Leaders set the line for what is acceptable, and right now some are refusing to draw it. On July 4, roughly 400 masked members of the white nationalist group Patriot Front marched near the Capitol carrying Confederate flags and chanting "reclaim America." Asked about it, a Cabinet secretary called it "free speech" in a "messy democracy" and would not condemn the group or what it stands for.
Free speech is not the question. No one is asking to jail marchers for their words. The question is whether the people who run our government will say plainly that a group built to declare America a country for white people only is wrong. Silence from officials tells these groups they have friends in high places.
The threat is documented. The FBI recorded 11,679 hate crime incidents in 2024. Patriot Front, which formed after the deadly 2017 Charlottesville rally, has a long record of vandalism and intimidation marches. Domestic violent extremism is one of the deadliest terrorism threats the country faces, and the units that fight it have been cut, not strengthened.
I am asking you to condemn white nationalist demonstrations by name, to call on administration officials to do the same instead of excusing them, and to fully fund the FBI and Justice Department units that investigate domestic violent extremism and hate crimes.
