Trump ally told us 'look at the data' on left-wing violence — we did and it doesn't add up

Former acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf’s appearance before a Senate hearing on political violence this week resurfaced inconvenient remarks for a witness called by Republicans intent on painting rising political violence as a left-wing problem.

Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) read back Wolf’s Senate testimony from five years ago.

“White supremacist extremists, from a lethality standpoint over the last two years … are certainly the most persistent and lethal threat, when we talk about domestic violent extremists,” Wolf said at the time.

On Tuesday, before the Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, chaired by Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO), Wolff offered a strikingly different assessment.

“The increase in politically motivated violence over the last several years has been driven largely by radical, left-wing extremist groups and individuals that believe violence is a legitimate means to achieve political goals,” Wolf testified.

Wolf is now executive vice president of the America First Policy Institute. Founded in 2021 and closely aligned with Trump, former leaders include Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, Secretary of Agriculture Brook Rollins and Attorney General Pam Bondi.

In a statement to Raw Story, Wolf did not disavow his 2020 assessment on white supremacist violence, but said: “America has experienced a historic rise in left-wing violence, especially following President Trump’s second election victory.”

At the time of Wolf’s September 2020 hearing, the U.S. had experienced a series of mass shootings by white supremacists, including Patrick Crusius, who killed 23 people, mostly Latinos, at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas in 2019, and Robert Bowers, who killed 11 at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018.

Both killers echoed Donald Trump’s rhetoric depicting immigrants and refugees as an “invasion” or “invaders.”

U.S. counterterrorism officials also took note of the 2019 massacre carried out by Brenton Tarrant, who killed 51 Muslims at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Crusius cited Tarrant as an inspiration. So did Payton Gendron, who killed 10 African Americans at a grocery store in Buffalo, N.Y. in 2022.

Tarrant’s attack catalyzed the emergence of the term “saints” among white supremacists to glorify terrorists. The U.S. Justice Department is currently prosecuting three Terrorgram leaders on terrorism-related charges.

“White supremacist violence is clearly not the primary threat facing our country today,” Wolf told Raw Story. “All you have to do is look at the data, which has changed significantly in the last five years.”

Wolf cited incidents often mentioned by the administration and allies to make the case that political violence now emanates from the left: the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, two attempts on Trump’s life, the attempted assassination of conservative Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and attacks on centers that offer an alternative to abortion services.

He did not cite the murder of Minnesota Democratic state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband by an abortion opponent; a recent death threat against Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) by a Jan. 6 rioter; or the bludgeoning of Paul Pelosi, husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), by a QAnon follower.

Nor did Wolf mention some 1,500 individuals pardoned by President Trump over the Jan. 6 assault on Congress.

William Braniff, a former director of DHS’ Center for Prevention Programs under President Joe Biden testified alongside Wolf.

Braniff agreed that violent incidents are on the rise. But he told the subcommittee, “Violent events do not fit neatly into any one ideological category.”

Braniff noted that DHS contracted with the University of Maryland in 2005 to create a global terrorism database, by congressional mandate. In March, the Trump administration canceled funding.

Drawing on the database, Braniff said: “This year, compared to last year, terrorism events are up 67 percent. Fatalities are up nearly 150 percent. Americans are dying from ISIS-inspired, white supremacist, antisemitic, anti-government, anti-vax, anti-law enforcement and nihilistic attacks.”

‘Black Lives Matter and antifa riots’

In 2020, when Wolf flagged white supremacist violence, he was overseeing DHS as the first Trump administration deployed federal agents against protesters in Portland, Ore., a harbinger of the current standoff at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the city.

On Tuesday, Sen. Schmitt and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) cited rioting related to protests against the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020, a familiar Republican talking point.

“There is an epidemic of politically motivated violence,” Cruz said. “And the politically motivated violence in this country is overwhelmingly emanating from the left. We saw that during the Black Lives Matter and antifa riots across the country, as cities across America burned.”

Schmitt complained that some studies of political violence “systematically ignore antifa and Black Lives Matter riots.”

Michael Knowles, a podcast host at the conservative outlet The Daily Wire, complained in testimony that “the Black Lives Matter riots, overtly leftist demonstrations that left dozens of people dead … fail to show up on registers of left-wing political violence.”

Cruz, Schmitt and Knowles did not delve into who was responsible for such violence. The data suggests they were presenting an incomplete picture.

Drawing on data provided by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), and multiple news reports, Raw Story counted 34 deaths plausibly linked to racial justice protests and unrest in 2020, not counting the police killings that sparked protests. Of those, three appear to involve perpetrators directly linked to Black Lives Matter, “antifa” or their supporters.

On May 28, 2020, the second night of rioting in Minneapolis, rioters set fire to a pawnshop. The charred remains of 30-year-old Oscar Lee Stewart Jr. were found in the ruins. Montez Terriel Lee was convicted of arson and sentenced to a decade in prison.

The following month, 16-year-old Antonio Mays Jr. was shot inside a stolen Jeep Cherokee that sped through an area of Seattle known as the CHAZ — Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone — and occupied by protesters. No charges have been brought, but bystander video appears to implicate an activist security team patrolling amid fears of a right-wing attack.

In late August 2020, Aaron “Jay” Danielson, a member of the far-right group Patriot Prayer, was fatally shot in Portland, Ore. Michael Reinoehl, the self-described “antifa” shooter, claimed self-defense. Before he could be apprehended, Reinoehl was killed by federal agents, an event President Trump described as “retribution.”

Danielson’s death is the only politically motivated homicide in the U.S. linked to an identified antifascist in the past quarter-century.

In contrast, one study found that white supremacists and other right-wing extremists killed at least 329 between 1994 and 2020.

The circumstances of Danielson’s shooting remain unclear. As noted by ACLED, Trump supporters were staging a car caravan through downtown Portland, and some right-wingers “sprayed pepper spray and shot paintball guns at counter-demonstrators rallying in support of the BLM movement and against police brutality, as well as journalists.”

The entry also notes video showing right-wing demonstrators driving vehicles through left-wing counter-demonstrators attempting to block the streets.

‘Might shoot looters’

Eight other deaths in 2020 could be linked to racial justice protests, if not directly.

In some, civilian bystanders were killed by criminals who appeared to be exploiting chaos. Victims include David Dorn, a retired police captain in St. Louis whose widow spoke at the 2020 Republican National Convention; Chris Beaty, a former college football player murdered in Indianapolis while assisting a woman being mugged; and Marvin Francois, a photographer killed in a robbery while leaving a protest in Kansas City.

Among the most shocking deaths associated with the 2020 protests is that of 8-year-old Secoriea Turner, shot by an alleged Bloods gang member manning a barricade in the area where Rayshard Brooks was killed by Atlanta police. Julian Conley was convicted of murder and other offenses, and sentenced to life in prison.

Kyle Rittenhouse Kyle Rittenhouse mugshot. (Kenosha County Sheriff's office)

But in at least 23 cases — roughly two thirds — Raw Story found that perpetrators of unrest-related deaths were not linked to Black Lives Matter, antifa or their supporters. They include five people killed by police, one killed by the National Guard, others killed by motorists and shopkeepers, a man with severe mental illness, and a security guard for a news crew.

In one example, Steven Carillo, an airman active in the far-right Boogaloo movement, took advantage of unrest after Floyd’s death to murder David Patrick Underwood, a federal security officer guarding the federal courthouse in Oakland, Calif., and Damon Gutzwiler, a Santa Cruz County deputy sheriff attempting to serve a warrant.

Raw Story’s analysis tallied 11 Black Lives Matter protesters killed: roughly equal to the number of unaffiliated civilians.

Two — Summer Taylor and Robert Forbes — were struck by vehicles. Barry Perkins III was dragged by a tractor-trailer. Others, including James Scurlock and Italia Impinto, were shot.

Garrett Foster, an Air Force veteran marching with BLM protesters in Austin, Texas on July 25, 2020, was fatally shot by Daniel Perry, a former soldier who reportedly searched for locations of protesters and told a friend he “might go to Dallas to shoot looters.” Perry was convicted of murder, then pardoned by Gov. Greg Abbott.

Perhaps most memorably, Kyle Rittenhouse fatally shot two BLM supporters during unrest in Kenosha, Wis. in 2020. He was acquitted on all charges.

'Dragnet': Ex-DOJ lawyer sounds FBI alarm as Bondi and Patel hail new 'antifa' indictment

A former senior Department of Justice anti-terrorism lawyer who served in three presidential administrations said he was troubled by federal prosecutors calling “antifa” a “militant enterprise,” in a recent indictment against two individuals accused of attacking a Texas ICE facility.

The indictment unveiled on Thursday charges Zachary Evetts and Cameron Arnold with providing material support to terrorists and three counts each of attempted murder of federal officers and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, in connection with a July 4 attack on the ICE Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas.

The government alleges the two were part of an “antifa cell,” while defining “antifa” — commonly understood as a decentralized movement of people opposed to fascism — as an “enterprise made up of networks and small groups ascribing to a revolutionary anarchism or autonomous Marxist ideology.”

The indictment goes on to say that since Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January, “antifa adherents have increasingly targeted agents and facilities related to DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in opposition to ICE’s deportation actions and the U.S. government’s policy on the removal of illegal aliens.”

“The choice of the term ‘enterprise’ is illuminating in that they suggest they are investigating antifa as an enterprise,” Thomas E. Brzozowski, who formerly served as counsel for domestic terrorism at the Department of Justice, told Raw Story.

“It gives them the authority to look at a lot of stuff — membership, recruiting, funding….”

“It gives the FBI the wherewithal to examine the funding of anybody that would in their view fall under this bucket, which is pretty broad, even if you are not involved in perpetrating violence in the furtherance of this ideology.”

Brzozowski, who served under Joe Biden and Barack Obama as well under Trump’s first administration, added: “When you’ve got this amorphous definition that encompasses such a wide array of ideologies, that is a broad spectrum of people that are otherwise unconnected. That’s a problem, in my view.”

The indictment echoed language in Trump’s Sept. 22 executive order naming “antifa” as a “domestic terrorist organization,” while describing it as “a militaristic, anarchist enterprise.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi cited Trump in an X post on the indictment Thursday, declaring, “Antifa is a left-wing terrorist organization. They will be prosecuted as such.”

FBI Director Kash Patel wrote: “Under President Trump’s new authorities we’ve made 20+ arrests. No one gets to harm law enforcement. Not on my watch.”

‘Protest and shoot fireworks’

The indictment only says one member of the so-called “antifa cell” — described only as “Coconspirator-1” — fired at law enforcement at the ICE’s Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas on July 4.

The indictment describes “Coconspirator-1” as opening fire on Alvarado police officers responding to a 911 call from ICE, striking one of the officers in the neck area.

The U.S. Department of Justice has identified the shooter as Benjamin Hanil Song.

Song is separately charged with three counts of attempted murder of federal agents, but is not named as a defendant in the indictment defining “antifa” as a “militant enterprise.”

That indictment alleges that “Coconspirator-1” (Song) trained members of the “antifa cell” in firearms and close-quarters combat, and that when police responded to the ICE facility on July 4, Song yelled, “Get to the rifles.”

Patrick McLain, Evetts’ lawyer, previously told Raw Story his client believed he would be participating in a protest, and did not fire a gun.

“They were going to the ICE detention facility,” McLain said. “Mr. Evetts was going to protest and shoot fireworks on the night of the 4th of July. Clearly, someone fired.”

The recent indictment states that the police officer, who was reportedly discharged from an area hospital following the attack, returned fire.

“I know my guy was not a shooter,” McLain said. “I know my guy was not carrying a firearm.”

