@willsommer's Threads
11 added
I’m at today’s gun rally in Richmond, which has drawn Second Amendment activists and fringe far-right groups. So far, roughly a couple hundred people are here in and outside the state capital area. 
Big turn out both inside the capitol — where guns are banned — and outside, where huge numbers of people are carrying assault rifles and combat gear. Saw one guy with a giant sniper rifle.
Lots of armed people today at the gun / militia rally in Richmond
A couple hundred Trump supporters are rallying outside Congress for a “March for Trump” against impeachment.
Steve Scalise takes the stage at the #trumpmarch, declares that Trump “is not going to let Russia interfere in our elections.” — “He’s standing up to Russia!”
Plenty of costumes and signs at today’s anti-impeachment rally in DC, including a sign about eating babies.
Trump appears to have gotten his "Kurds didn't help us at Normandy" line from a Kurt Schlichter column. townhall.com/columnists/kur…
The column Trump cited also includes a plug for Schlichter's book series fantasizing about a second US civil war.
Incidentally, Kurt Schlichter was all in favor of backing the Kurds until Trump decided to give them up to Erdogan. Then he changed his mind!
Blundering pro-Trump smear artists Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl are at it again today with another press conference in Burkman’s driveway. As always: these guys love to lie and Jacob is facing a felony charge. I’ll be tweeting sparingly if at all.
Today’s Jacob Wohl press conference topic:
Onlookers are now posing with Wohl’s Warren sign. There’s a crowd of roughly two dozen people, non-media, who just swung by to see the show, including some tourists.
Hapless conservative smear merchants Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman claim they’ll reveal the Ukraine whistleblower’s name at a 12 pm press conference today in Burkman’s driveway. It’s worth noting they’re prolific liars, and Wohl is facing a felony charge over an earlier scheme.
Given the Wohl / Burkman propensity for lying, I probably won’t be tweeting much, if at all, from today’s press conference. Notably everyone in the neighborhood has put their garbage out for the day — the last time Wohl had an event here, it was interrupted by a garbage truck.
Jacob Wohl claims he has the name of the Ukraine whistleblower, but can’t publish it today for legal reasons. Meanwhile two hours ago his partner claimed they would:
QAnon conspiracy theorists are gathering at the Washington Monument today. I’ll be on hand to cover it — the event is set to kick off this afternoon.
The Washington monument has been a controversial choice for the QAnon rally because, as I wrote earlier this year, many Q believers think it’s a Satanic symbol.
The QAnon rally people have brought a huge Q to the Washington monument
Hello from the Trump rally in Fayetteville, NC, where Diamond and Silk just walked through the crowd to huge cheers.
Diamond and Silk get big cheers for bringing up Obama’s new oceanfront mansion. This is a popular new right wing talking point, with the theory being that it proves global warming is fake because otherwise Obama wouldn’t have bought a house near the water.
Don Jr kissed girlfriend Kim Guilfoyle as he took the stage at the Trump rally and is now stressing that she consented to it — "I will NOT be getting Me Too'd this evening!"
