This weekend’s celebration in Washington, D.C., to mark the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States has been marked by controversies and mishaps. Adding to the drama surrounding the celebrations, a white supremacist organization used the opportunity to march in the nation’s capital. Images of Patriot Front, and of locals’ reactions to its members, have spread across social media, leaving Republicans distancing themselves from the group and its rhetoric.
Images of white supremacists go viral
Journalist Phil Lewis posted a picture, captured by a Reuters photographer, of a Black woman looking on with an expression of dismay as she sits surrounded by masked Patriot Front members in a Washington, D.C.-area Metro subway car.
As of Monday morning, Lewis’ post had received more than 4 million views and been shared more than 8,000 times on X. “I’m sorry but this wins photo of the year and I pray she’s okay,” journalist Dawn Montgomery said of the photo and the woman it captures.
Various other images, including some posted by The Washington Post, and others photographed by Getty Images photographers, captured Patriot Front members in the D.C. Metro system and rallying in the city, carrying American and Confederate flags and chanting that they were going to “Reclaim America!”
Patriot Front continues its masked white supremacist rallies
As Blavity previously reported, the Southern Poverty Law Center describes Patriot Front as a white nationalist organization that splintered from a similar group after the 2017 Charlottesville protests. The group equates American identity with European descent and culture, rejecting the idea that Black and other nonwhite people are truly American. Patriot Front members held a similar march through Washington, D.C., in February 2020. Philadelphia residents and counterprotesters chased away a group of Patriot Front marchers from City Hall when the group tried to hold a rally there on the evening of July 3, 2021.
This year, hundreds of members of the group marched through Washington, D.C., wearing matching attire that included hats, sunglasses and white masks that concealed their identities.
They marched across Capitol Hill and gathered in front of Union Station, yelling “life, liberty, victory!” and “reclaim America!” in militant call-and-response chants.
Authorities, Republicans react to Patriot Front march, images
A representative of the Metropolitan Police Department called the march “First Amendment activities” and said, “MPD recognizes the rights of individuals to peacefully express their views and remains committed to maintaining public safety and security for DC residents and visitors.”
President Trump has been associated with similar extremist organizations such as the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, and leaders of both groups were pardoned or had their sentences commuted by Trump for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.
When asked about the Patriot Front rally in Washington, D.C., and the images circulating of its march, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said, “Certainly what they stand for is nothing that I can possibly agree with, but one of the foundational principles of the United States that makes democracy messy is free speech.”
He also attempted to pivot, comparing Patriot Front members to “communists” in American politics and saying, “People say things that I think are irreprehensible about President Trump, and yet they’re allowed to go on because of free speech in our country.”
Other Republicans have condemned the group. Rep. Buddy Carter of Georgia told Bash, “What I’ll say is that that is not the soul of America. Look, you know, we are all created equally. That is what, what our whole impetus is based on here in this country.”
Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a MAGA supporter, also called for an investigation of Patriot Front while trying to blame the Biden administration for not scrutinizing the organization earlier.
While Republicans may be attempting to distance themselves from the Patriot Front rally, the organization’s march has overshadowed much of the Independence Day celebration marking the United States’ 250th anniversary. And for many people, the images of the white supremacists marching through Washington, D.C., have come to represent the current state of the country.