Tag: white supremacists

Exclusive: Phrase ‘White Nationalists’ Cut From Measure To Screen Military Enlistees

Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), the measure’s author, fears other lawmakers are not taking the threat of white nationalists in the military seriously.

A measure in the National Defense Authorization Act meant to keep white nationalists out of the U.S. military no longer mentions “white nationalists” after Congress quietly altered the text after it initially passed the House.

The change, which has not been previously reported, could water down a House-passed amendment meant to address the threat of white nationalists in the military. The House language was specifically drafted to encourage screening for white nationalist beliefs in military enlistees. But after the Republican-controlled Senate passed its own version of the massive military spending bill and the two chambers’ bills were reconciled, the final NDAA instead requires the Department of Defense to study ways to screen military enlistees for “extremist and gang-related activity.”

While it may seem like a minor tweak, the removal of the term “white nationalists” from the amendment text was concerning to Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), who introduced the amendment in July after alarming reports about white nationalists in the U.S. military. Continue reading

The Memo: Questions sharpen for Trump after New Zealand massacre

Friday’s mass shooting in New Zealand is sharpening scrutiny of the rhetoric of international political figures, including President Trump.

Even trenchant Trump critics have not accused him of a direct line of culpability for the shooting at two mosques in Christchurch that left at least 49 people dead. It was the worst mass shooting in New Zealand’s modern history.

But the massacre has reinvigorated criticism that Trump has empowered extremists and Islamophobes globally since his 2015 call for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” 

View the complete March 16 article by Niall Stanage on The Hill website here.

FBI announces a massive white supremacist gang bust — but there’s no sign Trump cares

On Tuesday, the Justice Department announced the arrest of dozens of white supremacists in a bust of a gang in Arkansas known as the New Aryan Empire, which is suspected of being a racketeering organization. The FBI made the arrest, in connection with the Little Rock district offices of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, & Explosives (ATF):

“According to the allegations in the indictment announced today, New Aryan Empire associates maintained their criminal enterprise by engaging in multiple acts of violence — including kidnapping and attempting to murder one informant, and stabbing and maiming two others suspected of cooperating with law enforcement,” said Assistant Attorney General [Brian] Benczkowski. “I want to thank our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners for vigorously investigating this vicious criminal organization.”

The case, named “To The Dirt,” which is in reference to the NAE slogan referring to the rule that members must remain in the NAE until they die, began in 2016 when ATF assisted the Pope County Sheriff’s Office in a murder investigation. The murder involved members of the NAE, a white supremacist organization that began as a prison gang and has since expanded beyond the prisons. Investigators learned that several members of the NAE conducted meetings in Pope County and became involved in methamphetamine distribution.

View the complete February 12 article by Matthew Chapman on the AlterNet website here.

Trump endorses GOP candidate who hired white supremacists

The following article by Tommy Christopher was posted on the ShareBlue.com website August 6, 2018:

Credit: Carolyn Kaster, AP Photo

Trump endorsed Kris Kobach for governor of Kansas just days after Kobach was outed for hiring white supremacists.

Trump took time out of his vacation in New Jersey to endorse Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach for governor — just days after Republican consultants publicly outed Kobach for employing alleged white supremacists on his campaign.

Trump tweeted from his Bedminster, New Jersey golf resort Monday morning that Kobach “is a fantastic guy” who “will be a GREAT Governor and has my full & total Endorsement!”

A few days earlier on Friday, however, the Topeka Capitol Journal broke the news that Kobach’s campaign has been accused of employing three white supremacists, that we know of:

View the complete post here.

‘Kill them’: Three men charged in shooting after Richard Spencer speech

The following article by Susan Svrluga and Lori Rozsa was posted on the Washington Post website October 20, 2017:

Protesters surrounded and shouted at Tyler Eugene Tenbrink, who attended Richard Spencer’s speech, as he tried to leave the University of Florida on Thursday. (Evelyn Hockstein for The Washington Post)

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Three men were charged with attempted homicide after they argued with a group of people protesting a white nationalist’s speech and fired a shot at them, police said Friday.

About 90 minutes after Richard Spencer’s speech Thursday at the University of Florida — which generated so much controversy that the governor declared a state of emergency days before the event — a silver Jeep pulled up to six to eight protesters near a bus stop and confronted them, according to Gainesville Police Department spokesman Sgt. Ben Tobias.

The men, whom police identified as white nationalists, threatened the group, making Nazi salutes and shouting chants about Hitler, police said. Continue reading “‘Kill them’: Three men charged in shooting after Richard Spencer speech”

Racist, Violent, Unpunished: A White Hate Group’s Campaign of Menace

The following article by A.C. Thompson and Darwin Bond-Graham was posted on the ProPublica website October 19, 2017:

They train to fight. They post their beatings online. And so far, they have little reason to fear the authorities.