‘Who's antifascists? Everybody’

The material support charge against Evetts and Arnold utilizes a statute known as § 2339A, which was expanded to cover federal crimes of terrorism under President George W. Bush.

The statute, which carries a prison sentence of up to 15 years, was used by the government to prosecute three members of the Front, a neo-Nazi accelerationist group that plotted an attack on the power grid in 2020.

Brzozowski said he didn’t question the application of the charge to Evetts and Arnold, based on their alleged conduct.

But he did question how the administration was attempting to connect individuals in an alleged “antifa” enterprise, beyond ideology.

“I don’t see anything in the indictment that they self-identified as antifa,” Brzozowski said.

“Who’s antifascists? Everybody. Unless you’re a member of Atomwaffen or you’re a neo-Nazi. The vast majority of us are antifascist, I would hope.”

The reference to “anarchist or Marxist ideology” as a “connective tissue” for the alleged “enterprise” raises the prospect that people could be criminalized for political beliefs, regardless of whether they perpetrate violence, Brzozowski said.

“If you envision a situation like 200 people showing up outside an ICE facility and two or three are dressed in black, and they start tussling with the police and engaging in violence, what about the other 197 people?” Brzozowski asked.

“Are they now in an FBI database? That’s the most pernicious thing about this. You never know if you’re going to be swept up in a dragnet.

“The vagueness is the kicker,” he added. “It’s backwards. Typically, the FBI’s targets are going to be driven by a whole apparatus. They build up an intelligence picture of the most potent threats. That’s going to dictate how they allocate their scarce resources.

“Here, it appears the sequencing is jacked up. The administration is directing them to pursue a chimera, instead of an actual target based on intelligence.”

‘Absurd’: Noem claim to have arrested ‘antifa’ founder’s girlfriend stirs ridicule

A dramatic claim by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to have arrested “the girlfriend of one of the founders of antifa,” therefore putting the Trump administration in position to “eliminate” the leftwing “network,” was dismissed by both the activist the arrested woman was said to have dated and a leading expert on such leftwing groups.

“I want to make it absolutely clear that I am not now, nor have I ever been, the ‘founder’ of ‘Antifa’ — in Portland [Oregon], the United States, or anywhere else,” said Luis Enrique Marquez, the activist, in a statement on a website promoting a book.

“It’s an absurd claim, no matter how they try to frame it,” Stanislav Vysotsky, an associate professor of criminology at the University of Fraser Valley in British Columbia, told Raw Story.

Nonetheless, Noem’s trumpeting of the arrest of Katherine Vogel, 39, showed the administration’s determination to make headlines as it seeks to paint “antifa” activists as a danger to the American public, and Portland as the supposed base of such groups.

‘Root them out’

Seated alongside President Donald Trump during a White House roundtable last week, Noem said: “One of the individuals we arrested in Portland was the girlfriend of one of the founders of antifa.

“We are hoping that as we go after her, interview her and prosecute her, we will get more and more information about the network and how we can root them out and eliminate them from the existence of American society.”

On Sept. 30, Vogel was the subject of a targeted arrest carried out by Federal Protective Services and U.S. Border Patrol agents, after she was allegedly observed with a group of people spilling red paint on the sidewalk outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility.

A federal criminal complaint alleges that “while Vogel was being escorted into the facility for processing, she actively resisted by flailing her body” and struck one of the agents on the jaw with a closed fist.

She told an investigator she did not recall striking the agent.

Vogel was a contractor with the U.S. General Services Administration. As a result of her arrest “she was found unsuitable” and will no longer work for the agency, a spokesperson told Raw Story.

Noem’s description of Vogel as a potential linchpin for a nationwide network supposedly posing a terrorist threat appears to have been sourced to Andy Ngo, a right-wing media figure who Trump said at the roundtable was “a very serious person.”

Ngo was previously represented in a lawsuit for assault against Rose City Antifa, a Portland group, by Harmeet Dhillon, now assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Department of Justice. Rose City Antifa was dismissed as a defendant. Ngo and Dhillon frequently share each other’s posts on X.

A week before Noem’s White House remarks, Ngo posted that Vogel was “a veteran Rose City Antifa member” and “the previous girlfriend of violent Rose City Antifa member Luis Enrique Marquez.”

Vogel, who was released from custody on Oct. 1, could not be reached for comment.

Marquez, the author of the book Antifascist: A Memoir of the Portland Uprising, refuted Ngo’s claim. The statement on his website said: “I have never been a member of Rose City Antifa or any other Antifa group.”

Marquez also said his relationship with Vogel ended in 2020, adding, “Any insinuation of an ongoing connection between us is false and disingenuous.”

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not respond to a request to clarify Noem’s reference to Vogel as “the girlfriend of one of the founders of antifa.”

Vysotsky, who has extensively interviewed antifascist activists, said that notion was difficult to square with reality, given that the movement dates back to the early 20th century.

“If we’re talking about the girlfriend of the founder of antifa, then we’re talking about someone who would have to be 120 years old or 130 years old,” Vysotsky told Raw Story.

While antifascism emerged in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s, in response to the rise of fascism in Italy and Germany, Vysotsky said the modern antifascist movement in North America can generally be dated to the mid- to late-1980s.

Rose City Antifa, the Portland-based group referenced by Ngo, was founded in 2007. Vysotsky said that to the best of his knowledge, Marquez was not a founder.

“He came on the scene in 2016 or 2017,” Vysotsky said. “He happens to be someone who is prominent and outspoken on social media. It’s an absurd claim, no matter how they try to frame it.”

A DHS spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, said Vogel’s activist connections were the subject of “an ongoing investigation,” adding: “We will release more information when we can.”

‘A militarist, anarchist enterprise’

In a Sept. 26 X post, DHS described Rose City Antifa as a “domestic terrorist organization.” The post followed an executive order issued by Trump days earlier, which described “Antifa” as “a militarist, anarchist enterprise.”

But Vysotsky said Noem’s vow to “root out” and “eliminate” an “antifa” network was likely to go nowhere because there is no formal membership organization or international network.

“It’s an orientation, because it’s a set of beliefs by people opposed to fascism,” Vysotsky said.

“What they mean when they say ‘fascism’ is a movement based on a belief in an inherent inequality between people that is enforced by violence. What antifa stands for is equality between people, and what drives antifascism is a desire to create a more just and equal world.”

The idea that the Trump administration will be able to use Vogel’s arrest to identify a leadership cadre and, as Noem put it, “eliminate” an “antifa” network “from the existence of American society” is “an almost absurd claim,” Vysotsky said.

“Antifa activism, as it exists, is highly decentralized,” Vysotsky said, adding that antifascist activity ranges from individuals engaged in intelligence gathering and educational work “to small, local affinity groups that are organized in a direct, democratic manner.

“There’s no leadership,” he said.

The Sept. 26 DHS post accused Rose City Antifa of doxing ICE agents.

On Sept. 19 a website called Rose City Counter-Info did post two profiles that showed the names and images — and in one case, information about the employment history of a spouse — of two individuals purported to be ICE agents active in the Portland area. The DHS post included a photo of a flyer soliciting information about ICE agents that appears to include Rose City Antifa's email address, although it is partially redacted.

A statement published on Rose City Antifa's behalf denies that the group has doxed ICE agents or had anything to do with the flyer. The statement references a Bluesky post two months earlier that acknowledges the flyers but indicates Rose City Antifa was not responsible for putting them out.

The DHS X post referencing Rose City Antifa came a day after Trump issued a national security memorandum, NSPM-7, which argued that domestic terrorists organized under the banner of “anti-fascism” are engaged in “sophisticated, organized campaigns of targeted intimidation.”

The memo claims campaigns “escalate to organized doxing, where the private or identifying information of their targets (such as home addresses, phone numbers, or other personal information) is exposed to the public with the explicit intent of encouraging others to harass, intimidate, or violently assault them).”

The memo specifically references activists targeting ICE agents.

“For the Trump administration to argue that antifa activists are terrorists, they’re going to have to greatly expand what acts constitute terrorism,” Vysotsky said.

They’re already doing that, he argued, by “talking about doxing as a form of terrorism.”

‘Exceptionally broad’

Vysotsky said rhetoric from the Trump administration linking antifascism to terrorism appears to be calculated to distract attention from ICE activities and violence by far-right actors.

“This serves as a distraction to focus Trump supporters away from the negative images of families being separated,” Vysotsky said. “It’s also a way to distract away from political violence, which has overwhelmingly been right-wing political violence.”

Antifascists, with journalists and observers, confront white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va in 2017. Picture: Anthony Crider

Vysotsky and Marquez said they saw the campaign against “antifa” as signaling a crackdown on all who oppose Trump’s policies — not just the far left.

“It’s exceptionally broad, because when they talk about antifa, they’re creating this image that ranges from the bogeyman of black-clad protesters to mainstream politicians like Adam Schiff [the Democratic senator from California] to the Ford Foundation, which is a major philanthropic organization,” Vysotsky said.

NSPM-7 charges that an “‘anti-fascist’ lie has become a rallying cry used by domestic terrorists to wage a violent assault against democratic institutions, constitutional rights and fundamental American liberties.”

Core tenets of antifascism, the memorandum claims, “include anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the United States government; extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.”

Marquez said that “by targeting innocent people and fabricating threats that do not exist,” the Trump administration is “attempting to build a mythical enemy in order to expand control over our lives.”

This story was updated on Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025 at 1:57 p.m. to reflect that Rose City Antifa has denied doxing ICE agents and responsibility for the flyer soliciting tips on agents.

'Bombing random buildings?' Alarm as Trump mulls 'antifa' foreign terrorist designation

President Donald Trump’s interest in designating “antifa” as a foreign terrorist organization could provide the government with new tools to prosecute the amorphous left-wing movement and, one former counterterrorism official argues, potential justification for using lethal force.

The president has already rhetorically targeted “antifa” as a terrorist entity through a largely symbolic executive order that holds no statutory teeth.

But on Wednesday a cohort of right-wing influencers and Trump-friendly journalists invited to the White House asked the administration to go further, and designate “antifa” as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO).

An FTO designation effectively functions as a ban by making it unlawful for any person in the United States to knowingly provide “material support or resources” to the entity concerned.

“I’d be glad to do it,” Trump said. “I think it’s the kind of thing I’d like to do, if you’d like. Does everybody agree? If you agree, I agree. Let’s get it done.”

Trump turned to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is officially responsible for FTO designations.

“Marco, we’ll take care of it,” Trump said.

“Steve, are you okay with it?” Trump added, turning to Senior Advisor Stephen Miller.

“Yes, it’s true,” Miller replied. “There are extensive foreign ties, and I think that would be a very valid step to take.”

“Antifa” is short for antifascism, a global movement that dates back to Weimar Republic in Germany, and typically describes a decentralized movement that sometimes uses militant tactics to oppose white supremacy and other forms of authoritarianism.

Regardless, Trump cabinet members have made it clear that they consider “antifa” to be no different to drug cartels such as Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan group which was added to the State Department’s terror list in February, or groups such as ISIS that are more typical of groups traditionally targeted by U.S. counterterrorism efforts.

“This network of antifa is just as sophisticated as MS-13, as TDA, as ISIS, as Hezbollah, as Hamas, as all of ’em,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on Wednesday.

“They are just as dangerous. They have an agenda to destroy us, just like the other terrorists we’ve dealt with for many, many years.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi added: “Just like we did with cartels, we’re going to take this same approach, President Trump, with antifa. Destroy the entire organization, from top to bottom.”

Olivia Troye, who was counterterrorism advisor to Vice President Mike Pence in the first Trump administration, raised the question of whether the administration is signaling a willingness to use lethal force against individuals deemed to be “antifa.”

