One defining feature of the first 100 days of the Donald Trump administration has been the surge in anti-Semitism sweeping the country. Now a small Kentucky town is bracing for violence between armed neo-Nazis and protesters.
Lois Beckett, senior reporter for the Guardian, has a longform investigative dispatch from Pikeville, Kentucky on Saturday's planned neo-Nazi rally. "On Friday evening, the neo-Nazis assembled at a Walmart parking lot and formed a caravan of more than 20 cars..."
Beckett spoke with Art Jones, "who the Anti-Defamation League identifies as a Holocaust denier who has been dressing in Nazi garb and celebrating Hitler since the 1970s."
“I’m sorry I voted for the son of a bitch, I really am,” Jones told Beckett. "I’m embarrassed that I voted for him.”
Beckett reported that Jones abandoned Trump due to the "Jewish lobby" and Trump relying upon the counsel of his son-in-law, Jared Kushner (who is Jewish).
Jones is a Republican who sought election to the United States Congress from Illinois in both 2012 and 2016. While Jones was once officially a member of the Nationalist Socialist Party, during his first congressional bid he stated he votes Republican 90% of the time.
In the same 2012 interview, Jones claimed the, "Holocaust never happened."
“As far as I’m concerned, the Holocaust is nothing more than an international extortion racket by the Jews,” Jones stated. “It’s the blackest lie in history. Millions of dollars are being made by Jews telling this tale of woe and misfortune in books, movies, plays and TV."
On Friday in the Walmart parking lot, Mike Schloer of the National Socialist Movement listed epithets that should not be used in public by neo-Nazi rally participants. “Do not use any foul language or any racial slurs."
Saturday's neo-Nazi march is said to feature five dozen members of the Indiana III percenters militia organization -- in full body armor and brandishing AR-15s.
Multiple businesses in Pikeville will be staying closed as the neo-Nazis gather in front of the historic courthouse.