Jacob Wohl is wanted on a felony arrest warrant. thedailybeast.com/jacob-wohl-wan…
Jacob Wohl just made his Instagram private, in the wake of my story about his felony arrest warrant. thedailybeast.com/jacob-wohl-wan…
Read the felony complaint against Jacob Wohl: thedailybeast.com/jacob-wohl-rea…
James O'Keefe's new tech whistleblower is an anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist who believes in QAnon, hates vaccines, and thinks Jews committed the 9/11 attacks. thedailybeast.com/james-okeefes-…
O'Keefe is promoting his latest "whistleblower" as proof that Google is biased against conservatives. But when you realize the guy is a Pizzagater who thinks Jews run the world, it makes more sense why he's upset that Google isn't promoting InfoWars. thedailybeast.com/james-okeefes-…
James O'Keefe's anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist "whistleblower" has started to mass-delete his tweets attacking Jews and promoting QAnon after my story on him. Before/after:
FBI identifies "conspiracy-driven domestic extremists" — including people motivated by belief in QAnon and Pizzagate — as a new domestic terror threat. news.yahoo.com/fbi-documents-…
Before the outcry from far-right, let's review recent QAnon/Pizzagate incidents:
-Armed QAnon fan with armored truck shuts down a bridge
-QAnon believer allegedly killing his brother
-QAnon believer allegedly killing mob boss
-Comet Ping Pong shooting
-Comet Ping Pong arson
-Armed QAnon fan with armored truck shuts down a bridge
-QAnon believer allegedly killing his brother
-QAnon believer allegedly killing mob boss
-Comet Ping Pong shooting
-Comet Ping Pong arson
While the FBI is classifying QAnon as a potential domestic terror threat, Trump just in the last month has invited QAnon believers to the White House and directed his followers to a QAnon Twitter account. washingtonpost.com/politics/trump…
Dilbert creator Scott Adams is trying to profit from the Gilroy shooting by selling interviews with witnesses. thedailybeast.com/dilbert-creato…
So far, though, the only person who's taken Scott Adams up on his offer to talk about the Gilroy shooting is a troll willing to do interviews about "Scott Adams being vile" for $50 thedailybeast.com/dilbert-creato…
My favorite part about Scott Adams's baffling start-up is that it's based on a near-worthless cryptocurrency. Shortly before he launched it, all the characters in Dilbert started talking about how great cryptocurrencies are. What a coincidence! thedailybeast.com/dilbert-creato…
The baseless smear that Ilhan Omar married her brother was started 3 years ago by one anonymous troll. Now Trump and his allies are running with it. thedailybeast.com/how-the-ilhan-…
I can't stress enough how much this Ilhan Omar smear — now on Fox and talk radio, and coming from the president himself — is based on absolute nonsense. It's Pizzagate-levels of delusion. thedailybeast.com/how-the-ilhan-…
Ilhan Omar conspiracy theorists are insisting to me that the Star Trib proved the brother marriage. But that story has zero evidence of that. Omar incorrectly filed her taxes and used campaign money to fix it—that doesn't mean she married her brother!
startribune.com/new-documents-…
startribune.com/new-documents-…
I’m at the White House to cover the Social Media Summit, featuring Gateway Pundit, Bill Mitchell, Benny Johnson, “Carpe Donktum,” and more.
The Social Media Summit has props! (Via @timcast)
The social media summit features Kellyanne Conway interviewing Diamond & Silk.
I’m covering today’s far-right rally in DC, where Proud Boys and other right-wing activists are gathering across the street from a couple hundred counter protesters.
Another speaker for the far-right dropped out of the rally this morning: hapless conservative operative Jacob Wohl messaged me to make sure I knew he wasn’t speaking, despite being on the agenda. Wohl claims he left town on business.
The DC right wing rally includes these people who claim Prince — and a lot of other celebrities who died tragically — were actually murdered. They claim they have “psychic evidence.”
I’m in DC on the Mall today covering the Trump 4th of July activities with @swin24. Let us know if you see anything unusual!
Today’s agenda, according to Park Service permits, includes a flag burning by the White House and a rally for Michael Flynn. Lots going on!
This QAnon believer at the 4th of July parade thinks JFK Jr might reveal himself today: “it would be wonderful if he did.” Other QAnon fans have said they’ll wear JFK Jr masks today.
I love to take in some theater
The crowd absolutely lost it when the Lisa Page stand-in did a sexy dance for Peter Strzok
The key thing to understand about this play is that it’s just verbatim text messages and hearing transcripts. The actors are reading their lines from binders, and Dean Cain reads out every emoji. Crowd loves it! Tickets were $75.
MAGA internet has been absolutely roiled today by a video that suggests a Trumpworld internet personality may not be as hardline on immigration as she claims. Subtweets are flying everywhere, and even Ann Coulter has weighed in.