“I guess the question is, are we just going to start bombing random buildings where they think antifa is residing?” Troye said on Thursday, on the podcast The Left Hook with Wajahat Ali, after the host observed that the U.S. military has recently carried out strikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean.

“I know that sounds hyperbolic,” Troye said, “but what does that mean when Pam Bondi says that?”

The Department of Justice did not respond to a request from Raw Story to clarify Bondi’s remarks.

Miles Taylor, who was chief of staff for the Department of Homeland Security in the first Trump administration, said on the same podcast that Bondi’s remarks have to be considered in context with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s call, in a speech to generals in Virginia last week, to loosen rules of engagement.

Taylor also flagged Trump’s recommendation at the same meeting to “use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military” against an “enemy within.”

“We’re not talking about loosening the rules of engagement to go after Taliban fighters,” Taylor said. “We’re talking about loosening the rules of engagement to go after the domestic opposition. This is not hyperbole.”

The White House has claimed military strikes against alleged drug boats are in line with the law of armed conflict. Legal experts disagree.

Trump and members of his cabinet describe “antifa” as a single group, but have presented no evidence of any network responsible for coordinating left-wing violence exists.

Rather, the president’s recent counterterrorism memorandum, known as NSPM-7, blames an array of incidents of left-wing violence on an “umbrella of self-described ‘anti-fascism.’”

The memorandum names the core tenets of antifascism as “anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the United States government; extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.”

ISIS precedent

Beyond the specter of an extrajudicial offensive against “antifa,” an FTO designation would open perceived opponents of the Trump administration to prosecution for a broad array of activities that could be construed as “material support.”

The federal statute defines “material support and resources” to include “any property, tangible or intangible, or service, including currency or monetary instruments or financial securities, financial services, lodging, training, expert advice or assistance, safehouses, false documentation or identification, communications equipment, facilities, weapons, lethal substances, explosives, personnel… and transportation.”

The U.S. government’s recent prosecution of Ashraf Al Safoo, an ISIS propagandist who operated in Chicago, illustrates how the material support provision could be used against “antifa” targets.

Al Safoo led the Khattab Media Foundation, described by one witness as “an unofficial ISIS media organization.” Following his bench trial in May, Al Safoo was convicted of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and other offenses. He faces up to 130 years in prison.

The case against Al Safoo focused on his use of social media to encourage violence against ISIS’ perceived enemies and recruit for the organization. Federal prosecutors also proved Al Safoo made wire transfers of up to $400 to an ISIS leader in Syria, who testified that the money was spent to buy food and medicine for families in ISIS-controlled territory.

The government witness, a former “emir” for media operations for ISIS in Al-Anbar, in Iraq, testified that organizations such as Khattab Media Foundation “provided support to ISIS because they increased the amount of content ISIS could release and amplify,” according to a ruling issued by U.S. District Court Judge John Robert Blakey in August.

Blakey ruled that Al Safoo’s “activities were not independent advocacy or otherwise protected speech.” The judge found that Al Safoo’s media work on ISIS’ behalf constituted “intangible services.”

Citing the U.S. Supreme Court 2010 ruling in Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, Blakey wrote that “expressive activity may be constitutionally limited when the support is addressed to, directed by, or coordinated with a foreign terrorist organization.

“Khattab Media Foundation existed, by its members’ own words (including defendant’s own admissions), to do just that: provide critical media services to ISIS at ISIS’s approval and direction, strictly adhering and complying with ISIS’s messaging and directives,” Blakey continued.

“This is exactly the type of material support through intangible services” the law “prohibits.”

Ex-Green Beret suspected of leading armed militia mounts GOP run for Congress

A special forces soldier turned motivational speaker who led a civilian disaster response to Hurricane Helene last fall, generating an Army investigation into whether he was leading an armed militia group, is running for Congress in North Carolina.

In the final stretch of the 2024 presidential campaign, Adam R. Smith’s Savage Freedoms Relief Operations won praise from then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, as he sought to discredit federal disaster response efforts under then-President Joe Biden.

But as reported by Raw Story, Smith’s effort, part of a surge of armed civilians, many with military experience, also contributed intentionally or not to a climate of intimidation that led to the evacuation of a state medical assistance team including contract workers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the investigation by U.S. Army Special Operations Command.

Smith now features the response to Helene on his campaign website, describing public service “from the battlefields of Afghanistan to the disaster zones of western North Carolina.”

His campaign highlights a compelling personal story: Following the hurricane, Smith drove overnight from Texas and commandeered a private helicopter to rescue his three-year-old daughter, who was stranded with her mother at their home in the flood-ravaged region.

Smith, who did not respond to a request for an interview for this story, regarding which Raw Story also exchanged messages with his publicist, is so far the only Republican challenger to Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC) in North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District, which the Cook Political Report recently downgraded from “solid Republican” to “likely Republican.”

The race has attracted six Democrats, including retired Air Force Col. Moe Davis and nurse practitioner Chris Harjes.

Last year, about a week after Helene hit western North Carolina, Smith and others appeared in a video posted on a Trump campaign Facebook page that described them as “heroic volunteers” who said “the federal government has been completely AWOL.” The caption accused Trump’s opponent, Kamala Harris, of conducting a “fake photo op.”

On Oct. 21, 2024, when Trump visited Swannanoa, NC, Smith and Edwards appeared with him. Trump praised Smith for “an amazing act of citizenship and service,” describing how he “transformed the parking lot of a Harley-Davidson dealership into a makeshift airbase to help distribute supplies.”

Trump also criticized the Democratic administration in Washington.

“The power of nature, nothing you can do about it,” Trump said. “But you gotta get a little bit better crew in to do a better job than has been done by the White House. It’s been not good …

“Many Americans in this region felt helpless and abandoned and left behind by their government. And yet in North Carolina’s hour of desperation, the American people answered the call much more so than your federal government, unfortunately.”

Nine days before Trump’s visit, however, state and federal emergency workers evacuated due to perceived threats from armed civilians across the region.

‘Human remains detection’

In Yancey County, a state medical assistance team including FEMA workers abruptly evacuated in response to perceived militia activity.

In Rutherford County, FEMA temporarily suspended outreach as a man with an assault rifle was arrested for threatening federal workers.

And across the state line, in Tennessee, witnesses reportedly observed an armed group harassing FEMA workers.

Helene damage in North Carolina A drone view shows a damaged area following Hurricane Helene in North Carolina. Photograph: Marco Bello/REUTERS

The state medical assistance team assigned to a disaster response site in Yancey County made the decision to evacuate immediately, instead of waiting until the next morning, after three unfamiliar men approached medical workers after dark and asked them where they slept.

A FEMA contract worker speaking on condition of anonymity told Raw Story one man wore a shirt that displayed Savage Freedoms’ insignia.

Smith previously told Raw Story he didn’t believe it was possible for a member of his group to have spoken to the medical workers because a first shipment of T-shirts didn’t come in until late that day or early the next day.

But he confirmed that Savage Freedoms had a “small team” conducting “human remains detection” in Relief, about eight miles from the Yancey County site.

Marlon Jonnaert, a Marine Corps veteran who was at the site, told Raw Story that although he wouldn’t describe Savage Freedoms as a “militia” or call it “threatening … it seemed like they were energetically antagonizing the government and drawing attention to their operation.”

Smith confirmed to Raw Story that U.S. Army Special Operations Command, based at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, investigated a “rumor” he “was leading militia forces to subvert the efforts of FEMA.”

Smith said he emphatically denied the allegation.

Smith’s campaign website doesn’t mention that investigation, instead highlighting recognition from another Army component. The website states that “ground force commanders” from the Army’s 101st Airborne Division reported “Savage Ops’ effectiveness” to a general.

Raw Story was unable to verify the claim.

‘Leading the charge’

Amidst efforts to deliver supplies and clear debris after Helene, Smith’s focus extended towards overhauling national disaster response strategy.

Two weeks after Helene, he traveled 150 miles east to Greensboro to attend a campaign event hosted by JD Vance, Trump’s running mate. Vance joined the crowd in giving Smith a standing ovation when Smith mentioned he had been delivering supplies across western North Carolina.

Smith asked Vance: “Can we have a conversation about revamping national disaster strategy so that we can utilize retired veterans and Special Operations personnel who have been leading the charge, hands down, in western North Carolina and effectively provide food, supplies and medical assistance to thousands and thousands of lives, and revamping the national disaster strategy in the United States to make it more effective?”

Vance said: “I want to thank you all for everything that you did. And I want to thank all of the private relief agencies, the good Samaritans that did their job, that took care of their fellow Americans.”

Two days later, the state medical assistance team in Yancey County chose to travel under cover of darkness, in convoy over a treacherous, partially washed-out two-lane highway, to flee what they saw as a militia threat.

UNC reinstates prof who had been suspended amid Charlie Kirk furor

UNC Chapel is immediately reinstating a professor suspended in response to a dubious link to celebrations of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

The university said in an email Friday morning that following a “threat assessment,” the university found there was no basis to conclude that Dwayne Dixon, a teaching associate professor in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, “poses a threat to university students, staff and faculty or has engaged in conduct that violates university policy.”

Dixon had received notification on Monday from Interim Provost James W. Dean Jr. that he was being placed on indefinite administrative leave with pay due to “recent reports and expressions of concerns regarding your alleged advocacy of politically motivated violence.”

The interim provost had also forbidden Dixon from communicating with current or former students and colleagues without prior approval from the university.

Dixon’s suspension followed a Fox News report over the previous weekend about his past association with John Brown Gun Clubs and the Silver Valley chapter of Redneck Revolt, both armed left-wing groups, in connection with flyers posted at Georgetown University that appeared to celebrate Kirk’s death. On the same day as publication of the Fox News report, Andrew Kolvet, spokesperson for Turning Point USA, the group founded by Kirk, demanded Dixon’s firing.

The flyers included the text, “Hey, fascist! Catch!” The same words were allegedly engraved in the unfired casing of one of the bullets used by Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old Utahn accused of killing Kirk. The Georgetown University flyer goes on to say: “The only political group that celebrates when Nazis die. Join the John Brown Club.”

The decision comes a day after the ACLU of North Carolina sent a letter to the university demanding Dixon’s reinstatement. The free speech organization issued an ultimatum that the university reinstate Dixon by 5 p.m. on Friday or face legal action.

“The university’s decision to place Professor Dixon on administrative leave merely because of his association with certain groups is a textbook violation of the First Amendment,” Staff Attorney Ivy Johnson wrote.

“There is nothing to suggest Professor Dixon was in any way involved with, or even aware of, the flyers distributed on Georgetown’s campus,” the letter said. “Indeed, Professor Dixon has not been affiliated with the John Brown Gun Club or Redneck Revolt since 2018.”

UNC prof faces suspension as Trump 'antifa' order puts John Brown Gun Clubs in spotlight

Following President Donald Trump’s designation of “antifa” as a domestic terrorist organization, the president issued a memorandum that highlighted the assassination of Charlie Kirk as an example of rising political violence, while calling for “a new law enforcement strategy that investigates all participants in these criminal and terroristic conspiracies.”

Released on Sept. 25, the memorandum claims “anti-fascism” is an organizing force behind a “pattern of violent and terroristic activities.”

John Brown Gun Clubs, a decentralized network of armed leftists, would seem natural targets for any crackdown led by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces.

Named for the militant abolitionist who in 1859 led a failed attempt to incite a slave uprising, the groups emerged in the mid-2010s. In 2017, in Virginia, members of an offshoot organization, Redneck Revolt, protected antifascist counter-protesters during the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. In 2020, during a gun rights rally in Richmond, they confronted leaders of far-right groups.

