Battle for the Capitol
Seriously...
BBC
4.1 • 885 Ratings
🗓️ 25 January 2021
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the run up to the 2020 Presidential election, journalist Leah Sottile explored the motivations and agendas of America’s far right for the Radio 4 series Two Minutes Past Nine. Recordings were made against a backdrop of a country that felt tense, divided and dangerous.
In the past month, a lot has happened. In this reactive and raw programme, Leah explores America’s far-right at this very moment; fired up by conspiracies, frustrations, and the defeat of the first President they have ever supported.
On Wednesday 6th January, as a Joint Session of Congress met to certify the election of Joe Biden, Trump supporters breached security lines and stormed the Capitol Building in scenes that looked straight out of the racist hate filled propaganda novel The Turner Diaries. Two pipe bombs were found just blocks away at the offices of the Republican and Democratic national committees.
Leah asks how Donald Trump has managed to manipulate a rabble of foot-soldier extremists and asks what’s next - and how worried we should be.
Interviews include Kelvin Pierce, son of William Luther Pierce, author of The Turner Diaries, Kerry Noble, and former elder of far right militant group The Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of the Lord.
With thanks to Dave Hawkins for the additional archive.
Presenter: Leah Sottile Producer: Georgia Catt
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This was an impregnable fortress. The only way you get out was in a wooden box. |
| 0:05.0 | The controversial maximum security prison impossible to escape from. |
| 0:09.0 | And one of the duties of a political prisoner is the escape. |
| 0:12.0 | The IRA inmates who found a way. of a political prisoner is the escape. |
| 0:12.5 | The IRA inmates who found a way. |
| 0:14.5 | I'm Carlo Gableer and I'll be navigating a path |
| 0:19.5 | through the disturbing inside story of the biggest jailbreak in British and Irish history. |
| 0:25.0 | The narrative that they want is that this is a big achievement by them. |
| 0:28.5 | Escape from the maze, listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:35.0 | BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, Music Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:39.0 | Hi and welcome to Seriously, from BBC Radio 4. My name's Georgia Cat and I'm the producer of a series called |
| 0:46.7 | two minutes past nine. Presented by Oregon-based journalist Leah Sertili, the series explores the legacy of America's deadliest domestic terror attack and the changing face of American extremism today. |
| 0:59.0 | In the past couple of weeks, we've recorded this extra episode to try and make sense of events unfolding in America at this moment. |
| 1:06.0 | You're about to hear that now. |
| 1:08.0 | It's called Battle for the Capital. |
| 1:10.0 | And if you want to hear more on this subject, search for two minutes past nine on BBC sounds. |
| 1:15.2 | Here's Lear. For most of 2020, I was working on a BBC radio four series called Two Minutes |
| 1:20.9 | Past Nine, which looked at the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. |
| 1:25.7 | It was America's deadliest domestic terror attack, which killed 168 people and left 680 |
| 1:32.3 | injured when a homemade truck bomb was detonated outside the |
| 1:36.0 | Alfred P Murrah Federal Building. We didn't plan it this way, but as we reported |
| 1:41.7 | the project, things from history started to come up in the present. |
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