In 2009, Kevin Greeson traveled from Alabama to witness the inauguration of Obama, at the time one of his political heroes.
Twelve years later, Greeson died of a heart attack supporting Trump during the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection propublica.org/article/the-ra…
For most of his adult life, Greeson got the majority of his news from CNN and AL.com, according to his wife, Kristi
But over the past few years, Greeson gravitated toward Fox News and other conservative outlets as he became enamored with Trump
Greeson became convinced that Trump had won the November election, a false narrative ceaselessly pushed by both the president and many far-right outlets.
Brown said it didn’t surprise him to learn that Greeson’s views intensified as he consumed increasingly fringe media.
“It’s all Republicans now,” the 45-year-old said
“I think people became more interested in the Republican Party especially due to social media and the easy access to everybody’s opinions. It’s easier to find more people on your side.”
“He was a vice president at the union, and he was an Obama supporter,” said Mark McDaniel, the Huntsville attorney representing the Greeson family. “He got interested in Trump bc he felt he was more business-minded...”
A longtime Democrat who once championed unions and supported progressive politicians, Greeson had become a staunch Trump supporter by the time he died outside the Capitol at the age of 55.
In the weeks after the election, Greeson posted a series of violent messages on Parler, calling for people to take up arms against a political system he considered corrupt.
He shared support for the white supremacist Proud Boys movement, called for Obama to “be put to death” and expressed his apparent hope that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would die of COVID-19.
Greeson was on the phone with his wife when he went into cardiac arrest after tasing himself accidentally
“He was talking to her on the phone and he quit talking,” McDaniel said. “She was upset because she thought he had hung up on her.”
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Stewart Rhodes, head of the Oathkeepers, spewing JFK conspiracy theory— which was a 1963 KGB information campaign created to blame the CIA for JFK’s death for fear the US would blame USSR & trigger a nuclear strike
“We wrote a memo a week prior saying we were concerned about the violence and the rhetoric, and unfortunately, we read the tea leaves too well. ...This is not something that happened in isolation.”
—@jo_mendelson, @ADL
“Conspiracies and disinformation are essentially what help to foment this fear, and ultimately violence, that manifested at the Capitol. Conspiracies have become the lifeblood for this worldview.”
—@jo_mendelson
“For far too long, platforms were giving ample space to help elevate extremist, racist and bigoted voices. They were even profiting off of that. To curtail and denounce and take action against some of these elements on their platforms was bad for business.”
—@jo_mendelson
“Let’s go. This shit is ours! Fuck yeah,” “We accomplished this shit. We did this together. Fuck yeah! We are all a part of this history,” and “Let’s burn this shit down.” #CapitolInsurrection
After the crowd broke through the last barricade, and as SULLIVAN and the others approach the Capitol Building, SULLIVAN can be heard in the video saying at various points:
During one of his interactions with others, SULLIVAN can be heard in the video saying, “We gotta get this shit burned.” At other times as he is walking through the Capitol, SULLIVAN can be heard saying.. “it’s our house motherfuckers” & “we are getting this shit.”
DEC 8, 2020: a foreign account made a simultaneous transfer of 28.15 bitcoins — worth $500,000+ at the time — to 22 different virtual wallets, most belonging to prominent right-wing orgs & personalities news.yahoo.com/exclusive-larg…
“I’d be stunned if both nation-state adversaries & terrorist orgs weren’t figuring out how to funnel money to these guys..Many of them use fundraising sites..that are virtually unmonitored & unmonitorable. If they weren’t doing it, they’d be incompetent.” fmr FBI official
cryptocurrency researchers believe they know who made the transfer, and suspect it was intended to bolster those far-right causes.
WCF’s choice of location, speakers and promotion of anti-gay and fundamentalist rhetoric reveals a budding relationship between Russia’s autocratic government and sympathetic American allies on the Christian right.
Late 2000s: “The WCF ... increased its cooperation with Russia. In 2012, Konstantin Malofeev co-founded what later became the Charitable Foundation of St. Basil the Great with a budget of $42 million—an official partner of the WCF.”