The Rise of Right-Wing Extremism, and How U.S. Law Enforcement Ignored It

The Daily

The New York Times

News, Daily News

4.3 • 107.6K Ratings

🗓️ 13 December 2018

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Despite repeated warnings over the past two decades, federal law enforcement officials in the United States have ignored the threat of violence from far-right extremists. Now, they have no idea how to stop it. Guest: Janet Reitman, a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine who is working on a book about the rise of the far right in post-9/11 America. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily.
0:10.0	Today, despite repeated warnings over the past two decades,
0:15.0	federal law enforcement officials have ignored the threat of violence from right-wing extremists.
0:22.0	Now, they have no idea how to stop it.
0:26.0	It's Thursday, December 13th.
0:34.0	It's mid-August 2017, and there's a police lieutenant named Dan Stout.
0:39.0	Janet Wrightman is a contributing writer for the Times magazine, who is sitting in his living room in Gainesville, Florida watching TV.
0:46.0	I was feeling tours around the home and had the news channels on and slipping around.
0:51.0	Good afternoon. We're coming on the air now with breaking news from Charlotte'sville, Virginia.
0:55.0	That is the scene.
0:57.0	Suddenly, you know, everybody started covering the protest in Charlotte'sville, and I just sat down and started watching the events.
1:03.0	He's watching people that are carrying long guns, guys with a flamethrower, guys with flagpole spears.
1:10.0	Seeing the violent protest and just sheer mayhem.
1:17.0	And he's...
1:21.0	Shocked, and he was also just really perplexed.
1:27.0	As a law enforcement officer, I was wondering why were the officers, why weren't they engaging?
1:34.0	Why was this level of violence being allowed to continue on-check?
1:39.0	As he is watching all of this play out, he hears on TV that...
1:45.0	The part that really just about pulled the rug out from underneath my feet is that, okay, and where is Richard Spencer going for the next?
1:52.0	Richard Spencer, who is one of the key organizers of the event, Richard Spencer will speak at the University of Florida in Gainesville.
2:00.0	He's speaking at the University of Florida in Gainesville. He's going to be going to Gainesville, Florida.
2:03.0	He's coming to his town next.
	...

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