During the Biden administration, John Brown Gun Club chapters provided protection to drag shows under threat by Proud Boys and neo-Nazis. This year, former members of a Texas chapter were charged with attempted murder of federal officers after a July 4 attack on an Immigration Customs Enforcement facility.

An alleged link between John Brown Gun Clubs and Kirk’s assassination emerged almost concurrently with the administration’s announced crackdown on “antifa.” Members of Turning Point USA, the group founded by Kirk, said they spotted flyers that appeared to celebrate the assassination on the campus of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

The flyers included the text, “The only political group that celebrates when Nazis die,” followed by, “Join the John Brown Club.” Andrew Kolvet, Turning Point’s spokesperson, soon demanded the firing of a UNC Chapel Hill professor associated with John Brown Gun Clubs.

This week, Dean Stoyer, vice chancellor for communication and marketing for UNC Chapel Hill, confirmed to Raw Story that Dwayne Dixon, a teaching associate professor in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, was suspended “following recent reports and expressions of concern regarding alleged advocacy of politically motivated violence.”

Stoyer said Dixon could face “disciplinary action up to and including potential termination of employment.”

Dixon was a member of the now-defunct Silver Valley chapter of Redneck Revolt, which in Charlottesville in 2017 created an armed perimeter around a park to provide a haven for left-wing counter-protesters. A week later, Dixon was charged with having a weapon at a public rally and going armed to the terror of the people, for carrying a rifle in Durham, N.C. as residents responded to a rumored Ku Klux Klan rally. The charges were dismissed.

In 2018, Dixon was charged with assaulting Patrick Howley, editor of the pro-Trump news site Big League Politics, when antifascist students and area residents toppled a Confederate monument on the UNC Chapel Hill campus. That charge was also dismissed.

Raw Story was unable to confirm the authenticity of the alleged recruitment flyer found at Georgetown.

A former member of John Brown Gun Clubs said the name on the flyer, which omits the word “Gun,” raised a red flag. The former member, who agreed to speak under the pseudonym “Paper” to avoid retaliation, said there has never been a John Brown Gun Club chapter at Georgetown and there is no online presence in the Washington area.

“The flyer may be a commentary on John Brown’s history and how it relates to modern events, but it is not a representation of or affiliated with JBGCs, to the best of my knowledge,” Paper said.

University police are working with the FBI and Metropolitan police to investigate the flyer, Robert M. Graves, Georgetown’s interim president, said Monday. Graves added that “a person of interest has been identified and barred from campus.” Georgetown did not respond to a request from Raw Story for the person’s name.

As of Wednesday morning, a Change.org petition to reinstate Dixon at UNC Chapel Hill had garnered more than 650 signatures. The petition argues that Dixon’s suspension “sets a dangerous precedent, where educational staff can be punished simply because their beliefs do not align with the current administrative agenda.”

“The purge of academia is one of the first steps on the road to fascism,” the petition continues.

“We cannot allow any institution, especially one like UNC, to side with bigotry and control under the guise of maintaining order. It is crucial that we stand together as students, alumni, and members of the academic family to prevent the deterioration of academic freedom and ensure our university remains a place of learning and open discourse.”

‘Terrorizing our communities’

John Brown Gun Clubs were already under scrutiny after the July 4 attack on the ICE Prairieland Detention Facility in Alvarado, Texas.

Of 11 people arrested and charged with attempted murder of a federal officer, at least two are former members of Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club. Three others have been charged with obstruction of justice and accessory.

The government alleges that members of the group shot fireworks at the detention center and spray-painted graffiti on vehicles and a guard structure, in order to lure correctional officers out of the facility. An Alvarado police officer responding to the scene sustained a gunshot to the neck from an assailant positioned in the nearby woods, the government says. A second assailant fired 20 to 30 rounds at officers outside the facility, according to charging documents.

The wounded police officer, who has not been identified, was reportedly treated and discharged from the hospital.

Although John Brown Gun Clubs have yet to be specifically named as a target by Trump, the Prairieland attack was cited in a Sept. 22 White House press release to bolster the claim that “antifa has a long history of terrorizing our communities.”

The release also cited a Molotov cocktail attack by a member of Puget Sound John Brown Gun Club on an ICE facility in Tacoma, Wash. during Trump’s first term. The attacker, Willem van Spronsen, was killed by police.

In July, following a weeklong manhunt, the FBI arrested Benjamin Hanil Song, a former Marine Corps reservist, identifying him as an alleged shooter at the Prairieland detention center. A second alleged shooter has not been identified.

Song is also a defendant in a civil lawsuit that describes him as participating in an effort with Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club to protect patrons and performers at a drag show at a brewery in Fort Worth, Tx. in April 2023. Fort Worth police arrested a 20-year-old, Samuel Fowlkes, at the time and brought an assault charge, allegedly for pepper-spraying a member of the Christian nationalist group New Columbian Movement. Two other individuals supporting the drag show were also arrested.

Although the Elm Fork chapter effectively dissolved after the incident, the Washington Post reported that Song continued to train “left-wing activists for close-quarters combat and large-scale gunfights.”

Neither Song, who is in pre-trial detention, nor his lawyer could be reached for comment.

The government’s case against the other 10 defendants charged with attempted murder in the Texas case is harder to decipher.

The government seized communications devices and accessed chats on the encrypted communications platform Signal, said Patrick McLain, who represents defendant Zachary Evetts.

More than 12 weeks after his client’s arrest, McLain said he has yet to receive any discovery materials.

“They were going to go to the ICE detention facility,” McLain said. “Mr. Evetts was going to protest and shoot fireworks on the night of the 4th of July. Clearly, someone fired. From what I understand, there was more than one shooter. It may have included law enforcement. Was one or more shooter law enforcement? We don’t know. I know my guy was not a shooter. I know my guy was not carrying a firearm.”

McLain disclosed to Raw Story that Evetts had been involved with John Brown Gun Clubs and an allied group, the Socialist Rifle Association, in the past.

“Mr. Evetts participated in the activities of both organizations,” McLain said. “He was devoted to firearms safety. A lot of people involved are trans[gender]. Mr. Evetts was involved in looking out for people who were being bullied.”

A patch worn by a Steel City John Brown Gun Club member during a 2020 gun rights rally in Richmond, Va. expresses support for trans people.Anthony Crider

‘Deeply defensive’

Current and former John Brown Gun Club members who spoke to Raw Story said they view the attack on the Prairieland facility as foolish, while expressing some degree of understanding of motivations.

“I don’t know any members, current or former, who would encourage this type of action, including myself, as the values of JBGCs are deeply defensive in nature,” Paper said.

“There will always be debate about legitimacy within the narrative that only the state is justified in their violence while those who act against their capacity to do so are wholly illegitimate.

“History is chock full of periods where that narrative collapsed but I don’t think we are close to that happening anytime soon.”

The founder of the South Carolina John Brown Gun Club, who identified himself as “Jon,” speculated that former Elm Fork members might have succumbed to impulsivity or nihilism.

“We are fully outnumbered and outpowered,” he said. “We have to think strategically.

“In theory, there could be a push to take over a building but it’s so much more than what these kids are capable of.”

A 31-year-old, disabled and unemployed Coast Guard veteran, Jon decided to start South Carolina John Brown Gun Club after protesting an event hosted by the right-wing campus group Uncensored America at the University of South Carolina in Columbia last September.

Billed as a “roast” of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, the event featured Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnis and right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos.

Jon and a group of protesters confronted an attendee who Jon said was making statements denying the Holocaust.

A video he shared with Raw Story shows Jon bellowing, “Get the f--- out of here. Leave. No one wants you here.” The video shows the man retreating, as police officers look on.

Jon said he contacted the Charlotte John Brown Gun Club, for advice about starting a group.

Jon said he supports unhoused people, pro-Palestine protesters and women accessing abortion services at Planned Parenthood in Columbia. South Carolina is a Constitutional carry state. Jon sometimes carries an AR-15 rifle or a concealed pistol, depending on the comfort level of allied groups or the threat level. On at least two occasions, he said, he has encountered members of a neo-Nazi group called Southern Sons Active Club.

‘Strong and resilient’

Trump’s Sept. 25 memorandum treats acts of political violence such as Kirk’s assassination and confrontations outside ICE facilities as the result of a coordinated effort by forces bent on the “overthrow of the United States government.”

The memorandum claims recent incidents of political violence are “a culmination of sophisticated, organized campaigns of targeted intimidation, radicalization, threats, and violence designed to silence opposing speech, limit political activity, change or direct policy outcomes, and prevent the functioning of a democratic society.”

The memorandum insists that “a new law enforcement strategy that investigates all participants in these criminal and terroristic conspiracies — including the organized structures, networks, entities, organizations, funding sources, and predicate actions behind them — is required.”

A Steel City John Brown Gun Club member carries a rifle at a 2020 rally in Richmond, Va.Anthony Crider

Whatever the intentions of the former John Brown Gun Club members who carried out the Prairieland attack, Paper said “it appears to have enabled an already weaponized and thoroughly politicized Justice Department to go after a cache of people who appear ignorant to any plan to shoot at ICE facilities or personnel.”

John Brown Gun Club members were targeted by FBI investigations, placed on the U.S. government’s suspected terrorist no-fly list, and put on trial during Trump’s first administration, Paper said. He said he expects government repression to intensify.

“We need to be mindful of our digital footprint and it’s gonna be shut-the-f----up Friday a lot around here,” Jon said.

“Supporting our community will still be our number-one priority. We will still be providing training and education on topics like maker skills, first aid, emergency response, mutual aid and firearms. An educated community is a strong and resilient community.”

‘Assault on the entire West’: Vance outdone as fellow Republicans ramp up terror talk

CONCORD, N.C. — Vice President JD Vance’s visit to a sweltering hangar at an airport outside Charlotte on Wednesday provided a campaign-style platform for familiar attacks on Democrats as being “soft on crime,” even as news broke of a deadly shooting at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Dallas.

With a militarized backdrop including SWAT and emergency response vehicles flanked by local law enforcement officers, Vance sought to highlight both the killing of Iryna Zarutska on the Charlotte light-rail last month and the assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk on a college campus in Utah two weeks ago.

But such efforts were somewhat overshadowed by news of the ICE shooting in Dallas, which left one immigrant detainee dead and two critically injured.

Authorities including President Donald Trump were quick to ascribe political motives to the shooter, who FBI Director Kash Patel said appeared to have inscribed anti-ICE messages on ammunition.

In North Carolina, Vance called the Dallas perpetrator a “violent left-wing extremist,” while insisting Democrats refrain from criticizing ICE agents for heavy-handed tactics as they implement Trump’s hardline immigration and deportation agenda.

‘Violent radicals’

Though Vance described Zarutska’s death as the result of “soft-on-crime policies” and a “political leadership that failed,” he did not threaten to impose National Guard troops and federal law enforcement resources on Charlotte, as the Trump administration has in Chicago, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, claiming to be tackling runaway crime.

Instead, Vance said that if Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles and North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein — both Democrats — “ask for our help, we would absolutely send it, because we believe in helping people, regardless of whether they’re Democrats or Republicans.

“We want to go where we can have a real partnership between local law enforcement and the federal officials so that we can root out the crime.”

Without specifying the target of his criticism, Vance charged: “We’ve got a crew of violent radicals in the United States of America who think we ought to make it harder for police to keep us safe than easier for police to keep us safe.”

Vance also repeated an unfounded claim by administration officials that a far-left network was behind the killing of Kirk.

“Over the next couple of years, the Trump administration is going to do everything that we can to dismantle the networks, to destroy the funding and to make it harder for people to kill one another just because they disagree with what somebody says,” Vance said.

