Domestic extremist activity during election didn't happen, but extremists are busy
There were bomb threats and a possible attempted arson attack at the U.S. Capitol, but otherwise no widespread extremist activity marred election day. Meanwhile, a campaign of racist text messages is sent to Black Americans in several states, a white supremacist is charged with plotting an attack on an energy substation and two racist far-right groups merge.
It’s the week in extremism.
Bomb threats, thwarted suspected arson attack on election day
Despite concerns from experts, Tuesday’s presidential election was largely free of extremist violence or harassment and intimidation at the polls. At least five battleground states saw voting temporarily interrupted by false bomb threats, however, and a man was arrested at the U.S. Capitol with a flare gun and bottles of gasoline in his possession.
Fears of election-day violence from domestic extremists did not materialize across the country Tuesday or during the rest of the week. Experts had worried a close election could lead to domestic extremists committing violence driven by belief in conspiracy theories, but with Donald Trump soon emerging as a clear winner, no such incidents arose.
Bomb threats to polling stations briefly interrupted voting in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Arizona, according to the FBI. The threats were quickly designated as false and the top U.S. cybersecurity official said Wednesday they didn’t have a material impact on the outcome of the election or voters’ ability to cast ballots.
In one notable incident, 27-year-old Austin Olson of Michigan was arrested at the U.S. Capitol in possession of a flare gun, containers of gasoline and a “political thesis.” According to court records, Olson planned for his “thesis” to go viral by getting arrested on election day.
According to the statement of facts attached to Olson’s arrest warrant, he “denied that he intended to start a fire or light himself on fire,” and “denied any intent to harm anyone.”
Racist text messages sent to Black Americans
On Thursday, reports came in from several states that Black Americans had received racist text messages in what appeared to be a coordinated attack.
The messages, which appear to have targeted Black college students, contained variations on a racist trope about picking cotton.
Authorities are investigating the incident, which shocked experts on domestic extremism, who said they haven’t seen this tactic used by hate groups before.
“This is the first I've ever seen of this kind of racist attack using texts. It's frighteningly personal and harrowing,” Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, told USA TODAY. “I've also never seen this kind of racist messaging threatening people directly.”
White supremacist planned attack on energy facility
A day before the election, Skyler Philippi, a 24-year-old white supremacist from Tennessee, was arrested and charged by federal authorities with plotting to use a weapon of mass destruction to attack an electrical substation in Nashville.
According to prosecutors, Philippi told confidential sources he planned to attach explosives to a drone and fly it into an electrical substation to cause power outages. He had previously told the informants he wished to commit a mass shooting at a YMCA, but changed his mind to the drone attack.
Philippi expressed a desire to commit terrorism in furtherance of his belief in “accelerationism” — a white supremacist philosophy seeking to foment a race war and ensuing dystopia to bring about a race-based new global order. He told the informants he was previously involved with the white supremacist group Atomwaffen Division.
Philippi was arrested as he was assembling the explosives and the drone for the attack.
This was the latest in a string of arrests of a white supremacist accelerationists planning to attack the electrical grid.
Report: Two white supremacist groups to merge
In its first edition of a weekly newsletter devoted to extremism, the Anti-Defamation League reported that two white supremacist groups have announced a merger.
The founder of the National Socialist Front posted on the secure messaging app Telegram in late October that the group will be merging with the group Patriot Front.
According to the ADL’s analysis: “Disbanding NSF appears to be less of a carefully workshopped marketing decision than a response to mounting legal pressure and new legislation in Florida. Joshua Dan Nunes, founder of the NSF, has been hinting at a shift for a while; in a July 2023 interview with a neo-Nazi streamer, he announced the group would focus on ‘comradery building’”
Texas-headquartered Patriot Front has sought to portray itself as less of a hardcore neo-Nazi group and more of a “defender” of White European heritage and “Western values.” Leaks of internal communications have shown, however, that it is a starkly white supremacist hate group.
Statistic of the week: 16 percent
That’s what proportion of Republicans polled by Gallup in October were concerned with the then-presidential candidate’s connections to extremists.
Forty-one percent of all U.S. adults polled by Gallup said they are “very concerned” that Trump is too closely aligned with people who hold radical views.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Election-related extremism was limited, but there was action elsewhere
