WEBVTT - Episode 3: No Ordinary Rioters 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.080 Before we get into it, be advised that this series 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:16.080 contains bad language and references to violence. At two thirty 0:00:16.120 --> 0:00:18.720 p m. On January six, the crowd at the east 0:00:18.760 --> 0:00:21.800 side of the US Capital is a mass of heaving bodies. 0:00:24.560 --> 0:00:28.040 Rioters are surging forward as police in body armor attempt 0:00:28.160 --> 0:00:33.480 to hold the line. Limbs, flagpoles, batons, railings, and riot 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:38.279 shields are tangling in a violent mess. But in the 0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:41.320 midst of the chaos, a small group stands out from 0:00:41.360 --> 0:00:44.960 everyone else. They're decked out in full camo with body armor, 0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:49.200 helmets and radios. Okay, guys, were on open channel here. 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:52.880 Now everybody can hear and talk. What makes them different 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:56.520 is the way they're moving. They're walking slowly in single file, 0:00:56.840 --> 0:00:58.840 each with a hand on the shoulder of the person 0:00:58.920 --> 0:01:02.720 in front. They're piercing through the crowd, working their way 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:05.720 to the front. In the military, this way of moving 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:09.840 is known as a ranger file or ranger stack. It's 0:01:09.840 --> 0:01:13.080 a standard formation for ground troops about to breach a building. 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:16.560 And that's exactly what this group is going to do. 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:19.959 This is what we lived up for, everything we fucking 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:25.520 trained for. They're communicating via a walkie talkie app called Zello, 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:29.959 the name of their channel, stopped the Steel j six. 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:35.000 Like tens of thousands of their fellow protesters, these people 0:01:35.080 --> 0:01:37.240 want to prevent what they see as the theft of 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:40.720 a presidential election. They've just thought it out a bit 0:01:40.760 --> 0:01:43.800 more than everyone else. We have a good, great We 0:01:43.840 --> 0:01:47.639 got about thirty of us were sticking together and sticking 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:51.920 to the plan. This unit believes that today is their 0:01:52.040 --> 0:01:58.040 last chance to save American democracy. Today they can become heroes. 0:01:58.840 --> 0:02:02.440 That's right, mother, This is a can of war bass 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:08.040 made in America. Fu. Yeah, in the coming weeks and months, 0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:11.640 almost every member of this unit will be identified and arrested. 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:15.400 Today they're facing some of the most serious criminal charges 0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:19.200 to stem from the riot. But that's all for the future. 0:02:19.680 --> 0:02:32.840 For now, they're having the time of their lives. The 0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:36.680 squadron that pierced the capital like human bayonets on January 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:41.799 six were no ordinary rioters. The men and women who 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:44.560 moved in military formation that day were members of a 0:02:44.600 --> 0:02:48.640 well armed paramilitary force that boasts chapters all over the 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:53.560 United States. They were, in short, members of a militia. 0:02:55.480 --> 0:02:58.360 In this episode, we're going to look under the hood 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:00.880 of one of the biggest militia pops in the United 0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:04.280 States and figure out how they fit into the picture. 