![]() Ron Paul of Texas, a Republican-turned-libertarian.Įlmer Stewart Rhodes was born in California, public records show, He was a paratrooper in the Army until he was severely injured in a parachute accident during a nighttime training jump. Rhodes, who along with the Oath Keepers did not respond to several requests for comment, was photographed at the Capitol that chilly Wednesday, although it's unclear whether he took part in storming the building where he once worked as a staffer for then-Rep. "Another part is the group has some really virulent strains of Islamophobia and nativism and anti-immigrant sentiment," he said. "That process of falling in line behind Trump was in part because Trump's opponent was Hillary Clinton, and the Clinton name is so anathema to this broader movement," said Sam Jackson, who teaches at the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity at the State University of New York at Albany and wrote the 2020 book "Oath Keepers: Patriotism and the Edge of Violence in a Right-Wing Antigovernment Group." Some of the groups are heavily armed, and members are being investigated over whether they had roles in the Capitol riot.įor Rhodes and the Oath Keepers, support for Trump - who once claimed that his authority was "total" and whom they initially viewed skeptically - followed a conspiratorial arc in which preparing for confrontation with the government eventually gave way to a more nativist focus on perceived threats to American values by leftist groups, the deep state and supposed foreign conspirators or global cabals. citizens offers a window into the evolution of the anti-government groups that embraced Trump as an ally in their existential battle against the government he ran. military to suppress resistance from U.S. How Rhodes, 55, went from being a libertarian former Arizona Supreme Court law clerk warning about federal tyranny to calling for the U.S. The Oath Keepers were one of a variety of militia groups that coalesced around Trump, many of which had previously been highly skeptical of the federal government.ĭownload the NBC News app for breaking news and politics Capitol riot, he'd put out a call on the group's website for "all patriots who can be in DC" to travel to the capital for a "security mission" to "stand tall in support of President Trump's fight."Īt least three people affiliated with the Oath Keepers have been indicted on conspiracy charges stemming from the riot, including one, Thomas Caldwell of Virginia, who is described in federal court papers as having "a leadership role within the Oath Keepers." "If you fail to do so, we the people will have to fight a bloody revolution/civil war to throw off an illegitimate deep state/Chinese puppet regime," he wrote. In an open letter on the website of the Oath Keepers, the far-right militia group he founded in 2009, Rhodes urged President Donald Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, send special forces to seize state elections systems, redo the election and deploy both the National Guard and a self-armed militia to suppress any rebellion from "domestic enemies" in the way. But in the weeks after the 2020 election, presidential overreach seemed far from his mind. ![]()
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