Wednesday, February 26

Members of the Proud Boys and other recently pardoned Jan. 6 rioters returned to the U.S. Capitol this week. Also in this week’s Eye On The Right: A look at Elon Musk’s thunderous reception at CPAC and Vivek Ramaswamy declares his candidacy for Ohio governor.

As always, thanks for reading.

— Matt Cohen, Senior Staff Writer

The (Proud) Boys Are Back in Town

In 2020 I was reporting heavily on the right-wing extremist groups that flourished under the first Trump administration. Groups like the Oath Keepers, Three Percenters and Proud Boys weren’t household names back then but instead were fringe extremist groups who were amassing influence and notoriety at an alarming rate. All of that changed by Jan. 6, 2021, when the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys led the deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol.

Hours before the attack I had an encounter with the Proud Boys that’s still seared into my brain. I was wandering on the National Mall when I came across several dozen Proud Boys marching in formation. I followed them from the periphery, recording video of the group as they slowly made their way to the Capitol… until two of them flanked me from either side and interrogated me. I told them I was a journalist documenting the scene, as is my First Amendment right. One of them got right up to my face, leaned in close and growled in my ear, “You’re going to get it.” I fled.

I’m not going to get into what happened next. It’ll be in the history books someday, I’m sure. But I’ve been thinking about that particular encounter with the Proud Boys a lot this week, after members of the group and other J6 rioters who were recently pardoned by President Donald Trump — including former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio — returned to the National Mall for the first time since that fateful day four years ago. It wasn’t a big gathering, according to reporting, but their message was chilling: “Whose house?” Tario chanted as they marched, once again, toward the Capitol. “Our house!” His followers replied.

The march barely registered in mainstream media — maybe because it was small and didn’t result in another deadly attack on the halls of Congress. But I think it’s because of the moment we’re in right now: Not only has Trump returned to power and is trying to transform the government into an authoritarian regime, he’s trying to rewrite history in the process. He didn’t just pardon J6 rioters but incorporated them back into society as if they did nothing wrong. Hell, the J6 choir might even perform at the Kennedy Center, if Steve Bannon is to be believed.

It’s all a stunning reversal of what the nation saw four years ago. If there’s any silver lining, maybe it’s that history repeats itself: Tarrio was arrested last week on Capitol grounds after an altercation with counter-protesters.

At CPAC, President Musk and The New Fascists

The annual gathering of the Republican Party — known as the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) — took place just outside of Washington, D.C. last week and offered a stark snapshot of where the party is at these days. In short, Elon Musk took center stage — not just during the conference itself but among the thousands of attendees.

A scene report from the Associated Press — currently engaged in their own battle with the Trump administration — highlighted just how popular Musk, who’s unofficially the official head of the faux-agency the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), is among the conservative base. Musk wasn’t scheduled to appear at all but was a surprise guest of honor and showed up on stage wielding a chainsaw, for some reason.

The chainsaw was apparently a gift from Javier Milei, the far-right president of Argentina. Though Musk didn’t really say anything of substance during his brief CPAC appearance — other than yelling “chain saw!” repeatedly — his appearance, popularity and coziness with far-right authoritarian leaders speaks to where the Republican party is headed: the party of the new fascists.

Even the GOP members of Congress seemed to relent that Musk and Trump are doing their jobs for them: “What Elon and the team are doing is what Congress has not had the ability to do,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said on stage to the crowd of supporters. “They have cracked the code. They’re inside the belly of the beast of the bureaucracy, and the algorithms are crawling through.”

If you’re still unconvinced that the unelected billionaire currently demanding that federal workers answer to him is evidence that the GOP wants to go full fascist, then let me present exhibit B: Steve Bannon.

Vivek Ramaswamy is Running For Ohio Governor

Speaking of DOGE, Vivek Ramaswamy — the erstwhile Republican presidential candidate and short-lived co-head of DOGE with Musk — announced this week that he’s running for Ohio governor. There are plenty of reasons why Ramaswamy as Ohio governor would be bad for democracy in the Buckeye State.

For starters, Ramaswamy has gone on record that he thinks the voting age should be raised to 25 years old, which would disenfranchise millions of young people. Back when he was running for president, he also supported a host of anti-voting changes that would have a huge impact on people, establishing Election Day as a national holiday, implementing single-day voting, mandating that voters use paper ballots and enforcing voter ID requirements nationwide.

Though Ohio’s gubernatorial election isn’t until 2026, it’s sure to be an interesting race as incumbent Gov. Mike DeWine (R) is term-limited and can’t run again. So far, Ramaswamy is one of only three candidates running in the Republican primary, but one of the others is current Ohio Attorney General David Yost (R), which means Ramaswamy is in for some tough competition.