Whatley v. Cooper

Republicans have blamed Roy Cooper, the former Democratic governor turned candidate in a contest that could decide control of the U.S. Senate next year, for Zarutska’s shocking death.

“The blood of this innocent woman can literally be seen dripping from the killer’s knife, and now her blood is on the hands of the Democrats who refuse to put bad people in jail, including Former Disgraced Governor and ‘Wannabe Senator’ Roy Cooper,” Trump wrote on TruthSocial this month.

DeCarlos Brown Jr., charged in Zarutska’s murder, received a misdemeanor charge of misusing 911 in January but was released by a magistrate judge on a written promise to appear.

Asked by Raw Story on Wednesday if the Republican-controlled state General Assembly should bear some responsibility for Zarutska’s death, given its role in establishing the law governing pre-trial release, Vance said, “I think every politician who didn’t work hard to keep violent criminals behind bars deserves to have some of the blame, but at the very top of that list is Governor Cooper, because at the time that we were pushing these soft-on-crime policies, Governor Cooper was the man in charge.”

Trump has urged supporters to vote in the forthcoming Senate election for Michael Whatley, a former Republican National Committee chairman.

On Wednesday, speaking before Vance, Whatley attempted to link Zarutska’s death to his opponent by pointing to a 2020 executive order, issued by Cooper as governor, to create a racial equity task force, following the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Whatley claimed the order pledged to “reimagine law enforcement in North Carolina.”

The report released by the task force, an advisory body of which Cooper was not a member, included a section headed, “Reimagining Public Safety,” but those words do not appear in Cooper’s order.

"I don't think we need to reimagine law enforcement," Whatley said. "What we need to do is enforce the law, and back the blue."

A Cooper campaign spokesperson responded: "Roy Cooper is the only candidate who spent his entire career prosecuting violent crimnals and keeping thousands of them behind bars as attorney general, and signing tough on crime laws and stricter bail policy as governor. DC insider and Big Oil lobbyist Michael Whatley is desperate to distract from his support for cuts to law enforcement that make North Carolinians less safe."

Whatley faulted Cooper for briefly marching with Black Lives Matter activists in June 2020, outside the Executive Mansion in Raleigh, a couple days after a protest turned violent and a police station was pelted with projectiles, store windows were smashed and fires started.

“We cannot focus so much on the property damage that we forget why people are in the streets,” Cooper said at the time.

“We have to constructively channel our anger, frustration and sadness to force accountability and action. If we don’t, then we haven’t learned anything. We have to have these conversations, and then move beyond them to do the work of ending racism and building safe, thriving communities for everyone.”

‘Under attack’

During Vance’s visit on Wednesday, the most incendiary comments came from two Republican U.S. House members.

“Western civilization is under attack,” said Rep. Mark Harris, who represents North Carolina’s Eighth District, citing the deaths of Zarutska and Kirk.

“These tragedies are not isolated incidents, but signs of a national epidemic of lawlessness and division that threatens the very fabric of our society. Iryna and Charlie have opened many eyes to the battle being waged against our nation. But this war isn’t just against America — it’s an assault on the entire West.”

Formerly senior pastor at First Baptist Church in Charlotte, Harris declared that “Christ has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of sound mind.”

Rep. Addison McDowell, of the Sixth District, charged that cities across the U.S. were “run by left-wing lunatics who don’t have a spine and would rather coddle the criminals than enforce the law.

“They would rather see the likes of Iryna Zarutska murdered on a light rail on the way to work” than “lock up a dangerous criminal who had been in and out of our system,” McDowell claimed.

“Far-left activists that call themselves judges […] let an unhinged and unstable man out into the community leading to the horrific murder of Iryna that should have never happened,” he said.

This story was updated on Sept. 25, 2025 at 5:09 p.m. ET to include a statement from the Cooper campaign.

'Wicked and demonic': GOP attacks on left over Charlie Kirk fuel small-town tensions

President Donald Trump’s vow to crack down on the “radical left” over the murder of Charlie Kirk was amplified during a prayer vigil for the conservative influencer in Monroe, NC, on Monday, as the small city east of Charlotte showed how the president’s divisive rhetoric is reverberating through local communities.

Amid angry exchanges involving Monroe’s mayor and a Democratic leader, local Democrats have reported receiving death threats.

Kirk, 31 and the founder of Turning Point USA, was shot dead in Orem, UT last Wednesday, during an appearance on a university campus. Vigils and memorials have been staged throughout the U.S.

Trump and his supporters have blamed the political left. Though no evidence has emerged to indicate the 22-year-old suspect, Tyler Robinson, received broad-based support or encouragement from anyone, he appears to have been motivated by opposition to Kirk's anti-transgender rhetoric.

In Monroe on Monday, a crowd of about 1,000 gathered to remember Kirk.

William Wolfe, a Christian evangelical leader who served in the State Department and Department of Defense during the first Trump administration, read a statement from current White House advisor Stephen Miller.

“There is a vast domestic terror movement,” the statement said, “and with God as my witness we are going to use every resource we have throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy these networks, and we will do it in Charlie’s name.”

To cheers, Wolfe added: “If you know what time it is, and if you’re a Christian, I don’t think you should say anything else to what Stephen said, but, ‘Amen. Get it done.’”

Asserting that the murder shows the left to be an implacable foe, Miller and others in the administration have claimed, without evidence, that Kirk’s suspected shooter received backing from an unspecified far-left network or “antifa.”

Wolfe, who is executive director of the Center for Baptist Leadership, an organization seeking to push the Southern Baptist Convention in a more hardline direction, went a step further — declaring the Democratic Party the enemy.

“The Democrat [sic] Party has been captured by a wicked and demonic ideology, and evil, and we cannot make peace with that,” Wolfe said.

“We should expect and even demand our elected officials at the local, state and federal level to do what they can to drive this wickedness out of our public square so that we can live in peace again.”

Wolfe also echoed a statement by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), a right-wing extremist in Congress.

“You cannot have unity with people who want to kill us,” Wolfe said. “And we cannot make peace with wickedness.”

Wolfe added: “I can’t think of anything better that we could do to honor the life and legacy of Charlie Kirk than be bold and courageous Christians in the public square — to tear down the false gods of abortion, and transgenderism, and homosexuality, and Marxism, and socialism.”

Reached by phone, Wolfe requested that Raw Story submit questions in writing, then did not respond.

Robert Burns, Monroe’s mayor who recently faced a 7-2 “no confidence” vote from his city council, hosted the Kirk vigil — and also promoted the view that Christians should hold dominion over the United States.

“Be strong and courageous, because God has given you over the land,” Burns said. “He’s already given it to us, 250 years ago almost. This is God’s country, and he will not forget it.”

Burns did not respond to a voicemail and email requesting comment.

‘Extreme racist’

The positions of mayor and city council in Monroe are nonpartisan, but North Carolina’s Republican-controlled legislature recently passed a law requiring municipal candidates to have a party affiliation, beginning next year.

In another sign of how tensions arising from Kirk’s death have spread rapidly throughout society, Burns has exchanged social media volleys with a local African American Democratic leader — who has reported receiving death threats.

After Kirk’s death, Burns singled out Parron Baxter, a member of the North Carolina Democratic Party State Executive Committee, for posts expressing disappointment in Black people who publicly mourned Kirk.

“PATRIOTS! LET’S HOLD THE NC DEM PARTY ACCOUNTABLE,” Burns posted on X on Sept. 11. “Here’s an extreme racist … cheering on and celebrating the death of Charlie Kirk.”

Baxter did not shrink from confrontation. An X account that appears to be owned by Baxter replied, “F--- Charlie Kirk,” then invoked the late Robert F. Williams, a former president of the Monroe NAACP who advocated for armed self-defense during the turbulent 1960s.

“Calling up racists Lynch Mob [sic] when a Black man uses his 1st amendment right to free speech is on the nose for Union County,” Baxter wrote. “A place where 55 percent of adult white people were member[s] of the Klan during the time of Robert Williams. [Robert Burns] is of that ilk.”

In a Facebook video posted on Sept. 12, Baxter said he had called the police in response to death threats.

‘Moral clarity’

Backlash after Kirk’s death also resulted in death threats against the Union County Democratic Party, Jen Sanders, the county chair, said in a statement on Facebook.

The party sent staff home early and contacted the police and FBI, Sanders said.

Sanders said she had attempted to speak to Bob Dunn, chairman of the Union County Republican Party, in order to defuse tensions, but said he “chose to escalate by attacking me personally and attacking the Democratic Party.”

The county Republican Party issued its own statement, urging Democrats to “expressly condemn” the Kirk killing “and demonstrate moral clarity” by removing Baxter from leadership.

County and state Democrats did not respond to calls and emails. Baxter could not be reached for comment.

But in a video posted on Facebook on Sept. 12, he explained his stance.

“When news broke of Charlie Kirk’s passing, I reacted like most Black people with a conscience: We just didn’t care,” he said. “Because Charlie Kirk was a bigot, sexist, homophobe, racist, transphobic, you name it.”

Ex-soldier linked to far-right groups pleads guilty to gun charge

NEW BERN, NC — A former member of the white nationalist group Patriot Front who was arrested while enlisted as a soldier at Fort Bragg has pleaded guilty to a firearms charge.

Kai Nix, 21, entered a guilty plea for knowingly selling and possessing a stolen firearm for sale in federal court on Wednesday.

Nix was arrested in August 2024. Four days later, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) published a story confirming that he was enlisted in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg and that as a member of Patriot Front, he operated “a social media account that disclosed personal information about perceived political enemies — including journalists, left-leaning activists, politicians and community members.”

Nix denied his involvement with Patriot Front to The New Yorker, which also detailed his activities.

Nix’s enlistment in the Army abruptly ended at the time of his arrest.

He was originally charged with falsely stating on a security clearance application that “he had never been a member of a group dedicated to the use of violence or force to overthrow the United States government,” dealing in firearms without a license, and a separate count of knowingly possessing and selling a stolen firearm.

The indictment did not name the group, but the SPLC cited leaked messages obtained by the left-leaning media organization Unicorn Riot that showed Nix participated in a Patriot Front rally in Philadelphia in July 2021 and a November 2021 training drill with the group.

One participant in the training, Paul Gancarz, was accused of involvement with the vandalism of a mural dedicated to African-American tennis player Arthur Ashe in Richmond, Virginia, only a month earlier. Gancarz and four other members settled a civil lawsuit for conspiracy to violate civil rights under the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act, and intimidation and racial animosity under Virginia state law.

Nix enlisted in the Army in 2022. The following year a channel named Appalachian Archives appeared on the social media platform Telegram. The SPLC linked Nix to the channel by connecting him to various protests attended by the administrator of the channel.

In September 2023, the channel posted a link to a list of “high-value targets” for assassination produced and distributed by the Terrorgram Collective, a far-right group. The list included Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), a federal judge, a U.S. attorney, mayors and scientists involved in vaccine research.

Since Nix’s arrest, three members of Terrorgram have been arrested, and the U.S. State Department has named the group as a specially designated global terrorist entity.

The Appalachian Archives channel frequently posted the phrase “always watching, always listening, always near.”

In January 2024, Raw Story reporter Jordan Green was targeted by a bogus pizza delivery at his home in Greensboro, North Carolina. The next day, a photo of Green at his door appeared on a Telegram channel popular with neo-Nazi teenagers. Green’s security camera captured the license plate of a vehicle parked outside the house at the time of the pizza delivery. A search of the license plate found it was registered to Nix.

