Then-Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) blasted Janet Napolitano for insulting “American citizens who disagree with the direction Washington Democrats are taking our nation.”
Last year, a white-nationalist army veteran was charged with second-degree murder after he drove a car into a group of nonviolent protesters in Charlottesville, Va., killing one and injuring 19. Earlier this month, a far-right-wing army veteran shot and killed two people at a Tallahassee, Fla. yoga studio.
According to a new report posted Sunday by the Washington Post, the yoga studio victims were among at least 20 people who have been killed this year in the United States in suspected right-wing attacks (compared to “just one fatal attack in 2018 that may have been motivated by left-wing ideologies.”) This comes amid an “uptick in right-wing terrorism,” as the report puts it. The FBI has documented this phenomenon as an increase in hate crimes.
Some of the blame for the rise in right-wing terrorism has been assigned to President Donald Trump’s racist rhetoric and his “both sides” excuses for white nationalism. Some of it may go to his administration’s decision not to fund Countering Violent Extremism programs. But some of it precedes Trump and goes back nearly a decade.
View the complete November 26 article by Josh Israel on the ThinkProgress.org website here.