Right-wing militia groups descend on Washington for pro-Trump post-election protest

Thousands of Americans belonging to far-right fringe groups are taking to the streets in a show of support for Donald Trump and to denounce Joe Biden’s recent presidential win.

A few weeks before the US election, FBI agents arrested more than a dozen men who planned a heavily-armed raid on Michigan’s capital building with the intention of kidnapping the state’s controversial governor Gretchen Whitmer and holding her to a “treason trial”.

Hugely popular among Democrats and seen as a potential party leader, the 48-year-old mother of five is also one of Donald Trump’s least favourite people, and he has repeatedly called her out publicly for the state’s harsh coronavirus lockdowns, even continuing to do so after the scheme was revealed.

The Michigan plotters, 13 of whom have been charged, were members of a newly formed militia they called the Wolverine Watchmen and some had publicly expressed support for the Boogaloo ideology, which is readying for a civil war with the left.

Nobody would leave the capital alive, according to new details of the plot reported yesterday, in which the militia would conduct televised executions.

Oregon’s far-right militia groups have been a growing concern in the lead up to and following the election. Picture: Nathan Howard/Getty/AFP

Such horrifying actions would seem unsupportable to any reasonable person.

But not Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf, who is friends with two of the accused and close to local militias, who told an interviewer that there was a distinction between kidnapping and arresting.

“A lot of people are angry with the governor and they want her arrested,” Sheriff Leaf said on the day the plot was uncovered.

“So are they trying to arrest or was it a kidnap attempt?  Because you can still, in Michigan if it’s a felony, you can still make a felony arrest,” he continued, classifying the state’s stay-at-home orders as mass detention.

“And (the law) doesn’t say if you are in elected office that you are exempt from that arrest. So I have to look at it from that angle. And I am hoping that’s more like what it is.”

Four weeks later, having only slightly walked back his comments, Sheriff Leaf was re-elected in the rural county where he ran unopposed as a Republican.

The militia group these plotters are connected with is one of 30 headed to Washington DC for a confluence of protests planned today.

On the right is the Million MAGA March and a group called Stop the Steal, while the left fall neatly under the “F — Maga” banner.

A home-made poster from May shows Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer being depicted as Adolf Hitler. Picture: Jeff Kowalsky / AFP

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While at least 72 million Americans voted for Donald Trump, and not even a tiny fraction of whom could be reasonably called racists out to overthrow democracy, there is a hard core of his supporters who are ready to make trouble.

Ranging from the open neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin to the growing women-hating Proud Boys movement, these pro-Trump groups seize on some of his divisive statements.

In the days after Mr Trump failed to immediately condemn the Proud Boys in a presidential debate with the clumsy statement that they should “stand back and stand by”, Anglin was among those who portrayed it as a call to arms.

“I still have shivers,” he wrote on the Daily Stormer website.

“He is telling the people to stand by. As in: Get ready for war.”

Close relationships between anti-government groups and local law enforcement, such as that in Michigan, are one of the key drivers for militia violence, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED).

“We have seen it in more than one case,” said Dr Roudabeh Kishi, the organisation’s research director.

In one of the presidential debates, Donald Trump told the far-right group Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by”. Picture: Chandan Khanna/AFP

Dr Kishi pinpointed the states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Oregon as most at risk of seeing such right-wing group action and most high risk for potential violence.

“Militia groups and other armed non-state actors pose a serious threat to the safety and security of American voters,” said an ACLED report ahead of poll day.

And while there had been fears of widespread unrest on election day, the real trouble could be ahead, particularly if Mr Trump and his backers continue with the rhetoric that the presidency was being “stolen”.

The other issues these states share include a recent online spike in local recruiting and training, fears of local left-wing organising for groups such as Black Lives Matter and being a swing state.

But with America grappling with an overwhelming second COVID wave with record daily new cases, the potential imposition of harsh coronavirus shutdowns is of biggest concern to the militias and authorities.

“The energy of anti-government groups may depend to some extent on the Biden administration’s approach to the coronavirus in the sense that the more the Biden administration attempts to implement some sort of mask mandate across the country, that may be a flash point for right wing groups to protest,” said Aryeh Tuchman, the Associate Director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism.

Trump supporters demonstrated in Michigan and pledged to attend the "Stop the Steal" following the US election. Picture: John Moore/Getty/AFP

Mr Tuchman said it while was highly unreasonable to tag every upset Trump supporter as a potential threat, the majority of trouble was coming from right-wing groups.

“We have to make sure not to assume that people who are opposing the Biden administration or expressing their support for the Trump administration, we cannot assume that they are extremists in any way,” he said.

“We are talking about a small number of fringe groups.”

But amid record gun sales and constant agitation from the top, there are worrying signs of an increased willingness among the US population to accept a violent outcome in order to get their way.

New research released last month found that one in five Americans with strong political leanings said they would be quite willing to endorse violence if the other party won the presidency, according to a group of researchers writing in Politico.

Dr Kishi said the longer there was political uncertainty, the more potential there was for trouble.

And given how much Mr Trump had stoked the right wing groups, it may take more than a call for peace from the top – should he wish to make one – in order to settle down the situation.

“Perhaps (it would help), given the somewhat close alignment with so many of these groups with him,” Dr Kishi said.

“But that said, it’s hard to tell now, when these groups have been so mobilised and kind of worked up around this. I can imagine that it might be hard to just immediately switch that off.

“This has been months and months in the making. He should have told them to stand down a while ago.”