps would be one of the best things about HR1 getting passed. Stop all this bullsh*t every decade. Of course some districts are going to lean one way or the other, but just having maps drawn that make geographic sense instead of the insanity now will give a more level playing field. Then the GOP can either try to actually change policy and attract voters or they can get their asses kicked in a fair fight at the ballot box.

Stele wrote:
OG_slinger wrote:

Here in Ohio Democrats sued after Republicans redistricted after the 2010 Census and it took through 2019 for the case to work its way through the federal court system. The 2010 redistricting was declared unconstitutional, but there wasn't enough time to redistrict for the 2020 election so we had an entire decade of elections based on partisan districts that f*cked Democrats.

Republicans will do the same this year and it will take years and years to correct their partisan efforts in courts, if ever.

Same thing in NC. GOP lost, redrew maps, and they were still bullsh*t, and had to redraw them again.

Having independently drawn maps would be one of the best things about HR1 getting passed. Stop all this bullsh*t every decade. Of course some districts are going to lean one way or the other, but just having maps drawn that make geographic sense instead of the insanity now will give a more level playing field. Then the GOP can either try to actually change policy and attract voters or they can get their asses kicked in a fair fight at the ballot box.

and the ones they redrew are STILL bullsh*t.

Say what you will about LP/NeverTrumpers, but they see the danger in the GQP because they helped build it, and they know when to take the gloves off. If this isn't such a time, it will never come. Rick Wilson on the 1/6 Commission.

For the coup de grace, Oliver Willis's: America Doesn't Need The Republican Party

Well the DA in Elizabeth City, NC said no charges for the officers today. It was a bizarre press conference on the local news stations. He showed pictures of cops with guns surrounding the car. Then showed segments of the police body cams that were secret and still not public. It showed the cops surround the car, yelling at the man, then he backs up, and tries to drive away and the cops open fire, dropping 15 rounds. It all happens in about 10-11 seconds from jumping the car to him shot fatally.

And the DA says everything looks great with that.

Unrelated to the current discussion, but new information was released a couple weeks ago about the execution of Michael Reinoehl last year. The event was apparently started by a trigger-happy sheriff who fired a rifle from the passenger seat and through the windshield of his unmarked vehicle, which likely explains the one witness who thought the cops were being fired upon by Reinoehl.

Stele wrote:

And the DA says everything looks great with that.

"Welcome to North Carolina, boy! Can I help you back to the Interstate?"

Robear wrote:
Stele wrote:

And the DA says everything looks great with that.

"Welcome to North Carolina, boy! Can I help you back to the Interstate?"

you mean the tree?

ProPublica and the News and Observer published an excellent article about how the BLM protests affected the small Deepish South town of Graham, North Carolina.

The county seat of the very conservative Alamance County, Graham is most famous for the 1870 lynching of Wyatt Outlaw, a former slave turned town commissioner who was appointed by the governor as justice of the peace. The KKK drug Outlaw from his home one night, slashed his mouth, and hung him from a tree next to the town courthouse with a note pinned to his body that read "Beware, ye guilty, black and white!"

The governor declared that the county was in a state of insurrection and sent in federal troops who arrested 82 men for the murder of Outlaw and other crimes. The state legislature, which was controlled by Democrats, responded by repealing the law used to arrest and indict the 82 men and granted them amnesty. The governor was impeached the following year for his support of Reconstruction and his actions against the KKK.

This bit of history is matters because not a whole lot has changed in Graham since Outlaw's lynching. The Civil Rights Movement passed over the county, leaving it essentially untouched. The town is changing as more people move from the Research Triangle Park area in search of affordable housing. But it's still controlled by Sherriff Terry Johnson, a 71-year-old who gained a new reputation last summer for aggressively attacking BLM protestors while leaving anyone waving a Confederate or Nazi flag completely alone.

The article is absolutely worth a read.

Even more so because it also details how a local racist piece of sh*t became a racist piece of sh*t who ended up in DC on January 6th.

ProPublica wrote:

At virtually every Black Lives Matter demonstration in Graham, Thomas May was standing nearby with a Confederate battle flag propped on his shoulder, watching, often taunting.

May’s amiable conversations with demonstrators about Bible verses morphed over the months into something more hostile. He could be heard by protesters and journalists saying the N-word. One night, he appeared to pantomime a lynching, though he said he was really just scratching his neck.

Even the polls presented an opportunity for trolling. On Oct. 18, wearing a Proud Boys shirt, he cast a ballot for the first time in his life. He was 48, motivated to vote by an admiration for President Donald Trump.

At the polling place, May found Johnson standing in line. The two chatted. May recalled later that Johnson told him they wanted the same thing: for Graham to get back to normal. The conversation with Johnson left May feeling he had done the right thing in opposing the Black Lives Matter protests.