Quick thread:
Quick thread:
Ashley StClair is a relatively new Trump-world personality. She's earned a much bigger profile over the past few months, in part on the basis of this very memeable tweet about being a "hot Trump supporter." She was also a "special guest" at a Turning Point USA conference.
Most of her tweets are pretty much what you can imagine from the usual Benny Johnson types — boo Democrats, build the wall, etc. But is she actually a hardline immigration hawk, or does she just play one on Twitter? Well...
Looks like new YouTube rules have kicked off a new crackdown that goes beyond Steven Crowder. White nationalists James Allsup and "The Golden One" say they've also been demonetized, while Gavin McInnes says he's had a video deleted.
Also on today's YouTube demonetization chopping block: Sinatra_Says, a right-wing channel that roleplayed as an anti-trans Frank Sinatra.
The YouTube purge has already unfairly caught up at least one journalist: Ford Fischer, who does great work covering political events.
YouTube just demonetized Steven Crowder, meaning he won't make money from his videos
YouTube demonetized Crowder less than a day after they said his videos don't violate their policies
YouTube's handling of this Steven Crowder demonetization is wild. Apparently it was just about T-shirts?
Twitter just permanently banned brothers Ed and Brian Krassenstein. The #Resistance duo allegedly operated fake accounts and paid to artificially increase their Twitter audiences. thedailybeast.com/twitter-bans-r…
If you know the Krassenstein brothers, it's probably because they were the top replies to Trump tweets, or because of their children's book about a shirtless hunky Robert Mueller. And now they're banned! thedailybeast.com/twitter-bans-r…
Update: the Krassenstein brothers say they're asking Twitter to reconsider their lifetime ban. thedailybeast.com/twitter-bans-r…
The pro-Trump New Right is going all in on the Kyle Kashuv N-word debacle. Jacob Wohl, his father, and Mike Cernovich are promoting it, while Laura Loomer is urging her fans to call Harvard and tell the admissions office to revoke Kashuv's admission.
Why do these New Right ppl have a bone to pick with Kashuv? Well:
-Kashuv was a protege of Ben Shapiro, a longtime foe of the New Right / "alt light"
-Kashuv criticized Loomer for wearing a yellow Star of David to symbolize her deleted Twitter account during her handcuff stunt
-Kashuv was a protege of Ben Shapiro, a longtime foe of the New Right / "alt light"
-Kashuv criticized Loomer for wearing a yellow Star of David to symbolize her deleted Twitter account during her handcuff stunt
The larger issue driving tension between the New Right and people like Shapiro, Kashuv, and Turning Point USA is that the former thinks the latter has sold out— and that they've been accepted by GOP establishment and big media in a way the former hasn't been.
Roughly two dozen Proud Boys are at the Lincoln Memorial to announce something. The website on their banner redirects to a site where you can buy awareness bracelets for as much as $5,000.
The Proud Boys announce that, like founder Gavin McInnes, they’re suing the Southern Poverty Law Center. No word on what the gorilla on their banner represents.
One Proud Boys leader says the group “likes to sometimes cause shenanigans.”
I’m here at the Jacob Wohl / Jack Burkman press conference, which is being held in a driveway.
Jacob Wohl has claimed his Buttigieg “accuser” Hunter Kelly will likely be at the press conference, even though he’s recanted and said Wohl and Burkman made it all up. I asked Kelly whether he’d be here and he responded with a series of 😂 emojis.
The Wohl press conference appears to have been delayed by a loud garbage truck collecting trash behind us.
Exclusive: Jacob Wohl caught on tape trying to concoct a sexual assault smear against Pete Buttigieg and promising to make the accuser wealthy. Now the supposed victim says Wohl and lobbyist Jack Burkman made it all up. thedailybeast.com/far-right-smea…
Jacob Wohl used the alias "Bill" as part of his scheme to fake a sexual assault claim against Pete Buttigieg. Wohl called Buttigieg a "terminal threat" to Trump. thedailybeast.com/far-right-smea…
Plenty of right-wing websites pushed Wohl's obvious hoax today after it came out, including Big League Politics, PJ Media, and Gateway Pundit.