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:08.600 On January six, we'll meet the guy who founded the 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:12.720 organization and still runs it today. We'll also explore the 0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:15.480 life of one of his foot soldiers who invaded the 0:03:15.480 --> 0:03:18.400 capital in the ranger Stack and fought his way into 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:22.320 the Great Hall underneath the Capital Dome. So come with 0:03:22.360 --> 0:03:29.359 me into the United States Capital. From the teams at 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:33.000 Cool Zone Media, I Heart Radio and Novel This is 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:40.280 the Assault on America Episode three, no Ordinary Rioters. M 0:03:58.600 --> 0:04:02.240 America has always had militia's back. In the eighteenth century, 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:05.120 they were a way of organizing resistance against the British, 0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:07.960 and George Washington would never have beat the Red Coats 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:11.280 without them. This is what gives modern militias a patina 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:14.520 of credibility, and the way people in the Patriot movement 0:04:14.560 --> 0:04:17.920 talk today about seventeen seventy six, you'd think they'd personally 0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:27.600 skewered Redcoats on their bayonets at the Battle of Long Island. Now, 0:04:27.640 --> 0:04:30.640 the militia heyday in the eighteenth century was well before 0:04:30.640 --> 0:04:33.040 the United States had a standing army of its own, 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:38.719 bigger and better and stronger than ever before. These days, 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:42.159 America does have a standing army, a fairly large one. 0:04:42.320 --> 0:04:46.240 Nobody's gonna mess where those folks nobody, So you might 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:50.039 ask yourself, why, in the year one are there hundreds 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:53.400 of unregulated militia groups spread around the country and armed 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:56.720 to the teeth. I spoke to someone who might know. 0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:02.279 I've probably dozens of threats that I've recorded in Zelo, 0:05:02.600 --> 0:05:07.119 like specifically against me for writing about groups. Hampton Stall 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:10.240 is the editor of Militia Watch, a research platform that 0:05:10.320 --> 0:05:13.640 covers America's far right militia's He's also the guy who 0:05:13.680 --> 0:05:16.160 recorded the audio of militia members you heard at the 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:21.400 start of the episode. Hampton worked with a w n 0:05:21.520 --> 0:05:24.599 y C journalist named Michael Loewinger, and together they eaves 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:28.400 dropped on militia groups as the capital was stormed. I mean, 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:31.600 it gets your heart racing, like it's It's definitely an 0:05:31.600 --> 0:05:34.040 adrenaline shot, especially when it's groups that are, like, you know, 0:05:34.080 --> 0:05:39.600 a twenty minute drive from my front door. Hampton grew 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:43.280 up in upstate South Carolina. It is deep red territory, 0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:46.239 and when the populist right wing Tea Party movement burst 0:05:46.240 --> 0:05:48.920 onto the national stage in the late two thousand's, they 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:52.400 gained a lot of support in Hampton's hometown. It was 0:05:52.440 --> 0:05:57.440 around then that Hampton noticed something else happening too. I 0:05:57.480 --> 0:06:01.600 started seeing people from teep party groups start taking up 0:06:01.680 --> 0:06:05.640 arms and start saying kind of wild phrases, and so 0:06:06.320 --> 0:06:08.279 there's sort of a personal interest in like, who the 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:10.960 hell were these people that were marching around armed in 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:16.320 my hometown. Militia movements have waxed and waned throughout America's history. 0:06:17.880 --> 0:06:21.080 In the nineteen eighties and early nineties, militias blossomed tied 0:06:21.120 --> 0:06:24.480 to the militant white supremacist movement, but they fell into 0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:28.080 decline after militia member Timothy McVeigh carried out the Oklahoma 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:33.080 City bombing. In and later on during the Obama years, 0:06:33.240 --> 0:06:38.240 Hampton witnessed firsthand the resurgence of American militias. Many of 0:06:38.279 --> 0:06:41.440 these groups were motivated by conspiracy theories that the new 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:44.919 black liberal president was planning to mobilize the National Guard 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:49.640 against gun owners and put them in concentration camps. And 0:06:50.080 --> 0:06:53.080 it wasn't just ordinary civilians who were falling for this stuff. 