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“In fact, tomorrow?
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I don't even like to say it cause I'll be arrested.
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I'll say it.
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We need to go in to the Capitol.”
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ROBERT EVANS: So, on the sixth,
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we saw all of these different wings of the right:
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QAnon adherents,
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Christian dominionists,
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MAGA people, like normal hardcore supporters of the president,
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and we saw out-and-out neo-Nazis,
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getting closer and closer wound together
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over their mutual desire to overthrow the elected government,
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which they all see as illegitimate.
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They all want to do violence to their political enemies.
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You can see shades of it within Rush Limbaugh:
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“There cannot be a peaceful coexistence
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of two completely different theories of life,
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theories of government, theories of how we manage our affairs.”
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Tucker Carlson: “We allowed BLM and Antifa
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to destroy our country in George Floyd's name.
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How shocked are we that 17-year-olds with rifles
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decided they had to maintain order when no one else would?”
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They've all been urging different chunks of this,
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and getting people more and more comfortable
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with the idea of trying to overthrow the government
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in order to stop the left.
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“They have been trying to provoke a race war.”
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“They're coming for you and your neighborhood!”
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“We're all going to have to defend ourselves.”
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“Antifa mobs saying that if you don't give us power,
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we're going to keep terrorizing your cities.”
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“They want to destroy America.”
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LOGAN JAFFE: So I've been covering the the far right
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and white supremacist movements for a few years now.
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Since the beginning of the pandemic,
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I noticed this immediate gathering in online spaces
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of people who were very against government shutdowns,
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calling these actions tyranny,
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and organizing themselves into various groups.
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“The so-called 'Wolverine Watchmen' were furious over coronavirus shutdowns.”
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“The group calls itself 'Women for America.' Organizers call for a full reopening.”
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“A new group called 'Save our Country,'
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which is all about lobbying for a quick opening of the economy.”
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Right after the election, we get this very large Facebook group, called
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“Stop The Steal.”
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“A group with some 360,000 members...”
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“..aimed at delegitimizing the election process.”
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“The page was filled with false claims about voter fraud,
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and called for boots on the ground to protect the integrity of the vote.”
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We did see protests with the same name
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popping up in various state capitals.
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“Stop the steal! Stop the steal!”
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“We want justice! We want justice!”
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“If you think you will attack our Constitution, you've got another thing coming!”
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EVANS: There's this interlocking network
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of right wing thought leaders, who have been, for years,
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increasingly pushing for violence
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on behalf of this insurgent conservative movement.
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“Now it's time to act on the enemy.
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People need to have their battle rifles and everything ready at their bedsides.
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This is it.”
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“I'd put the heads on pikes.
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I'd put em at the two corners of the White House
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as a warning, to federal bureaucrats.
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That's how you win the revolution.”
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“What can you and I do to a state legislator?
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Besides kill them.
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Although, we should not… I'm not advising that,
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but I mean, what else can you do, right?"
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JAFFE: When you start seeing that language
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being taken very literally
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on social media, and different forums, to me that's a very clear red flag.
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For example, this one post from this website called My Militia,
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which I've been following for a while now:
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Somebody writes, "I say, take the hill or die trying."
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I don't know how much more explicit you can be.
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Posts, and comments, even on Instagram, saying “violence is necessary.”
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And these are just two examples of a sentiment
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that has been expressed over and over.
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EVANS: No one has any excuse to be surprised
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by what happened on the 6th. It was signposted, in places like Salem.
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I mean, I had my hand broken by a Proud Boy
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at a massive thousand-person street fight that the police didn't even show up at.
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One of the key organizers
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of the left-wing counterprotest to Unite the Right,
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she was assaulted by a mob of neo-Nazis.
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“We are penned in, we are surrounded on all sides...”
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One of the people in that mob who assaulted her,
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he's a popular white nationalist live streamer.
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“We're standing up for our rights! We're proud to be white!“
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He was present at the Capitol on the 6th, inciting people to storm the Capitol.
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“Dude, we're in the Capitol, right now!”
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When you're asking about, like, what were the signs?
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How did this develop?
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It developed in exactly the way
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that anti-fascist activists have been warning it has been for years.
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These people, who are drawing a movement to them,
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and inciting violence around the country,
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and eventually it will burst in some way that's too big to ignore.
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And it finally did.