Rhodes is still selling the falsehood that the election was illegitimate. He says the Biden government and its supporters in Congress should be seen as an enemy occupation force and issues warnings about what he claims are 365 million armed patriots ready to “rebel”.
“There will be resistance. The only question is what the spark will be,” said Rhodes in a Jan. 30 interview with Infowars, a media organization that is one of the leading providers of conspiracy theories in the United States. “They keep pushing,” he said of what he calls “leftists”. “That’s why it’s important … Let them be the first to take the blood. Then you defend yourself.”
Rhodes spoke to CNN in the days after the violent invasion of the Capitol, but did not return several calls and emails to comment on the Oath Keepers’ future for this story.
But his rhetoric after the uprising in CNN-reviewed interviews and posts mirrors what he asked his followers when he encouraged them to attend the January 6 rally.
“All Patriots who can get to DC need to be in DC. Now is the time to get up. It’s not too late to go. Jump on a plane! Jump in your car! Just get there,” said Rhodes on his website. group on January 4. “Stand up straight now or kneel down forever.”
Oath Keepers inside the Capitol
Rhodes’ call was apparently heard and answered by several people who entered the Capitol on that bloody day, including former members of the army that the Oath Keepers group actively recruits as a member
She was photographed with Rhodes – a figure who was distinguished by a black eye patch – in November during a “Stop the Steal” and “Million Maga March” event in Washington, DC.
Watkins, who served in the Army, is charged along with two other military veterans and alleged Oath Keepers Donovan Crowl and Thomas Caldwell, with conspiracy and other charges related to the attack.
“We are in the mezzanine. We are in the main dome now. We are rocking,” Watkins said in a walkie-talkie app, according to federal prosecutors. They say that she was coordinating with other people.
“We’re in the fucking Capitol, Crowl!” Watkins, from the rear, reportedly yelled at Crowl while he was filming a selfie video, according to the complaint against them
Watkins and Crowl are in jail and none of them had a lawyer assigned at the time this story was published. Caldwell is accused of coordinating with Watkins and Crowl before, during and after the attack. His lawyer says Caldwell denies involvement with the Oath Keepers.
He also said that Caldwell worked for the FBI. An FBI spokesman said it was “a policy not to comment on personnel issues and CNN cannot confirm Caldwell’s work for the FBI. But a source with internal knowledge of how the Oath Keepers operate told CNN that there are members who work on federal law enforcement, but kept it out of the official database of members because of a plausible denial.
The FBI is trying to identify a group of 8 to 10 people using military tactical equipment with Oath Keepers paraphernalia on Capitol steps. A photo shows some Oath Keepers inside the Capitol roundabout.
Rhodes, who does not face charges related to January 6, says he has not entered the Capitol building. But he was seen after the attack with the men in Oath Keepers suits now wanted by the FBI.
The FBI called for information about the group in the FBI photos.
Rhodes told CNN, shortly after the insurrection, that he was not anti-government, but that he “did not trust the FBI now”.
Inflammatory rhetoric and offers of help
“Our role is not to be obedient to whoever the leader is. Our role is to defend the Constitution and the republic,” Rhodes told CNN in 2009.
Rhodes and other militia groups began to denounce the government as tyrannical, according to Alex Friedfeld, a researcher at the Anti-Defamation League.
Rhodes boasted of trying to recruit active and retired military and police officers. The “oath” in the group’s name refers to a commitment to defend the Constitution against foreign and domestic enemies, with the subtext that they were not necessarily obliged to obey orders from a government that they believed to be illegitimate.
During Obama’s years, the Oath Keepers were openly anti-government in their views, according to ADL and other groups that monitor extremism.
But the rise of the strange politician Donald Trump brought about a change. Trump’s calls to “Drain the Swamp” and his political views were now more parallel to Rhodes’ rhetoric than the campaigns of previous presidential nominees.
In the 2016 election, Rhodes issued a “call to action” dubbed “Operation Sabot”, in which he told members and supporters to look for electoral fraud or intimidation at polling stations. Rhodes also used to write and refer to Hillary Clinton, whom he vehemently opposed as “Hitlery”.
Still, he used language to ensure that the election was not “stolen from the citizens”.
When Trump came to power, Rhodes ceased to criticize political leadership and the specific issues on which he and the then president shared similar sentiments – anger at illegal immigration, China and those on the left and protection of Second Amendment rights. He always talked about sending Oath Keepers to the US-Mexico border. He asked the Oath Keepers to remain legally armed in front of schools after the Parkland school massacre in February 2018.
Rhodes said his group provided security for VIPs who attended Trump’s rallies. And he went further, saying that they would help the “average American” prepare if he were “summoned by the President of the United States to serve as a United States militia to protect schools, protect our borders or whatever else he asks them to do. to execute our laws, repel invasions and suppress insurrections “which he falsely claimed was being carried out by the left.
Preparing for a ‘theft’
As Trump stepped up his run for re-election, Rhodes and other extremist groups began to fan what might happen if he lost, making frequent mention of a “civil war”. As early as July 2019, Rhodes told Alex Jones at Infowars that if Trump was not re-elected “we will not accept the results” and “we will have no choice but to fight”.
He boasted that his group had well-trained veterans.
“If this starts in a civil war, a bloody one, they will immediately go to work and take it to the left,” he said.
“Don’t abandon them. Don’t let them do everything themselves. Keep your promise. Drain the swamp. Do it now!” Rhodes wrote. “We will help you every step of the way.”
After the siege
The way words turned into action did not entirely surprise those who have been monitoring groups like the Oath Keepers for years.
“At the end of 2020, we saw a sharp increase in Stewart Rhodes’ violent rhetoric,” Friedfeld told ADL to CNN. “He started to frame the election as a line in the sand where if the Democrat won, it would be the imposition of tyranny.”
Rhodes lost some followers after 6 January. The North Carolina division left the Rhodes group, although it said it still supported the mission and would be overhauled, in a letter to the local sheriff that they agreed to share with CNN.
“We could see chaos and we didn’t want to be part of it,” wrote Doug Smith, who said he was in Washington DC that day, but did not enter the Capitol.
“The North Carolina men believe that the national leadership (of the Oath Keepers) could have prevented this and did nothing. The men and I can no longer be affiliated with Oath Keepers after this sad event in our nation’s history.”
But there are many other chapters and members of the group. Accused leaders like Watkins are being held in prison or hunted down for their alleged involvement in the January 6 uprising. And Rhodes is still preaching and giving orders to anyone who wants to listen.