0:06:53.920 --> 0:06:58.640 I've detected multiple times active police officers involved in militia spaces, 0:06:58.720 --> 0:07:01.160 and they've been in all the way up to chain, 0:07:01.400 --> 0:07:04.480 from just kind of expressing support to people who are 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:08.160 in militia's to joining, you know, militia chats on Facebook, 0:07:08.600 --> 0:07:12.200 to even being members of militia groups. The whole gamut 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:14.720 has kind of been seen more on that later in 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:19.880 the series. After being reignited by the election of Obama, 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:23.000 America's militia movement was given a massive boost in two 0:07:23.040 --> 0:07:27.560 thousand sixteen. Suddenly the government that militia's loved to hate 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:31.280 was taken over by someone they straight up loved. That 0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:36.720 is some group of people thousands so nice, Thank you 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:41.480 very much, that's really nice. Here was a president they 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:44.760 could get on board with, someone with obvious disdain for 0:07:44.800 --> 0:07:47.640 the workings of government, and someone who's far right rhetoric 0:07:47.800 --> 0:07:49.880 was more of an air rate than a dog whistle. 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:55.680 They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, their rapists, and some 0:07:56.480 --> 0:07:59.680 I assume are good people. So when Trump lost in 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:04.120 twenty twenty, many of America's militias weren't pleased, and in 0:08:04.120 --> 0:08:07.040 the winter months following the election, lots of them got 0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:10.360 caught up in Alie Alexander's Stopped the Steel campaign, which 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:17.080 we covered in the last episode. Even if they never 0:08:17.120 --> 0:08:20.880 heard the name Ali Alexander, they heard about January six. 0:08:23.080 --> 0:08:27.240 I saw it everywhere, maybe just before Christmas. People were 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:31.400 talking about January six pretty aggressively at the time. They 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:33.720 were saying things like we're going to go to the 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:36.920 tunnels of the Capitol and fight Antifa down there, which 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:39.839 is just like way more specific than stuff that had 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:42.719 been being said for the last few months. So that's 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:45.000 kind of what the big warning sign was for me. 0:08:45.160 --> 0:08:47.120 That made me realize, you know, it's probably a good 0:08:47.120 --> 0:08:50.480 idea when January six came around, to sit down at 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:53.200 my computer and be watching the feeds to try and 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:58.920 document what sort of armed groups were present, And that's 0:08:58.960 --> 0:09:01.680 how Hampton came to be recording the Zelo channel called 0:09:01.720 --> 0:09:08.000 Stop the Steel j six during the Capitol riot. In 0:09:08.040 --> 0:09:10.640 the roughly two hours of audio, we hear a militia 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:13.199 member report back to her friends elsewhere in the country 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:16.600 as she storms the capital. At the start of the recording, 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:19.680 there's palpable excitement in her voice as she nears her target. 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:23.400 Everybody's marching on the Capitol, all million of us. It's insane. 