RAM member Ben Daley (center) attacks an unidentified woman at the “Unite the Right” rally on Aug. 12, 2017, in Charlottesville, Virginia. (Jason Andrew for Splinter)

It was about 10 a.m. on Aug. 12 when the melee erupted just north of Emancipation Park in Charlottesville, Virginia.

About two dozen white supremacists — many equipped with helmets and wooden shields — were battling with a handful of counter-protesters, most of them African American. One white man dove into the violence with particular zeal. Using his fists and feet, the man attacked one person after another.

The street fighter was in Virginia on that August morning for the “Unite the Right” rally, the largest public gathering of white supremacists in a generation, a chaotic and bloody event that would culminate, a few hours later, in the killing of 32-year-old Heather Heyer, who was there to protest the racist rally. Continue reading “Racist, Violent, Unpunished: A White Hate Group’s Campaign of Menace”

After President Trump’s Refusal to Denounce White Supremacists, Will Minnesota Republicans Campaign with the President and Vice President, Continue their Silence?

Despite Trump-Pence emboldening white supremacists, Republicans in Minnesota refuse to denounce the leaders of their party by name 

Will Minnesota Republicans campaign with President Trump and Vice President Pence? Will Chair Carnahan invite Trump to campaign with Republican candidates across the state?

[ST. PAUL, MN] – Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Chairman Ken Martin is calling out Minnesota Republicans’ silence and refusal to forcefully condemn the Trump-Pence Administration for its disturbing reaction to last weekend’s violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia and asking whether they will campaign with the ticket in the weeks and months ahead. Continue reading “After President Trump’s Refusal to Denounce White Supremacists, Will Minnesota Republicans Campaign with the President and Vice President, Continue their Silence?”

What does ‘antifa’ mean?

The following article was posted on the Star Tribune website August 17, 2017:

When President Donald Trump said this week that there were “very fine people” at the white power rally, he cast “blame on both sides” including the “alt-left” antifa.

First bursting into the headlines when they shut down far-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos in February at the University of California, Berkeley, anti-fascists again captivated the public imagination by battling the fascists assembled at the “Unite the Right” white power rally in Charlottesville, Va. Continue reading “What does ‘antifa’ mean?”

Republican Jewish Coalition breaks with Trump on Charlottesville, asks for ‘greater moral clarity’

The following article by David Nakamura was posted on the Washington Post website August 16, 2017:

President Trump discusses the violence, injuries and deaths at the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville as he talks to the media in the lobby of Trump Tower in Manhattan on Aug. 15, 2017. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

A major Jewish political coalition that has long supported President Trump and stood by him through other controversies broke with him on Wednesday over his response to events last weekend in Charlottesville, imploring him to more forcefully reject Nazis and other white supremacist groups.

The Republican Jewish Coalition called on Trump to “provide greater moral clarity in rejecting racism, bigotry, and antisemitism,” in a joint statement from Chairman Norm Coleman and executive director Matt Brooks.

The one paragraph statement represented another sign that Trump’s supportive comments of some participants in the Unite the Right rally over the weekend has fractured political support from some of his closest allies. Trump’s business manufacturing advisory council disbanded Wednesday after a number of chief executives and other members announced their resignation in protest of his remarks, and some high-profile Republican leaders on Capitol Hill criticized the president. Continue reading “Republican Jewish Coalition breaks with Trump on Charlottesville, asks for ‘greater moral clarity’”

Far-Right Protesters in Virginia Included ‘Very Fine’ People, Trump Says

The following article by John T. Bennett was posted on the Roll Call website August 15, 2017:

President Donald Trump delivers remarks following a meeting on infrastructure at Trump Tower on Tuesday. He appeared to defend some of the white supremacist groups who help spawn deadly violence Saturday in Virginia. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

President Donald Trump on Tuesday defended some of the neo-Nazis and white supremacists who were part of the deadly Charlottesville, Virginia, protests last weekend, saying there were “very fine people” on both sides of the racially charged unrest.

A defiant Trump, just a day after slamming the pro-white groups who organized the two-day protests of the planned removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee, appeared to give some of their members cover. “There is blame on both sides,” he told reporters during what amounted to a brief impromptu press conference at Trump Tower in New York.

“I don’t have any doubt about it,” said the president, who has been accused of spreading rhetoric and ideas floated by the alt-right political movement that has ties to white supremacist groups.

Trump said the white supremacist groups in Charlottesville “bad,” but said the anti-protesters also were “very violent.” He added in a chiding tone: “Nobody wants to say that. … I’ll say that right now.” Continue reading “Far-Right Protesters in Virginia Included ‘Very Fine’ People, Trump Says”