Nov. 1, 2022: The troubling future of political violence in America

Even though it was Halloween, two political extremists were unmasked
yesterday, one on each coast.

What they said tells us a lot about the future of political violence in
America.

In Washington, at the Oath Keeper trial, Graydon Young, the first Oath
Keeper to plead guilty to charges related to storming Congress on Jan.
6, broke down in tears as he apologized for his role. “I guess I was
acting like a traitor against my own government,” he said. 

In San Francisco, an FBI agent who specializes in investigations of
domestic terrorism —  that is, “primarily” Americans “who commit violent
criminal acts in furtherance of their political or social ideology” —
filed the criminal complaint against David DePape in which we learned
the horrific details of the attack on Paul Pelosi. 

We tend to think of the Oath Keepers and groups like it as the face of
political extremism and violence in America. But domestic politcal
terrorists are increasingly more like DePape. The big trend is what
terrorism researchers call “ungrouping,” in which individuals need no
formal organization to recruit and indoctrinate them with fringe ideas
when they have easy access to them online — and major political figures
endorsing them.

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Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.
Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.

Even though it was Halloween, two political extremists were unmasked yesterday, one on each coast.

What they said tells us a lot about the future of political violence in America.

In Washington, at the Oath Keeper trial, Graydon Young, the first Oath Keeper to plead guilty to charges related to storming Congress on Jan. 6, broke down in tears as he apologized for his role. “I guess I was acting like a traitor against my own government,” he said. 

In San Francisco, an FBI agent who specializes in investigations of domestic terrorism —  that is, “primarily” Americans “who commit violent criminal acts in furtherance of their political or social ideology” — filed the criminal complaint against David DePape in which we learned the horrific details of the attack on Paul Pelosi. 

We tend to think of the Oath Keepers and groups like it as the face of political extremism and violence in America. But domestic politcal terrorists are increasingly more like DePape. The big trend is what terrorism researchers call “ungrouping,” in which individuals need no formal organization to recruit and indoctrinate them with fringe ideas when they have easy access to them online — and major political figures endorsing them.

Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletter

Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.
Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.