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:26.120 We're about two blocks away from it now. Police are 0:09:26.120 --> 0:09:28.040 doing nothing. They're not even trying to stop us. At 0:09:28.040 --> 0:09:31.400 this point. As she reports back, voices from across the 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:35.559 country cheer her on joking about draining the swamp. Trump's 0:09:35.600 --> 0:09:37.800 been trying to drain the swamp with a straw. We 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:40.240 just brought a shop back. We're gonna have to blow 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:43.280 the damn to drain this fucking swamp. Be safe down here, 0:09:43.360 --> 0:09:46.160 That's all I gotta say. Just be safe, be alert, 0:09:46.440 --> 0:09:49.520 and stay in groups. Like it's Christmas all over again 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:53.480 for us patriots. Alas the Christmas vibes are few and 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:56.720 far between and the rest of the audio, most of 0:09:56.720 --> 0:10:00.880 the voices are considerably more disturbing. They've got the gallows 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:03.680 that upside the Capitol building. It's trying to start sucking 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:07.240 using them. Patriots need to have the guns nearby. The 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:10.920 FBI rats are trapped on the roof and they have 0:10:10.960 --> 0:10:17.600 nowhere to go. I won't take you through the whole thing. 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:20.720 I wouldn't do that to you. But here are some headlines. 0:10:21.559 --> 0:10:25.280 For one, these guys are obsessed with Antifa. We're not 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:30.520 dumbasses like anti Tifa. They hate Mike Pence. We got 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:36.200 a report that Pence is a pedophile, unindicted pedophile, and 0:10:36.240 --> 0:10:39.280 They have fascinating theories about what Joe Biden does with 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:42.640 his downtime. He's hiding an ambrazement balance and little kids 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:44.360 off his back and having him play with his blonde 0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:48.439 leg or looker. My team was unable to fact check 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:51.840 this allegation, but you get the point. The voices on 0:10:51.880 --> 0:10:54.160 this channel are not part of the same reality that 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:56.680 I live in and probably that you live in. Two 0:10:57.120 --> 0:10:59.559 and neither are the militia members and the Rangers stacks. 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:03.240 I think the crowd. While the Zelo channel cheers them 0:11:03.280 --> 0:11:06.520 on with heartwarming messages of encouragement, the unit on the 0:11:06.559 --> 0:11:10.160 ground achieves their objective. We are in the main dome 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:12.440 right now. We are rocking at their their longer nets. 0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:14.439 They're perk and shooting people with payballs. But we're in 0:11:14.600 --> 0:11:18.640 here fucking gets some God blessom God's being, and keep going. 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:24.080 Get it, Jess. For the militia members, this is a 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:28.120 moment of pure jubilation. But what's extraordinary is the fact 0:11:28.200 --> 0:11:30.760 that none of them seem bothered or even aware that 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:34.720 they're breaking the law. As they speak freely on a 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:37.680 public walkie talkie channel. It's clear that they feel they're 0:11:37.720 --> 0:11:40.360 on the right side of history and thus untouchable by 0:11:40.400 --> 0:11:45.640 law enforcement. Patriots are taking self east together with capital police. 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:51.440 Inside the capital, they even reassure each other that their 0:11:51.480 --> 0:11:56.360 actions are legal, using highly dubious jargon the civilian authority 0:11:56.440 --> 0:12:03.079 of we the people, constitutional enforcement action, direct action. There 0:12:03.120 --> 0:12:05.840 seems to be no understanding that those who enter the 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:09.520 capital maskless and openly boasting on social media are putting 0:12:09.559 --> 0:12:14.920 themselves in legal jeopardy. Then again, perhaps it's what we 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:17.800 should expect from an outfit whose getaway plan and involves 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:22.160 hijacking federal snowplows. Those snowplows are going to be easily 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:25.520 hot wired their diesel trucks. That's the way out if 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:29.480 need to be. They belong to us, the taxpayers, We 0:12:29.679 --> 0:12:34.800 the fucking people. Now, I wouldn't begrudge my tax dollars 0:12:34.840 --> 0:12:37.360 going towards the world's slowest police chase