“Luck may be needed in World War II,” Larry Rendell Brock Jr., a Texas man charged in connection with the attack, wrote on Facebook in the days before the events in Washington, according to federal prosecutors. Mr. Brock sought to take hostages, prosecutors said, marking the post with the names of two groups against the government.
According to Amy Spitalnick, executive director of Integrity First for America, a non-profit organization that endorses a lawsuit over the violence in Charlottesville, there were also at least two prominent activists involved in the 2017 Charlottesville protest.
One of them was Nicholas J. Fuentes, 22, a far-right rioter whose online diatribes in support of white nationalism and attacks on Jews and LGBT people drew a large following among colleagues. His followers wave flags with the logo of his America First organization, and see them storm the Capitol. Mr Fuentes, praised in a video for the assault because he was more stupid than any Black Lives Matter or anti-fascist protest, although he apparently stayed out.
“We have forced a joint session of Congress and the Vice President to evacuate because Trump supporters strike and then successfully burst through the doors,” he exclaimed.
Lindsay Schubiner, a program director at the Western States Center focused on countering white nationalism, said it was frightening to see the rise of far-right groups in recent years that pose dangers to coloreds and LGBTQ communities. Without a major disruption, she expects the extremist groups to remain a risk to the country’s public security and democracy for years to come.
“It’s not something that can be put back in the bottle – at least not quickly or easily,” Schubiner said.
The attack on the Capitol would likely become a “major driver of violence for a variety of violent extremists,” a variety of government agencies said in a joint January 13 news bulletin. The storming of the building, several analysts said, could fuel a dangerous setback against the incoming Biden government and its agenda on gun control, racial justice, public lands and other issues by extremists who are not afraid to use force to their liking. to get.