A private intelligence company issued a dire warning on Dec. 24 about Donald Trump supporters plotting a violent insurrection on Jan. 6.

SITE Intelligence Group sent the bulletin, which described in detail the plans being discussed on pro-Trump online forums, to law enforcement agencies and other subscribers more than a week before the riot, which undercuts arguments that authorities failed to respond appropriately because they were unaware of the threat, reported Politico.

“The intelligence was there,” said Ryan Shapiro, the executive director of Property of the People. “The agencies had it, Capitol police leadership had it, yet they approached this obvious threat from the far right with a startling degree of nonchalance. Contrast this with the hypervigilant, militaristic state responses to peaceful protests by Black Lives Matter and other progressive groups. Jan. 6 wasn’t an intelligence failure. It was a political failure by U.S. intelligence and law enforcement.”

Rita Katz, the founder and executive director of SITE, told the website that the response was the most “profound failure to act” she has seen in decades of sharing information with the U.S. government.

“A potpourri of communities overtly strategized to storm the Capitol building and arrest — if not outright kill — public officials and carry out a coup,” Katz said.

“Law enforcement officials were alerting their superiors and other agencies to the threats SITE had identified — many of which ended up manifesting that day, just as they were written,” Katz added. “These warnings were distributed by the FBI and other agencies well before Jan. 6.”

Image via Shutterstock

Glenn Youngkin, the Republican candidate for governor of Virginia, spoke at a gala Saturday held by the virulently anti-LGBTQ, anti-choice Family Foundation, Blue Virginia first reported. And on Friday, the Republican hopeful will speak at the Pray Vote Stand Summit hosted by the Family Research Council, another anti-LGBTQ organization so extreme the Southern Poverty Law Center has deemed it a hate group.

Youngkin appeared at the Family Foundation event alongside GOP candidate for lieutenant governor Winsome Sears and the hard-right Virginia state Sen. Amanda Chase, who posted to Facebook a photo of herself and Youngkin in attendance. Among the sponsors of the event was Alliance Defending Freedom, a multimillion dollar litigation-and-legislation shop for the religious right that has attacked a women’s right to choose and LGBTQ rights.

Like ADF and FRC, the Family Foundation has fought against same-sex marriage for years, suggesting after Virginia’s 2014 marriage equality decision that allowing same-sex couples to marry would harm children. The group has also supported so-called “conversion therapy,” harmful practices that seek to change a person’s sexual or gender orientation. A blog post from June declares, “OBJECT TO THE LGBTQ+ AGENDA, GO TO THE CLOSET!” while encouraging readers to vote for executive and legislative candidates who would block Virginia schools from teaching more comprehensive sex-ed and LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum. A promotional video on the group’s website showcases the hostility toward the LGBTQ community that the group fosters; a pastor of the Smith Memorial Baptist church said it shocked and angered him when he was notified of an “LBGTQ”—his spelling, not ours—“person coming to speak to all of our elementary schools.”

At the heart of the Family Foundation’s mission is to instill government policy with its fundamentalist views.

“We believe there is no square inch in all the universe over which God has not claimed ‘Mine’, and that includes the arenas of civil government and public policy where we spend much of our time,” the Family Foundation’s website reads. “We advocate for policies based on Biblical principles that enable families to flourish at the state and local level.” Those “biblical principles” in The Family Foundation’s reading include the following:

1) Human life, from fertilization until natural death, is sacred, and the right to life is fundamental to all other rights.

2) Marriage, as a lifelong union between one man and one woman, is an institution of God and a foundation for civil society.

3) Gender, beautifully expressed as either male or female according to God’s immutable design, is an important biological and social reality that must be respected by all.

Youngkin has tried to portray his candidacy as moderate, but his courting of groups like Family Foundation and Family Research Council in addition to his refusal to say whether he supports marriage equality suggest that his candidacy is more extreme than he would let on.

Indeed, his political ally Chase—a Trumpian Republican who called on former President Donald Trump to declare martial law, hobnobbed with the Oath Keeper’s Stewart Rhodes before the insurrection, and attended the so-called Stop the Steal rally held on Jan. 6 before praising the insurrectionists as “Patriots who love their country”—has been campaigning for Youngkin since she failed to win the GOP nomination for governor.