with a few 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:40.640 dozen militia members crammed into snowplows. But the point stands 0:12:40.840 --> 0:12:43.480 anyone who would even consider that route is not part 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:48.160 of a world class conspiracy. And that's because the militias 0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:50.880 that breached the capital and the voices cheering them from 0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:56.520 back home, they're just the foot soldiers They're not to 0:12:56.559 --> 0:12:59.920 be written off. They are dangerous people breaking the hell 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:02.440 out of some laws, but they're not the brains of 0:13:02.480 --> 0:13:07.280 the operation. That distinction belongs to someone else entirely. While 0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:10.000 the militia member in the ranger stack is broadcasting her 0:13:10.040 --> 0:13:16.160 movements on zello, there's a man standing nearby, a safe 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:23.640 distance back from the violence. His name is Omer Stewart Rhodes, 0:13:24.160 --> 0:13:26.960 and he's the leader of the largest militia group in America, 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:30.800 which just so happens to be the most extensively prosecuted 0:13:30.800 --> 0:13:36.400 paramilitary organization related to the January six riots. To understand 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:39.920 his organization and what it's capable of, we need to 0:13:40.000 --> 0:13:52.960 understand the man. It's time to meet Stupard Rhodes. His 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:55.439 involvement is exactly what I thought it would be. I 0:13:55.520 --> 0:13:57.840 knew he would never go inside the capitol. He's sort 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:00.199 of the the leader that stands him back and ends 0:14:00.200 --> 0:14:03.640 he's gonna lead, and then hangs back. This is Tasha Adams, 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:07.160 the estranged wife of Stewart Rhodes. I'm stating the obvious here, 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:09.679 but Tasha is not an impartial source when it comes 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:12.720 to Rhodes. As I record this, she's running a go 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:15.520 fund make campaign to get money to pay for her divorce. 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:22.880 She lives in rural Montana with her six children and 0:14:23.080 --> 0:14:25.640 a lot of animals. I think some of the noise 0:14:25.640 --> 0:14:31.760 interruption might be my chickens. Tasha met Stewart in Las 0:14:31.880 --> 0:14:35.960 Vegas in nineteen She was an eighteen year old dance 0:14:36.000 --> 0:14:38.920 instructor and one day a twenty five year old Stewart 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:42.800 Rhodes came in for a barn dancing lesson. He's all stiff. 0:14:45.400 --> 0:14:47.880 At this point, Rhodes had already served in the U. S. 0:14:48.000 --> 0:14:51.080 Army and was now a commercial artist making sculptures for 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:56.600 local casinos. He was really assertive, almost kind of aggressive, 0:14:56.600 --> 0:15:02.600 and personality me being to innately shy and quiet person 0:15:03.120 --> 0:15:05.960 that was always something that I liked in, you know, 0:15:06.080 --> 0:15:08.480 someone to date because it's sort of opened doors for me. 0:15:09.320 --> 0:15:12.240 Stewart and Tasha lived in a tenerant life, starting a 0:15:12.280 --> 0:15:15.200 big family, but always moving from town to town, job 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:19.120 to job. In two thousand eight, Rhodes took a job 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:23.000 working for the libertarian Ron Paul's short lived presidential campaign. 0:15:23.400 --> 0:15:25.920 If we do the right things, we can restore the 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:29.280 greatness of this country. Thank you very much. He must 0:15:29.320 --> 0:15:32.600 have liked something about it, because soon after the campaign flatlined, 0:15:32.880 --> 0:15:36.000 Rhodes told Tasha that he wanted to form his own organization. 0:15:36.880 --> 0:15:39.440 I thought, wow, this is something he can do for 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:41.200 a living where all he has to do is talk. 0:15:41.520 --> 0:15:44.520 You know, this is something he can do. As Tasha 0:15:44.600 --> 0:15:47.040 describes it, his way with words and his Yale degree 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:50.640 won him work easily enough. He just never saw it through. 