“It’s really not about the monument, and we all know that. Alamance County is one of the last, if not the strongest, conservative county left in North Carolina,” May said. The BLM protesters “hate Sheriff Johnson,” he said. “If they got the monument down, they would be happy, yes, but I mean they want Sheriff Johnson” out of office.

He had a new T-shirt made. Above a Blue Lives Matter flag it read “I support Sheriff Terry Johnson.”

May didn’t have the same pro-law enforcement attitude earlier in life, when his drug use contributed to a string of arrests and a felony conviction for breaking and entering. A religious awakening in Alamance County jail, May said, set him on a new path.

Back in June, when May first started spending his extra time in Graham, it was mostly to get a break from workaday monotony. No partner was waiting at home at the end of his shifts as a manufacturing worker. His father, who had been both his housemate and his best friend, had died a few years before. Softball games had filled his weekends and fed his competitive streak until he injured his knee.

Politics, which he’d never much paid attention to before, started to seem much more interesting than sports. He had cut off his cable after COVID upended the NCAA tournament and began relying more heavily on Facebook for news. When Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski announced his support for Black Lives Matter, May renounced the team he’d once fanatically cheered on.

The more May learned about Trump, the more he found to approve. He liked the president’s economic policies. Trump railed against the free trade agreements that Alamance County residents like May’s parents blamed for the loss of their reliable textile mill jobs. May said he and his coworkers each saw their take-home pay rise substantially after Trump’s tax cuts, and his retirement account grew.

Grief led May back to the family Bible his father had left behind. Bookmarking its pages were memorial cards listing the names of ancestors unknown to him. His research revealed that some had fought for the Confederacy. Slowly, he found himself the county’s most prominent voice for the Confederates’ cause.

May became the administrator of the main local Facebook group. Members of more long-standing Southern heritage organizations, like the secessionist League of the South, bid for his attention. Sutton, the now-former county commissioner, sent May messages affirming his support for protecting the monument. Local restaurants gave him free food.

May liked the spotlight, and for the first time since his dad died, he felt like he had a family. May and his new friends traveled around the Piedmont together, brandishing their battle flags and sometimes eating together at cookouts.

In repeated confrontations with BLM and anti-fascist demonstrators, May and his friends had grown closer, and he himself had changed. In some ways for the better, he thought, in other ways probably for the worse.

“I’ve been thinking about it,” he said recently. “BLM made me who I am.”

Trump’s support for Confederate monuments and his condemnation of BLM and antifa delighted May. During a presidential debate in September, Trump was asked whether he would condemn the Proud Boys, a right-wing group that frequently battled racial justice protesters in the streets. Instead, Trump seemed to embrace the group, telling the Proud Boys to “stand by and stand back.”

The president later condemned the group. But May took the initial seeming endorsement seriously. The Proud Boys were a supercharged version of the family of monument defenders he had come to know in Graham.

He decided to apply for membership and sent an email to an address an acquaintance had passed along.

A Proud Boy vetting applications for a local chapter of the group sent him a video clip. It showed May and a fellow Confederate named Steve Marley riding in the back of a truck during a Trump convoy in September. Somebody shouts, “White power!” as the truck drives past. May denied it was him. But it did not matter.

The Proud Boys rejected him, May said, on the grounds that white supremacists were not allowed in the group.

The rejection did not dissuade May from joining the Proud Boys at the Million MAGA March on Dec. 12 in Washington, D.C. He wore a shirt with the word “Exterminate” over a symbol associated with antifa and carried a Confederate battle flag. Video and images posted to Twitter by an anti-fascist activist show May with an Alamance County man who appears to drag a Black man to the ground and kick him in the head. May said in an interview that the Black man had a knife and had earlier been seen with a group burning either a Trump-branded hat or stuffed animal. He and others chased after the man, May said, adding, “If I had the chance to kick him, I would have kicked him.”

He later joked on Twitter about getting new steel-toed boots for his next trip to Washington on Jan. 6, saying there was a “rumor” that “Alamance County knows how to use them.”

The morning of Jan. 6, May lined up at the base of a set of stairs leading to the U.S. Capitol. When the people in front of him surged forward, he joined the charge.

May called a reporter and yelled into the phone, “We’re storming the Capitol.” He later called back: “It’s like a war zone. I’ll be quiet so you can listen.”

ProPublica wrote:

May called a reporter and yelled into the phone, “We’re storming the Capitol.” He later called back: “It’s like a war zone. I’ll be quiet so you can listen.”

I’d read from a reporter on the scene that there was no cell coverage once you got near the Capitol building. Maybe he used an actual land line. Hmm...