“Luck may be necessary in the Second Civil War,” Larry Rendell Brock Jr., a Texas man accused of connection to the attack, wrote on Facebook days before the events in Washington, according to federal prosecutors. Brock aspired to take hostages, prosecutors said, and tagged the post with the names of two anti-government groups.
At least two prominent activists involved in the 2017 Charlottesville rally were also involved in the Capitol riots, according to Amy Spitalnick, executive director of Integrity First for America, a nonprofit group that is sponsoring a lawsuit about Charlottesville violence.
One of them was Nicholas J. Fuentes, 22, a far-right agitator whose online diatribes in support of white nationalism and attacks on Jews and LGBT have attracted a significant following among college students. His followers, waving flags bearing the logo of his organization America First, were seen invading the Capitol. Mr. Fuentes, in a video, he praised the attack for being more blatant than any Black Lives Matter or anti-fascist protest, although he appears to have been left out.
“We forced a joint session of Congress and the vice president to evacuate because Trump supporters were hitting the ground and then burst through the doors successfully,” he exclaimed.
Lindsay Schubiner, program director at the Western States Center focused on fighting white nationalism, said it has been frightening to see the rise of far-right groups in recent years that pose a danger to people of color and LGBTQ communities. Without much interruption, she expects extremist groups to remain a risk to public security and democracy in the country for years to come.
“This is not something that can be put back in the bottle – at least not quickly or easily,” said Schubiner.
The attack on Capitol Hill would likely become “a significant factor in violence for a diverse range of domestic violent extremists,” a series of government agencies said in a joint intelligence bulletin issued on January 13. The invasion of the building, several analysts said, could fuel a dangerous setback against the next Biden government and its agenda on arms control, racial justice, public lands and other issues by extremists who are not afraid to use violence to get what they want. .