Standing by

Oath Keepers militia leader Stewart Rhodes said members of his militia will be at polling locations on Election Day to “protect” Trump voters during an appearance on far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ program.

After making that claim, Rhodes made a number of unhinged statements, including saying Oath Keepers would follow directives from President Donald Trump to take members of the “deep state” into custody and “do what we have to do,” that Trump should invoke the Insurrection Act before the election, that Oath Keepers will “be in range” of Washington D.C., to stop a “Benghazi-style” attack on the White House on election night, and that a war will have to be fought against Democrats on the West Coast who are “bought” by the Chinese government. Rhodes also hyped the possibility of a second civil war where his “battle-hardened” supporters kill the “street soldiers” and “command and control” of “the radical left.” He later claimed the United States is already in a civil war because “you have sitting politicians who are part of the enemy’s ranks.”

Disturbingly, Rhodes telegraphed how he will interpret election results, saying that he would consider a win by Democratic nominee Joe Biden illegitimate and evidence the election had been stolen.

[...]

Rhodes’ Oath Keepers militia, which is comprised of “former law enforcement officials and military veterans,” is described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as “one of the largest radical antigovernment groups in the U.S. today.” The Los Angeles Times reported Rhodes has indicated that some Oath Keepers “have signed up as poll watchers, while others plan to monitor the election armed and ‘undercover,’ drawing their weapons if needed.”

[...]

Rhodes said that “bought” Democrats and “leftists” on the West Coast are participants in a proxy war being waged by China against the U.S., saying, “That’s who we are fighting right now on the streets.” (Rhodes and other Oath Keeper supporters have showed up at protests against police brutality carrying weapons.) Rhodes then said, “You got to defeat them in warfare, and then you got to figure out, it’s kind of like with the Founding Fathers dealing with the loyalists, what do you do with these people?”

After Jones asked him about “military rules of engagement,” Rhodes predicted a possible civil war between the right and left and said that “our side will not just go and fight their street soldiers; we will go for their command and control also” because “that’s a smart thing to do in warfare. That’s what’s going to happen.”

[...]

Jones then raised the prospect of up to 20,000 antifa supporters storming the White House on the night of the election and predicted that would cause the Secret Service to “run out of bullets.” Rhodes said “that’s what we’re concerned about,” claiming the people who would plan an attack on the White House “have a lot of jihadists who are well-trained and experienced in warfare.”

  Media Matters

The fact that these guys are crazy is no comfort.

I presume the FBI is on alert.