Under a plea agreement, the government agreed to dismiss additional charges against Nix, including lying about membership in a group dedicated to the use of violence or force to overthrow the United States government. The plea agreement was not available on Wednesday, and it is unknown whether it includes any agreement that he cooperate in investigations of extremist activity.

Judge Louise Flanagan issued an order on Wednesday requiring that “any motion regarding the substantial assistance of the defendant must be filed under seal” prior to sentencing.

Nix’s lawyer, Keith Williams, said his client was not available for comment.

As the basis for Nix’s guilty plea, a federal prosecutor told the court that in December 2023, Nix communicated with an FBI confidential human source about stolen firearms.

Nix showed a photo of a Glock pistol that he described as “hot,” the prosecutor said. The FBI conducted a controlled buy while providing the informant with a recording device. The FBI determined that the pistol was stolen from a Robeson County sheriff’s deputy.

Nix’s sentencing is set for December 2025. Under the original indictment, he could have received up to 30 years in prison. His maximum sentence with the three charges dismissed is unknown. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina did not return an email requesting comment.

On Wednesday, prior to Nix’s arraignment, a Telegram channel describing itself as a “right-wing” news aggregator published a post praising Nix for “infiltrate[ing] antifa cell Discord servers and discover[ing] vital and sometimes even compromising information.” The post also named Nix as the founder of Appalachian Archives.

“Had the leftist Biden administration not unjustly imprisoned Nix and he was able to continue his good work and defend Americanism, perhaps things could have went differently on September 10th, 2025,” the post stated, suggesting Nix might have disrupted the assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk.

Stephen Miller, a senior advisor to President Donald Trump, has claimed without evidence that “a vast domestic terror movement” was behind Kirk’s assassination. But evidence presented by federal prosecutors in Utah on Tuesday gave no indication that the shooter, Tyler Robinson, was linked to any extremist network.

Investigators have taken an interest in Robinson’s messages on the online gaming platform Discord, but a review of some of the messages by journalist Ken Klippenstein shows that the discussions were largely apolitical and belie the notion that Robinson was radicalized on the forum.

Elite Pentagon Marine appears on podcast that called for Hegseth's execution

A decorated Marine Corps colonel assigned to the Joint Staff at the Pentagon appeared on a podcast co-hosted by his brother that promotes antisemitism, white supremacy and political violence — including one segment that appeared to call for the execution of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

Col. Thomas M. Siverts appeared on The Berm Pit podcast in March 2023. The 40-minute video shows Siverts discussing his career as a Marine Corps officer with his younger brother, Scott Siverts, the podcast co-host.

In a separate episode recorded in late 2024, the younger Siverts and co-host Matt Wakulik discuss how they would grade President Donald Trump’s cabinet picks.

“Why don’t we grade them on a scale of how many bullets I put in their head,” Wakulik proposed, as Scott Siverts laughed.

When Siverts named Hegseth, a soldier turned Fox News host and controversial cabinet pick, Wakulik said: “Six bullets. I’d have to put another one in there after I emptied the whole chamber — or the whole cylinder.”

Wakulik, a Pittsburgh-area resident, regularly espouses antisemitic views. Citing perceived failures in relation to the Jeffrey Epstein case and other conspiracy-adjacent fixations, he has said Donald Trump should be executed and FBI Director Kash Patel tortured.

In the segment about Hegseth, Wakulik also advocated execution for senior Trump administration officials including White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee.

Only Tom Homan, architect of Trump’s draconian deportations policy, would be spared.

Considering Hegseth, Wakulik also disparaged his support for Israel.

Siverts said: “The only problem with that is when you have dual allegiance — well, it’s Biblical, right? You can’t serve two masters.”

Scott Siverts told Raw Story that to some extent he understood why people would be outraged about the segment.

“It’s distasteful, off-putting, inflammatory,” he said. “Matt did it on the fly. He takes it to the next level, and I kind of laugh at it.”

While noting that The Berm Pit hasn’t produced a new episode since June 5, Siverts said he planned to scrub political content off the internet and sell the podcast to two active-duty Marines at Camp Pendleton in California.

Citing reputational harm and strained family relationships due to public backlash against his and Wakulik’s rhetoric, Siverts said his decision to quit the podcast was also motivated by concern that he would be held liable if someone in his audience carried out a violent act.

“I’m agreeing with your position that some rhetoric probably will radicalize people, which is why I’m stepping away from the podcast,” Siverts told Raw Story. “I understand the backlash I’ve received.”

Raw Story also reached out to Col. Thomas Siverts. Reached by phone, and asked if he was aware that the podcast his brother co-hosts had featured a discussion about executing Hegseth, Col. Siverts hung up.

The Joint Staff Public Affairs office at the Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment about Col. Siverts’ podcast appearance.

Scott Siverts said that following public backlash against the podcast including a successful campaign to get him fired from his job as a bar manager at Mario’s Saloon in Pittsburgh, his brother called to find out what the controversy was about. Scott Siverts said he offered to take down the episode featuring his brother.

“Nah, leave it up,” Col. Thomas Siverts said, according to Scott. “There’s nothing wrong with what we said. I didn’t serve my country and risk my life so you couldn’t have the freedom of speech. I like the episode. If they come after me at some point, I don’t care. It’s free speech.”

Matt Wakulik Matt Wakulik, an antisemitic podcaster and self-proclaimed militia leader, carried an AR-15 at a pro-Second Amendment rally in Richmond, Va. in January 2020. Anthony Crider

At the time of his interview with his brother in March 2023, Col. Thomas Siverts was commanding officer of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, stationed at Camp Pendleton. A communications officer with the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit listened to the interview in real time and approved it for publication, Scott Siverts told Raw Story.

The 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit could not be reached for comment.

Scott Siverts said his brother’s interview took place before the podcast took an explicitly political turn. Two months earlier, though, Siverts had hosted Wakulik, who would become his co-host, as a guest.

In an episode titled “The Militia Man,” the two discussed Wakulik’s unsuccessful run for Allegheny County sheriff, which drew controversy over his paramilitary group wearing patches displaying the Valknut, a symbol associated with white supremacy.

‘Lotta big projects’

While a spokesperson for the Joint Staff declined to confirm that Col. Siverts is employed there, Scott Siverts confirmed to Raw Story that his brother is currently assigned to the Pentagon.

Col. Siverts discussed his Pentagon assignment in an August 2024 interview for the 4 Years a Slave podcast, its title referring to the standard length of a U.S. military active-duty commitment.

“I’m on the Joint Staff, so I get to see some of the inner workings of how the Joint Staff supports the chairmen and SecDef and carrying out strategic objectives,” Col. Siverts said.

The Joint Staff includes representatives of all branches of the military, and assists Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in maintaining the integration of all combatant forces. Caine is the principal military advisor to President Donald Trump. In June, Caine stood alongside Hegseth and addressed reporters about the U.S. strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.

“Lotta big projects going on,” Siverts said on the 4 Years a Slave podcast. “You got everything going from, you know, current what’s going on in the world today to guys working programs 10, 15 years — maybe even longer than that — years out.”

As commanding officer of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, Siverts’ operational focus was enhancing U.S. national security posture in Southeast Asia, where China has long been considered the primary geopolitical rival.

Siverts received the Legion of Merit “for exceptionally meritorious conduct in performance of outstanding services as a commanding officer” of the unit, which deployed for exercises with allies in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore.

“What they did there was absolutely amazing and gave our great nation a strategic hedge in the battle that’s going on in the Pacific and competition,” a Marine Corps officer said during the change of command ceremony at Camp Lejeune in June 2024.

The officer hailed Siverts’ unit for standing up a “credible, combat-capable force” that “can flip a switch and they can start laying down lead and stacking bodies, if need be, and offer a credible deterrent to any adversary foolish enough to threaten the United States citizens or our interests.”

Siverts’ Legion of Merit lauded him for fostering “meaningful interaction, mutual trust and respect” with allies and for “genuine passion for professional development and welfare of the Marines and sailors under his charge.”

Scott Siverts also served in the Marine Corps. His podcast’s name references an earthen mound surrounding a pit on a firing range.

“I’ve always looked up to you. You’ve been a role model for me, and you’re the reason I joined the Marine Corps, too, and enlisted right out of high school,” Scott Siverts said of his brother in their interview, adding that he was his “third-biggest fan,” after Col. Siverts’ wife and daughter.

Scott Siverts said he was present when his brother received his officer commission through the Marine Enlisted Commission Education Program at the University of Virginia in 1989 and when he was promoted to colonel at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia in 2021.

‘Allies of Evil’

Col. Siverts’ interview on The Berm Pit did not cover political issues, and his remarks did not give any indication of whether he agrees with his younger brother’s views.

The landing page for the podcast on the video streaming service Rumble features thumbnails for later episodes that clearly point to pro-Hitler, antisemitic stances.

One displays the text “The Allies of Evil,” alongside a photograph of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin. Another states, “General Patton said we fought the wrong enemy,” referring to Gen. George S. Patton, who commanded the Seventh Army in the Mediterranean during World War II.

Another episode, entitled “Remembering 9/11,” shows four men depicted as Jews who appear to be celebrating the attack on the World Trade Center.

In episodes of The Berm Pit which appear to have been recorded after Col. Siverts’ interview, his younger brother expresses agreement with the idea that murder of elected officials with opposing views is justified, and contemplates the possibility of race war.

“I still believe that it is the responsibility of the people to organize against any corrupt politician anywhere — I don’t care if it’s a school board member up to a senator or representative,” Wakulik says, in an episode published in April 2024.

“If they are that corrupt and all this is going on, then they need to be threatened, or actually shoot them in the face. Because violence and the threat of violence is the ultimate deterrent. Where is the lie, Scott Siverts.”

“Uh, no lies detected,” Siverts responds.

In an episode streamed four months ago, Wakulik asks: “If there was a race war between whites and Blacks, where whites still make up 55 percent of the population and Blacks make up 13 [percent], and white as we know are more likely to be not only trained but armed with firearms, if that was to happen … who would win that war, that race war?”

Siverts responds: “Well, I mean, it’s a no-brainer.”

Scott Siverts insisted his brother “does not share” his political views.

“My brother told me he hasn’t voted since 1996,” Siverts added. “He doesn’t get political. He serves the commander in chief, regardless of party. He doesn’t see color, except green for Marines. The last guy he voted for was Bill Clinton.”

Scott Siverts told Raw Story that in summer 2023, he asked his brother about Alan Sabrosky, a retired Marine Corps officer and frequent guest on The Berm Pit, including the “Allies of Evil” episode. When he asked his brother if he knew who Sabrosky was, Scott Siverts told Raw Story, his brother responded, “I think I do. I heard he’s an antisemite.”

‘Expect retaliatory action’: extremists fuel fear of violence after Charlie Kirk killing

After the assassination of Charlie Kirk, many Americans are realizing that political violence in the United States is undeniably on the rise.

Kirk was shot in the neck during a public appearance at a university in Utah on Wednesday. It was a shocking and graphic murder but it was not unique.

Last summer saw two assassination attempts on then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, one of which led to a trial playing out in federal court in Florida this week.

Only three months ago, a religious fanatic with a kill list assassinated Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman.

Last December, a gunman killed United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel.

And in 2022, in San Francisco, a man obsessed with right-wing conspiracy theories attacked Paul Pelosi, husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, with a hammer, during a home invasion.

“We really need to take stock of what’s happening,” Alexander Reid Ross, a geographer and lecturer at Portland State University who studies political extremism, told Raw Story.

Ross said he was seeing celebration of violence on “far-left, irony-poisoned hipster social media accounts,” making light of Kirk’s murder by joking that “he brought debate to a gunfight” and similar jibes.

That trend carried over from the celebration of Luigi Mangione, the alleged United Healthcare assassin.