0:15:51.800 --> 0:15:54.200 Tasha figured that any job that just let him speak 0:15:54.480 --> 0:15:57.640 would be a good thing for him. You know, he 0:15:57.640 --> 0:15:59.880 grew up in a family of motivational speakers and ministers. 0:16:00.440 --> 0:16:02.280 This is what they do in that family as they 0:16:02.280 --> 0:16:05.920 give speeches and they they sell multi level marketing products 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:09.360 and they their reference and they love this stuff. This 0:16:09.440 --> 0:16:11.640 is great, you know, something you won't get fired at. 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:15.600 Rhodes was indeed brilliant and evangelizing for his new organization, 0:16:15.840 --> 0:16:18.960 and soon created a membership structure with annual fees, and 0:16:19.000 --> 0:16:23.760 traveled the country and recruiting members. Our mission is simply 0:16:24.480 --> 0:16:29.120 to reach out and remind all active duty military, police, 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:34.400 and firefighters of their civic obligation of their legal duty 0:16:34.400 --> 0:16:37.760 and responsibilities under Article six of the U S Constitution. 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:42.320 It was amazingly immediate, he launched a free blog. He 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:46.360 wrote up a bit and it was almost instant, and 0:16:46.400 --> 0:16:48.960 so in March of two thousand nine, the oath Keepers 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:51.960 were born. It was a pressure group campaigning for police 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:54.440 and military to keep the oaths that they'd sworn to 0:16:54.520 --> 0:16:58.320 uphold the Constitution. He created a list called the Declaration 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:01.800 of Orders We will not bay Buist reads like a 0:17:01.800 --> 0:17:04.720 big dog whistle to the conspiracy theory that Democrats were 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:08.320 planning to impose martial law and take everyone's guns. But 0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:11.080 at the turn of the two thousand tens, Republicans were 0:17:11.119 --> 0:17:14.800 catastrophizing that the newly elected President Obama was about to 0:17:14.840 --> 0:17:17.960 send gun owners to the gulag, and Rhodes's message found 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:21.879 a willing audience. As the Oathkeepers grew and grew, Rhodes 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:25.480 masterminded their transition from being an advocacy group to a 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:29.000 straight up militia. If the people in this country were 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:32.280 to recognize the necessity of getting back to the Founder's plan, 0:17:32.720 --> 0:17:37.240 the necessity of the well regulated militia being necessary for 0:17:37.280 --> 0:17:40.000 security or free state, if they were to do that, 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:42.520 that were through a massive monkey wrench and the plans 0:17:42.560 --> 0:17:46.960 of the globalist oligarchy. Because they want to sarm populations 0:17:46.960 --> 0:17:50.680 that are easy to control. Under rhodes Is charismatic leadership, 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:53.400 the Oathkeepers grew to become one of the largest militias 0:17:53.400 --> 0:17:56.520 in the country. They claimed to have over forty fee 0:17:56.520 --> 0:18:00.240 paying members. But in two thousand fourteen, something seems to 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:04.760 have changed for Roads. His ex wife, Tasha links this 0:18:04.920 --> 0:18:07.920 change to a meeting he allegedly had with the FBI. 0:18:08.359 --> 0:18:12.840 His mental state spiraled fast after that, and that was 0:18:12.880 --> 0:18:15.520 when we realized I had to get out of this. 0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:18.680 Tasha doesn't know what the FEDS said to Stewart or 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:20.760 if the meeting was even related to his decline in 0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:24.960 mental health, but after twenty five turbulent years of marriage, 0:18:25.080 --> 0:18:28.040 having met Rhoads when she was just eighteen, she finally 0:18:28.080 --> 0:18:30.240 woke up to the kind of man that he really was. 0:18:30.840 --> 0:18:32.800 It was actually some of the books he had laying around. 