Pushing Trump’s false claim that the 2020 election was stolen, Chase created a national “election integrity caucus” of state legislators to push for “forensic audits” of election results in all 50 states, following the model of the notorious “audit” carried out in Arizona. Just days before Chase joined Youngkin at the Family Foundation event, Right Wing Watch’s Peter Montgomery reported that Chase joined the religious-right group Intercessors for America to encourage its followers to elect Youngkin and continue to push the big lie that the election was stolen: “the best number one solution for Virginia to have better election integrity is to elect a Republican governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and replace all the members in the House so that we have a Republican majority.”

This article was originally published by Right Wing Watch and is republished here by permission. 

Image via Facebook

Butch Miller, the Republican President pro tempore of the Georgia state Senate, is getting blowback after he twisted a tax policy question into what some see as a racist dogwhistle.

Miller, who is running to be the GOP nominee for Lt. Governor, was asked a question about tax policy. His answer seemingly had nothing to do with taxes: “we need to make sure that we’re attracting people in Georgia that do think like us, and if they don’t think like us they need to assimilate into our values and our culture.”

The Georgia Republican was speaking in an interview with BKP Politics on the local streaming website FYN TV. Miller was asked: “what about the tax structure for the people of Georgia? I know your opponent has talked about eliminating personal, you know tax in Georgia, what about the tax structure for the people in Georgia?”

“Let’s take that,” Sen. Miller replied. “That’s a big subject and you’ve covered a lot again, you’ve covered a lot of ground I appreciate that. The fact of the matter is we have attracted many people to, to the state of Georgia, they don’t think like us, we need to make sure that we’re attracting people in Georgia that do think like us, and if they don’t think like us they need to assimilate into our values and our culture.”

“If you don’t make it, mine it, or grow it, it’s hard to make a living doing it. So we can’t make a living by cutting each other’s grass and doing each other’s laundry. That’s just a fact. So, in terms of our tax structure and eliminate basically eliminated the income tax for the, for the house, the household income tax the individual income tax, you will see multiple pieces of legislation introduced to that effect, and I’ll be a part of that.”

Atlanta Journal Constitution political reporter Greg Bluestein was first to flag Miller’s comments. Here’s how people are responding.

Tell me you are a racist without telling me you are a racist. https://t.co/KA7Abkn4et

— Hans Appen (@hansappen) October 6, 2021

This is an example of what the base of the GOP has become. This is who moderate GOP & Dems want Solid Dems & Progressive Dems to negotiate with and appeal to. Umm, how ‘bout NO! #ThisIsAmerica https://t.co/xqH7q2moWV

— Cornell Woolridge (@RenaissanceXM) October 6, 2021

By “our values and our culture”, to which oppressive era in Georgia’s history is he referring?

— Dave Pluke (@davepluke) October 6, 2021

I mean, people who “look like me” would’ve been more honest, not that his racism isn’t crystal clear. https://t.co/ybGYHCBkUP

— Nioshii (@Nartist) October 6, 2021

SO much louder than a dog whistle and in response to a Q about tax policy.🤦🏽‍♀️ https://t.co/ybGYHCBkUP

— Nioshii (@Nartist) October 6, 2021

He doesn’t speak for GA. I was born and raised here as were my parents and my parent’s parents. Also their parents. I am as GA as it gets.

— GA is blue 🇺🇲🏴‍☠️🌊🐔 (@bluestategadawg) October 6, 2021

1. If your moving to Georgia, you probably like Georgia. 2. The assimilation comment is why the GOP has to manipulate election laws and maps to win! Next! #2022elections #gapol https://t.co/YXXwunIhP7

— Keith Brannum (@BKeith25) October 6, 2021

“Our values, our culture.” I know what that means in any context in the south or anywhere for that matter!

— Eva Beck (@EvaEvabeck) October 6, 2021

It’s called a racial “dog whistle” because it’s supposed to be hidden.

There’s no hiding here. https://t.co/Y1v0cSRAJx

— Preston Thompson (@PSton3) October 6, 2021

Looks like he forgot his hood.

— Mandy M2S (@MandyM2S) October 6, 2021

cc: @RacismDog https://t.co/rploQ5UNdH

— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) October 6, 2021