“Right now, there is an entire culture of celebrity assassins, and it seems to have spilled over from the far right to the left,” Ross said.

“We see the iconic image of Luigi Mangione as a saint. That is directly attributable to the sainthood complex of far-right and nihilistic mass shooters. We’re seeing the spread of a kind of enabling culture of political violence that just did not exist on this level 10 years ago.”

On Wednesday, in the immediate aftermath of Kirk's murder, Trump did little to calm waters, blaming “the radical left” for comparing “wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals.”

He later said Kirk was “"an advocate of nonviolence” and “that's the way I'd like to see people respond.”

‘Full accelerationist’

So does Kirk’s murder mark a tipping point into a spiral of violence?

Early reporting that ammunition linked to the shooter was engraved with markings signifying antifascism and support for transgender people is fueling right-wing calls for retribution — notwithstanding caution from at least one law enforcement source “that the report had not been verified by A.T.F. analysts, did not match other summaries of the evidence and might turn out to have been misread or misinterpreted.”

Some neo-Nazis are heralding Kirk’s death as an opportunity for accelerationism — the idea that a moment of heightened political tension can open the door to tit-for-tat violence, creating conditions for revolutionary upheaval.

“Killing one of us is one thing,” an American neo-Nazi in Ukraine wrote on Telegram hours after Kirk’s death. “Killing one of the biggest conservative MAGA influencers is another.

“If the s---libs are going full accelerationist with the n-----s, then maybe I need to return to America.”

Users on another Telegram channel that caters to a transnational cohort of neo-Nazis who support Ukraine were at first divided, with some faulting Kirk for supporting Israel — or, in a contradictory swerve, speculating that an agent of Mossad carried out the hit because Kirk was perceived as wavering in his support for Israel.

Others worried that Kirk’s death would overshadow the killing of Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee who was murdered on light rail in Charlotte, NC last month — a galvanizing event for the white nationalist movement that the Trump administration has also sought to exploit.

On Thursday night, one channel administrator offered an assessment of Kirk’s death.

“Kirk’s shooting is good for us,” the administrator wrote. “A gatekeeping cuckservative Jew shill got iced by maybe a left-winger. He will be remembered as a martyr for the cause and this shooting (along with the murder of the Ukrainian girl) will cause outrage and radicalize people to our side.

“Expect a retaliatory action on a prominent left-winger soon in some way, shape or form to come. The s--- has hit the fan now.”

‘Reckoning we need’

Mainstream MAGA figures have also linked the deaths of Kirk and Zarutska as part of an effort to paint the political left as an implacable foe.

Christopher Rufo, the intellectual architect of the right’s assault on diversity, equity and inclusion, posted on X early on Wednesday: “The psychotic trans shooter gunning down Catholic kids in Minneapolis. The psychotic black homeless man stabbing the beautiful woman in Charlotte. And now an assassination attempt on Charlie Kirk.

“The reckoning we need is more profound than you can imagine.”

Around the same time, Ian Miles Cheong, a Malaysian right-wing influencer with 1.2 million followers on X, posted: “Charlie Kirk wasn’t the first victim in this war. He was the second. The first victim was Iryna Zarutska. This is war.”

Prior to Kirk’s shooting, white nationalists organized a rally for Zarutska in Huntington Beach, CA, scheduled for Thursday. After Kirk’s death, fliers advertised the rally as “Justice for Charlie Kirk and Iryna Zarutska!”

“All nationalists need to mobilize in their cities tonight,” Ryan Sanchez, a neo-Nazi with ties to Southern California and Arizona, wrote on Telegram. “Our people are enraged, they need leadership and protection from the terrorist left.

“… Things are moving. Act accordingly.”

During the rally at the Huntington Beach Pier, participants chanted, “White man, fight back.”

In other posts, Sanchez wrote, “Iryna’s death cries out for vengeance,” and, “Death to the left.”

In response to left-wing accounts cautioning followers to avoid the rally, Sanchez gloated that “social media accounts are now warning all Leftists to evacuate Huntington Beach after sundown.”

‘Eruptions’

Despite such rhetoric from the right, Ross cautioned that there is no reason to assume an escalation of political violence is inevitable.

Researchers have studied tit-for-tat violence between the far-right English Defense League and Islamist groups in the UK, to see if “acts of violence lead to a downward spiral,” and the results were somewhat unexpected.

“That theory is not fully substantiated, because it seems that societies tend to have a kind of settling systemic function in that spirals of violence tend to exhaust themselves rather rapidly, unless there’s an actual full-blown war happening in which one side fully believes they cannot continue fully without destroying the other,” Ross said.

“The tit-for-tat killings tend to be eruptions that happen over the course of a few weeks and subside. And they subside into a current that continues and breaks out again.”

Political violence in the U.S. is not at the level and frequency as the period in Italy known as the “Years of Lead,” from the late 1960s into the 1980s, or the Troubles in Northern Ireland around the same time, Ross said.

But that doesn’t mean people should be complacent.

“Random assassinations and assassination attempts, even these kind of mass shootings that are happening — these are very bad, and they might even show a direction toward that low-intensity conflict,” Ross said.

“They’re more like signs of broader acceptance of violence. If that culture becomes sort of mainstream, then you end up with that very high level of social conflict. The biggest warning signs are the cheapening of assassination deaths and the lionization of assassins.”

Neo-Nazi group with US links may be backed by Russian intelligence

Before a law enforcement crackdown hobbled it in 2021, the Base established itself as one of the most active neo-Nazi accelerationist groups — a term for groups that seek to hasten societal collapse by violent means.

Now the Base has rebuilt, to the extent that last year it earned a spot on the European Union list of sanctioned terrorist groups.

A sudden burst of activity in Ukraine has renewed suspicions that the Base and its leader, Rinaldo Nazzaro, are linked to Russian intelligence and security services.

“The Base’s activities in Ukraine suggest that there is more to this group than meets the eye,” said Steven Rai, author of a report released on Tuesday by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD).

“While there is no smoking gun that proves state sponsorship of the Base, there are numerous indicators that should at least raise questions as to whether they are being covertly supported by Russia.”

Suspicions of Russian influence have persisted since the group’s founding in 2018 due to the fact that Nazzaro, a former FBI intelligence analyst and onetime U.S. civilian analyst supporting military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, now lives in St. Petersburg.

According to the ISD, Nazzaro has continued “to fundraise and provide strategic direction to the group from Russia.”

Rai said the Base’s use of Russian communications applications such as VKontakte, RuTube, Mail.Ru and the social network Odnoklassniki, along with its use of inauthentic accounts, or bots, to spread its message, raise suspicions about potential Russian state support.

The ISD report also flags the Base’s offer to pay recruits in cryptocurrency to carry out acts of sabotage and violence, “which implies a level of financing that is unusual for neo-Nazi accelerationist groups and raises questions about where the funding originates.”

'Hate camp'

The Base first captured U.S. headlines from 2019 to 2021, as Nazzaro purchased a remote property in eastern Washington state while organizing online recruits to meet for a “hate camp.”

They hoped to practice guerilla warfare, with the long-term goal of establishing a white ethnostate in the U.S. Pacific Northwest.

The group’s decline began in early 2020 with the arrest of U.S. members for harboring an AWOL Canadian service member, building a machine gun to carry out an attack at a pro-gun rally, and plotting to murder an antifascist couple.

News reports and research point to the Base having been active in 18 countries, including the U.S., U.K, Russia, Ukraine, Italy and Sweden.

Rai says Nazzaro’s “profile alone raises questions about whether the Russian government would seek to exploit his access and capabilities by recruiting him as an intelligence asset.”

As reported by The Guardian, in March the Base began posting propaganda on social media announcing a campaign in Ukraine, signaling that the group has shifted its target for a white ethnostate from the Pacific Northwest to the Carpathian mountains near the Hungarian border.

According to The Guardian, the Base made posts on the social media platform Telegram offering to pay volunteers to carry out attacks on “electrical power stations, military and police vehicles, military and police personnel, government buildings, politicians.”

In May, the Base created a new Telegram channel announcing the launch of "Project White Phoenix," described as an effort "to create a white ethnostate in the Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine.” Appealing to Ukrainians, the post announcing the project called for capturing territory "for the future of the all whites in the brewing chaos. Mountains and borders in the region are a force multiplier making guerilla warfare possible and inevitable."

Such efforts in Ukraine align with Russian objectives, Rai notes.

“At a minimum, the Base’s activities may divert Ukraine’s attention away from countering Russian aggression,” the ISD report says.

“More nefariously, the Base could be part of Russia’s hybrid warfare tactics, which employ a mixture of conventional military forces, clandestine operatives and unwitting agents to sow chaos.”

Emails from Raw Story to two addresses associated with the Base went unreturned.

Nazzaro has consistently denied that he is an agent of the Russian state.

"This accusation is a lie," Nazzaro said on Telegram in May. "I have never had contact with Russian security services."

Nazzaro also said financing for the Ukraine campaign "comes from crowdfunding donations not from me personally."

Zakarpattia Oblast has previously been targeted by a Russian influence campaign.

In 2018, three members of the pro-Russian neo-Nazi group Falanga were arrested and charged in connection with an arson attack on a Hungarian cultural center in the city of Uzhorod.

Polish prosecutors ultimately claimed that the attack constituted an act of terrorism intended to “publicly incite hatred between Ukrainians and Hungarians” and cause “disruption of the political system.”

Witnesses implicated Manuel Ochsenreiter, a pro-Russia member of the far-right Alternative for Germany party. Ochsenreiter fled to Moscow, where he died of a heart attack in 2021, aged 45.

Looking for a U.S. leader

While Ukraine appears to be the Base’s current focus, the group has shown a resurgence in the U.S. and Western Europe.

The ISD reports that Europol coordinated arrests of five Base members in six European countries in November 2023, followed by arrests in the Netherlands and Italy in 2024, and in the U.K. earlier this year.

Last summer, Nazzaro posted on his personal Telegram account that he was looking for a U.S leader at a salary of up to $1,200 a month, The Guardian reported.

During the 2024 U.S. presidential election, the Base posted a video on Telegram celebrating an arson attack on a ballot box.

Earlier this year, the Base made an appeal for financial support to pay for a paramilitary training exercise in the U.S. Since the beginning of the year, the group has posted photos of members in the U.S. carrying firearms and wearing tactical gear.

It is unclear if the training exercise took place or if the Base appointed a U.S. leader.

Marines' shocking ties to pro-Russian neo-Nazis exposed after Raw Story sues Trump agency

The U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) probed a Marine assigned to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina for ties to a pro-Russia neo-Nazi group in Poland, according to internal military files exclusively obtained by Raw Story.

The Marine was arrested when the FBI disrupted a plot to attack an energy facility on U.S. soil. Authorities found that a co-defendant in the case, also a Marine and a Russian linguist, was in possession of classified material. The links to the pro-Russian group and details of the classified materials investigation are reported here for the first time.

NCIS initially refused to provide records in response to a Raw Story Freedom of Information Act request, citing an exemption to protect privacy. Raw Story sued the federal agency, and the courts found in its favor.

“‘Disclosure of the requested records would likely reveal a great deal about law enforcement policy,’ including how defendants handled investigations related to the mishandling of classified information and how the ‘military is addressing extremism in the ranks,’” Judge Lori AliKhan, a federal judge on the D.C. bench, wrote in 2024.

“‘Thus, disclosure would offer the public visibility into defendants’ ‘performance of [their] statutory duties’ and would further ‘let citizens know ‘what their government is up to.’”

‘Insider threat’

NCIS began investigating the case in April 2020, following a Newsweek story exposing Lance Cpl. Liam Collins as a member of Iron March, a global neo-Nazi online forum.

