Washington Post: “The shooting of Aaron ‘Jay’ Danielson, 39, a supporter of the far-right group Patriot Prayer and a participant in the cruise rally, became a bloody bookend to an anguished summer in Portland and other communities. The alleged assailant, a self-described adherent of antifascism, or antifa, was later killed in an encounter with police. The killings turned the cruise rally into a spectacle of American disorder. The episode elevated a tactic — proclaiming a political ideology with a parade of people revving their engines and openly displaying guns — that could add fuel to an increasingly bitter presidential contest.”

“As intelligence officials warn of foreign efforts to inflame divisions ahead of the Nov. 3 election, the work of [Alex] Kuzmenko and his relatives, who organized the activities using online accounts that did not reveal their full names, shows how little-known individuals with no recorded history of political engagement can seize an outsize role in the campaign. With little more than a Facebook log-in, private citizens have been able to tap into an existing appetite for protest and partisan faceoff. As with the teenage shooting suspect in Kenosha, Wis., and the black-clad protesters in Portland, street-level confrontations have become defining moments in the era of viral politics, at times eclipsing the official activities of Trump and his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden.”