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A Hitler praising group chat, a government official with a self-proclaimed Nazi streak,

a swastika flag in a sitting representative's office, a covered-up tattoo of a Nazi symbol.

Those are just a few of the racist, anti-Semitic forms of speech and expression notable political figures have been tied to in recent weeks.

Vice President J.D. Vance has downplayed outrage over some of these incidents from his party as pearl clutching.

The reality is that kids do stupid things, especially young boys. They tell edgy, offensive jokes.

Like, that's what kids do. And I really don't want

us to grow up in a country where a kid telling a stupid joke, telling a very offensive stupid joke,

is caused to ruin their lives. Later on social media, the vice president suggested anger should

instead be directed at violent text messages that Jay Jones,

whose Virginia's Democratic nominee for Attorney General, himself sent in 2022.

Meanwhile, President Trump has signed a memo designating Antifa and Black Lives Matter as terrorist organizations.

It's part of the administration's larger effort to crack down on what it calls a widespread

left-wing conspiracy to carry out acts of political violence.

Today on If You Can Keep at our weekly series on the State of Our Democracy, we're talking

about the line between hate speech, violence, and political dissent in the eyes of the Trump

administration.

How does the government define and handle entities it labels domestic terrorists?

What, if anything, could the government do to curb hate speech and political violence?

I'm Jen White.

And I'm Todd's Willing.

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