The investigation uncovered messages exchanged between Collins and two self-identified members of the Polish group, Falanga, discussing potentially coordinating paramilitary activity.

By the time the NCIS began investigating Collins’ links to Falanga, he had organized a neo-Nazi paramilitary group that was illegally manufacturing guns and stealing military gear from Camp Lejeune, while plotting an attack on critical infrastructure designed to spark a race war, according to federal prosecutors.

In October 2020, while Collins was under investigation for his links to the Polish neo-Nazi group, he was arrested on firearms charges, along with Cpl. Jordan Duncan, a Marine and Russian linguist assigned to the 2nd Radio Battalion of the II Marine Expeditionary Force. The two Marines had met at Camp Lejeune in late 2018.

When the FBI raided Duncan’s home in Boise, ID, they seized his laptop and an external hard drive. Authorities discovered classified material on the devices, and the NCIS and FBI opened a new investigation for potential violation of a federal law regulating the handling of national defense information.

As the NCIS and FBI reviewed the classified material as part of an “insider threat” investigation, the case widened to include a new charge of conspiracy to damage an energy facility, and three co-defendants, including another Marine and a New Jersey Army National Guard member.

In August 2021, while Duncan was in jail awaiting trial, investigators determined that the files discovered on his devices included a secret “capabilities brief” for the 2nd Radio Battalion, according to another set of investigative files exclusively obtained by Raw Story.

The files included other documents labeled “FOUO,” or “For Official Use Only,” a designation that denotes sensitive material exempt from public release, though not classified. The documents included “Standard Operating Procedures and tactics” specific to the battalion that a special security officer determined “would be detrimental to the Signals Intelligence and Electronic Warfare community as a whole if obtained by an adversary,” according to the investigation.

The investigation revealed that the FOUO materials were commingled with “a large library of improvised explosive device schematics, chemical weapons schematics” and other manuals on Duncan’s hard drive.

“It appears that Mr. Duncan’s hard drive was kind of a source for the entire group,” NCIS Agent Christopher Little testified during a detention hearing for one of Duncan’s codefendants in August 2021. “There was multiple documents from that hard drive on multiple other group members’ devices.”

‘Fresh and ready’

Before Collins met Duncan or started assembling his paramilitary group, he communicated with two self-identified members of Falanga, the neo-Nazi group with roots in the Polish skinhead scene, according to a data set of leaked Iron March chats reviewed by Raw Story.

When Collins began communicating with Falanga members in June 2016, he was a rising senior in New Jersey still more than a year out from entering Marine Corps bootcamp at Parris Island, SC.

Collins told other users on the forum his mother was Polish, that he was proud his “great-grandparents were Nazi collaborators,” and that he didn’t dispute Jews who claimed “Poland helped with the Holocaust.” In fact, it was a point of pride.

“I have a deep interest in creating a sort of ‘alliance’ with you and any members of Falanga that might be able to talk to me,” Collins wrote to a self-identified Falanga member with the username “Phalanx22” in August 2016.

“Like being able to relay information and propaganda between Poland and the United States. I will be serving in the military soon, so I want to come out fresh and ready to train my Polish brothers how to defend their blood and soil.”

Falanga made no secret of its anti-American stance.

The group was founded because of its leader’s perception of “liberalism, capitalism and USA/NATO as the greatest enemies,” a member with the username “Bombenhagel” told Collins.

Collins’ comments in the Iron March chats do not reveal his position on Russia, but he disparaged NATO — a bulwark of the US military alliance with Poland — for its role in the Balkans war of the 1990s.

“Opportunists like NATO wanted a reason to build more bases in Eastern Europe after the Cold War,” Collins wrote, “so they stopped Serb and Croats from genociding every last Muslim in the Balkans.”

Addressing an Iron March user in Canada, Collins said he was forming a “paramilitary.” In April 2017, Collins told “Bombenhagel” his group would be “purchasing a lot of land soon for training, so if Falanga ever organizes a trip to the U.S., you are welcome to come train with us.”

“Bombenhagel” thanked Collins for the invitation. It’s unclear if Falanga members ever traveled to the U.S. to train.

The last documented exchange between Collins and Falanga on Iron March took place in May 2017, but an NCIS investigative report noted that Collins expressed concern about the security of the forum, while suggesting they continue to communicate through a different platform. It is unclear how long the relationship between Collins and Falanga lasted.

In early 2018, three Falanga members were detained by the Polish Internal Security Agency on suspicion of carrying out an arson attack against a Hungarian cultural center in Ukraine.

The three were convicted, according to Przemyslaw Witkowski, a Polish scholar who researches the far right and pro-Russia influences at Civitas University in Warsaw, and who described the attack in the book Russia and the Far-Right: Insights from Ten European Countries as “the most infamous act of terror committed by Polish citizens in the last 20 years.”

Polish prosecutors argued that the purpose of the crime was to “publicly incite national hatred between Ukrainians and Hungarians” and to cause “disruption of the political system in Ukraine.”

The clear beneficiary was Russia, which in 2014 had annexed Crimea from Ukraine, and was backing separatists in the Donbas.

Three years later, Russia launched a full-scale invasion that continues to exact a bloody toll.

Witness testimony in the trial for the 2018 terror attack implicated Manuel Ochsenreiter, a German journalist active with the far-right Alternative for Germany party, according to Witkowski. Ochsenreiter reportedly denied involvement but relocated to Moscow, where in 2021 he died suddenly of a heart attack, aged 45.

‘Exchange of information’

Falanga members have addressed the Duma in Moscow, visited Russian-backed separatists in the Donbas, and interviewed Aleksander Dugin, a Russian intellectual close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Witkowski noted.

Witkowski told Raw Story he finds it unlikely that Falanga would be able to maintain such high-level contacts without some kind of approval from Russian intelligence services.

“For sure there is an exchange of information in this environment,” Witkowski said.

The secret “capabilities brief” and other sensitive U.S. military information Duncan obtained through his assignment to the 2nd Radio Battalion in the II Marine Expeditionary Force would likely be of interest to Collins’ counterparts in Falanga, Witkowski said.

He noted that Falanga members have demonstrated an interest in infiltrating the Polish police, national guard and army.

Duncan is now serving a seven-year sentence in Pennsylvania, for illegally manufacturing a short-barrel rifle. His lawyer declined to comment.

Collins, who is serving a 10-year sentence in South Carolina for aiding and abetting the interstate transportation of unregistered firearms, could not be reached for comment.

Emails to Bartosz Bekier, the leader of Falanga, went unreturned.

NCIS told Raw Story the investigation yielded no evidence that any military information on Duncan’s devices was transferred to Falanga or wound up in Russian hands.

“NCIS has determined, in coordination with the FBI and [the U.S. Department of Justice], that there were no indications that classified information was provided to other groups or to foreign entities,” said Meredith March, an NCIS spokesperson.

March added that NCIS was “unable to provide information that may be contained in the FBI’s investigative files.”

The FBI National Press Office and FBI joint terrorism task forces in Wilmington, NC and Boise, ID, declined to comment.

The NCIS “insider threat” investigation on Duncan for potential violations of the federal law on communicating, transmitting or retaining national defense information was closed in November 2021. Federal prosecutors agreed to refrain from mention of the classified materials on Duncan’s devices, to avoid prejudicing a jury if he were to go to trial on firearms charges. Duncan pled guilty to the gun charge shortly before his trial was scheduled to begin.

While the National Security Division Counterterrorism Section prosecuted Duncan, alongside federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of North Carolina, the Department of Justice opted to not charge him for mishandling classified materials.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina, where Camp Lejeune is located, declined to comment. The Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment.

‘Cascading harms’: Wave of campus active-shooter hoaxes linked to Purgatory group

False reports of active shooters that put Villanova University in Philadelphia and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on lockdown and saw law enforcement swarming over campuses last week were likely perpetrated by an online swatting group called “Purgatory,” extremism researchers say.

Five Purgatory members hosted a voice call on Discord, a platform popular with gamers, on Aug. 21 to an audience of 41 people, livestreaming the bogus calls to authorities at Villanova and Tennessee, according to a report by Marc-André Argentino, a Canadian researcher.

Using a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) service that masks caller identity and location, a Purgatory leader with the screenname “Gores” made calls reporting active shooters, per a report by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, or GPAHE, which also monitored the chat.

In a call archived by GPAHE, Gores attempted to duplicate the successful swatting attacks at Villanova and Tennessee by calling the security office at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania later the same day, as other Discord users laughed.

“Can you hear me?” Gores asked the woman who answered the call. “I’m currently at Bucknell University. I’m in the library right now. I just saw a guy walking around, six foot tall and it looks like he’s holding an AR-15. I think he’s heading towards me.”

Like the other active-shooter reports that day, it was a fabrication.

GPAHE reports that Gores attempted to provoke an armed police response at locations in Michigan on Aug. 21, but police departments recognized the hoax.

According to GPAHE, Gores sometimes used “the sound of a shotgun blast in the background.” That’s consistent with an official update by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga stating that the 911 telecommunicator who fielded the call for service reported hearing gunshots.

Purgatory is a subset of a larger decentralized online network known as Com, whose members engage in hacking, fraud, extortion, child sexual abuse material, and at the most extreme, murder and terrorism. The participants, many of whom are teenagers, commit crimes that they document for social standing. Some groups also advertise crimes-for-hire.

A post on Purgatory’s Telegram channel documented by Argentino and GPAHE advertises a price list. A swatting attack on a school, described as “institutional purge,” costs $20, while vandalism, using a brick to break out a window, costs $15.

Last month, Evan Strauss, the 27-year-old founder of Purgatory, pleaded guilty to conspiracy, cyberstalking, interstate threatening communications and threats to damage or destroy by means of fire and explosives.

Over two months in late 2023 and early 2024, Strauss and two co-defendants, who also pleaded guilty, placed calls to a Delaware high school threatening to shoot students and teachers, called in a bomb threat to the Albany, N.Y. airport, and called a sheriff’s office in Alabama threatening to burn down a trailer park, according to the government.

It is unclear whether there is a direct connection between the original Purgatory and the new group. The first posts of the Telegram channel for the iteration responsible for the Villanova and University of Tennessee swattings includes a link to the press release about Strauss’ guilty plea, according to GPAHE.

Since Aug. 21, swatting attacks have affected University of Colorado-Boulder, Kansas State University, University of South Carolina, University of Arkansas, Iowa State University, University of New Hampshire and Northern Arizona State University.

Argentino said the swatting attacks were likely carried out by Purgatory and a rival Com group called “Diddy Swats,” named for hip hop producer Sean Combs, recently convicted of prostitution-related offenses. Competition often drives criminal activity among the online groups.

Reflecting on how the false active-shooter calls resulted in mass panic, with students barricading themselves in classrooms, Argentino wrote that “the prevalence of school shootings in the United States makes these swatting calls especially traumatic for those on site” while draining public resources by prompting “large-scale tactical responses.”

But the attacks cause even deeper harm by eroding social trust, Argentino said.

“These dynamics also impose psychosocial costs on the wider campus community by heightening fear, normalizing rumor as evidence, and displacing official risk communication,” he wrote.

“Tertiary harms emerge as the content economy rewards rapid, sensational posts with reach and monetization, incentivizing copycat coverage and degrading the information environment for future incidents.

“Institutions face eroded trust, rising call volumes driven by misinformation, and response fatigue that slows decision making in genuine crises … In this way, swatting functions as an attack on social infrastructure, converting an unfounded report into cascading harms mediated by networked attention, algorithmic amplification, and weakened verification norms.”

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