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:35.920 He had a book in particular called The Sociopath next Door, 0:18:36.359 --> 0:18:38.359 and I just sat down and read it, and it 0:18:38.480 --> 0:18:41.720 felt like I just was drained of all life for 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:43.639 a minute, you know. Really, after I read that, it 0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:46.800 just hit me and there was no way around it. 0:18:47.359 --> 0:18:53.879 He's a sociopath. Tasha describes years, decades of feeling that 0:18:53.960 --> 0:18:57.080 Stewart's abusive behavior was her fault. She would think that 0:18:57.119 --> 0:19:00.000 maybe she just wasn't lovable, maybe she'd done something wrong 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:03.359 long and whatever issues he had could surely be loved away. 0:19:03.880 --> 0:19:06.960 At long last, she decided the problem was not with her, 0:19:07.280 --> 0:19:10.399 it was with her husband. Much of the abuse, Tasha 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:14.119 alleges was financial. Rhodes was paying himself a salary of 0:19:14.200 --> 0:19:17.320 eighty thousand dollars a year to run the Oathkeepers, but 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:20.280 Tasha says that almost none of that money trickled back 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:24.639 to the family. We were really in a difficult place. 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:29.280 The disparity of how money was spent was just so odd. 0:19:29.440 --> 0:19:31.919 We were just so used to it, you know, just 0:19:32.000 --> 0:19:34.680 even little things like the kids and I only ever 0:19:34.720 --> 0:19:37.200 shopped and thrift stores, but all his clothes were top 0:19:37.240 --> 0:19:39.560 of the line expensive clothes. The kids would have holes 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:41.720 in their shoes, and you know, I think he had 0:19:41.760 --> 0:19:43.440 fifty pairs of shoes, and all of them over a 0:19:43.480 --> 0:19:46.840 hundred dollars each. I mean, just things like that. There 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:50.480 was physical abuse to Tasha says that Rhodes would sometimes 0:19:50.560 --> 0:19:52.840 hurt her or even the kids, and then come up 0:19:52.840 --> 0:19:56.040 with ludicrous excuses. I was just practicing my martial arts. 0:19:58.160 --> 0:20:00.800 As far as we can tell, Rhodes has ever commented 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:03.960 publicly on Tasha's allegations, and they have not been proved 0:20:04.000 --> 0:20:06.600 in a court of law. But as a relationship with 0:20:06.680 --> 0:20:12.280 Rhodes deteriorated, Rhodes's public rhetoric became increasingly extreme. He developed 0:20:12.280 --> 0:20:16.000 a working relationship with America's pre eminent conspiracy theorist, the 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:19.439 Info Wars host Alex Jones, and would often appear on 0:20:19.520 --> 0:20:22.320 Jones's show to promote the Oath Keepers. Here he is 0:20:22.359 --> 0:20:26.800 in calling for Donald Trump to deploy the military against leftists. 0:20:27.560 --> 0:20:29.840 In the past have been opposed using the military domestically 0:20:29.880 --> 0:20:31.960 for for this purpose, he needs to use the military. 0:20:31.960 --> 0:20:34.479 We were worried about globalist using the military against us, 0:20:34.520 --> 0:20:37.480 which is gonna happen. This is globalist overthrowing our government. 0:20:37.600 --> 0:20:40.240 We better have the military stop the globalist. I mean, 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:43.480 you have to love it. Rhodes founded his organization out 0:20:43.480 --> 0:20:45.600 of a fear that Democrats were going to use the 0:20:45.600 --> 0:20:49.000 military to crush American freedoms. And now here he is 0:20:49.320 --> 0:20:53.160 agitating for the U. S military to murder his political enemies. 0:20:53.760 --> 0:20:56.320 And he wasn't just relying on Trump in the run 0:20:56.400 --> 0:20:59.439 up to January six, Rhodes appears to have made plans 0:20:59.440 --> 0:21:02.280 of his own. We have been already stationed outside d 0:21:02.440 --> 0:21:05.040 C as a nuclear option, So I've got good men 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:07.640 on the ground already. We've been in a leadcon there 0:21:07.720 --> 0:21:10.920 last week, and we're sorting out. We're gonna be staging 0:21:11.480 --> 0:21:13.720 and we'll be there, will be inside d C. Will 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:16.639 also be on the outside of DC, armed, prepared to 0:21:16.640 --> 0:21:21.719 go in. Rhodes is describing an armed paramilitary force lurking 0:21:21.760 --> 0:21:24.920 outside of DC, ready to enter the city at his word. 0:21:25.560 --> 0:21:28.560 This is a so called q r F, or quick 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:32.679 reaction force. The idea is that if Rhodes gets the signal, 0:21:32.800 --> 0:21:35.480 a small group can bring weapons into d C and 0:21:35.560 --> 0:21:38.719 distribute them to the unarmed oath keepers