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Rumors of War
How Experts Are Preparing for Disruption at the Polls
Hate crimes and domestic terrorism are real risks surrounding the election
Seven days after President Trump told the Proud Boys, a hate group that espouses a self-described “Western chauvinist” ideology, to “stand back and stand by” on national television, the United States Department of Homeland Security issued a warning about groups like it.
“I am particularly concerned about white supremacist violent extremists who have been exceptionally lethal in their abhorrent, targeted attacks in recent years,” wrote Chad Wolf, the interim DHS chief, in an October 6 report detailing the agency’s top security concerns. Domestic violent extremism, the agency concluded, is one of the country’s greatest national security threats. Just two days later, federal investigators arrested a group of men who were planning on kidnapping and holding hostage Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. (In April, Trump tweeted, “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!”) An FBI agent would later testify that those same men also discussed kidnapping Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam.
Experts on right-wing violence and extremism are urging the American public to consider the threat these groups pose to voters — both on Election Day, when Trump urged his supporters to monitor the polls, and in the time it may take to determine a winner of the contest.
GEN spoke with Brian Levin, the director of the California State University, San Bernardino’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, about the prospect of civil unrest, voter intimidation at the polls, and the president’s role in encouraging right-wing violence. The conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
GEN: Talk to me about the idea that Trump supporters might go to the polls to observe that things are going “fairly,” and what kind of precedent there is for voter intimidation by extremist groups in this country.
Brian Levin: Yeah, there’s a precedent. Just ask anyone who voted in the 1876 elections in the Carolina Piedmonts about the activity by the Ku Klux Klan and white supremacists. Or in 1964, Freedom Summer, when [prospective voters] were massacred. There was one night in 1964 where Klan crosses…