already present at 0:21:38.720 --> 0:21:41.600 the capitol. You can only guess at the carnage that 0:21:41.680 --> 0:21:44.119 might have ensued if dozens of oath Keepers had gotten 0:21:44.119 --> 0:21:46.920 their hands on guns during the riot. On the day 0:21:46.960 --> 0:21:50.119 of the insurrection, Info Wars host Alex Jones can barely 0:21:50.200 --> 0:21:54.199 contain his excitement. Can you not feel history happening right now? 0:21:54.280 --> 0:21:56.600 I mean, it's happening right now. It is, and we're 0:21:56.640 --> 0:21:59.040 all we'll all need to realize that we're Americans, were 0:21:59.080 --> 0:22:01.080 born in this country at the time. For this purpose, 0:22:01.400 --> 0:22:05.080 we need to Stewart Rhodes clearly did not let go 0:22:05.160 --> 0:22:08.159 of his fear on January six He never called in 0:22:08.200 --> 0:22:10.920 the q r F. He never went into the Capitol 0:22:10.960 --> 0:22:14.240 building either. At least twenty of his oath keepers have 0:22:14.359 --> 0:22:16.960 since been arrested, some of them are looking at decades 0:22:17.000 --> 0:22:20.720 in prison. In each of their indictments, someone called Person 0:22:20.760 --> 0:22:24.600 one features prominently communicating with them all day on an 0:22:24.680 --> 0:22:29.080 encrypted signal channel called d c op jan six one. 0:22:29.600 --> 0:22:32.720 And you guessed it. Person one is believed to be 0:22:32.800 --> 0:22:36.840 Stewart Rhodes. So will Rhodes eventually get picked up for 0:22:36.920 --> 0:22:40.119 conspiracy to obstruct Congress or for the small matter of 0:22:40.160 --> 0:22:49.320 plotting an armed coup? Time will tell Meanwhile, there's no 0:22:49.480 --> 0:22:52.440 such ambiguity for his foot soldiers who entered the Capitol 0:22:52.440 --> 0:22:55.520 on jan sixth, blissfully unaware of the trouble they were 0:22:55.560 --> 0:22:58.800 storing up for themselves. Hey brother, we're boots on the 0:22:58.800 --> 0:23:00.960 ground here. We're moving on to capital now. I'll give 0:23:00.960 --> 0:23:09.000 you a booth on the ground update here. And I 0:23:09.080 --> 0:23:11.880 wanted to know more about Rhodes as foot soldiers There's 0:23:11.920 --> 0:23:15.280 been a lot written about them online, both vilifying and glorifying, 0:23:15.320 --> 0:23:18.240 depending on where Google leads you. But I figured that 0:23:18.280 --> 0:23:20.760 to get a read on them, i'd need to get closer. 0:23:21.720 --> 0:23:26.479 My name is Danisa and I am the sister of 0:23:26.480 --> 0:23:30.440 one of the domestic terrorists that tried to overtake the capital, 0:23:31.080 --> 0:23:35.679 Donovan Kraw. Dennis's brother, Donovan Kraw, is a former marine 0:23:35.760 --> 0:23:38.680 and a current oathkeeper. We heard his voice briefly in 0:23:38.720 --> 0:23:46.720 the Zello recordings. Donovan comes first in the aftermath of 0:23:46.760 --> 0:23:49.879 the riot. Donovan's picture went viral because he looked, you know, 0:23:50.000 --> 0:23:53.119 like a scary guy. He was wearing a combat helmet, 0:23:53.119 --> 0:23:56.040 ballistic goggles, and a tactical best and he was carrying 0:23:56.040 --> 0:23:59.680 a handheld radio. What I wanted to know was how 0:23:59.720 --> 0:24:03.320 does American citizen and a veteran reached this point? Where 0:24:03.400 --> 0:24:07.640 does he come from? My parents were very young parents. 0:24:08.160 --> 0:24:12.240 They were too young to be having children and be 0:24:13.040 --> 0:24:17.040 My father was a raging alcoholic and very abusive. But 0:24:17.240 --> 0:24:20.960 Donovan was kind of the protector, you know, he was 0:24:21.040 --> 0:24:24.720 my older brother. Of course I idolized him. This makes 0:24:24.760 --> 0:24:28.280 a change from Stuart Rhodes practicing karate on his own kids. 0:24:29.080 --> 0:24:32.680 Donovan and Denisa grew up in Bushnell, Illinois, and Donovan 0:24:32.720 --> 0:24:35.720 had a normal, fulfilling life, building a family, working in 0:24:35.760 --> 0:24:39.520 a factory, coaching baseball, and he and Denissa stayed close. 0:24:40.320 --> 0:24:43.920 I was a single parent and he was helping me. 0:24:44.359 --> 0:24:47.840 He worked nights at a factory, and I, of course 0:24:47.840 --> 0:24:50.040 worked days as a nurse, so he would watch my 0:24:50.160 --> 0:24:54.520 daughter while I was at work, and I would keep 0:24:54.560 --> 0:24:58.520 his daughter on the weekends. But in the two thousand tens, 0:24:58.560 --> 0:25:01.280 Donovan went through a difficult worse. He lost his job 0:25:01.280 --> 0:25:04.919 and he got addicted to alcohol and other substances, and 0:25:04.960 --> 0:25:08.600 that wasn't the only major change in his life. One day, 0:25:08.720 --> 0:25:12.040 Donovan had called me and we were just talking, and 0:25:12.600 --> 0:25:15.360 just out of the blue, he says, I want you 0:25:15.600 --> 0:25:19.159 to start saving gas and gas cans. I want you 0:25:19.200 --> 0:25:21.280