Daily Beast: “Many leaders of what has become the GOP ‘establishment’ have reason to fear the kind of thoroughgoing investigation of domestic extremism that law enforcement agencies have previously conducted of foreign extremist groups, one that extends to reach the financial and organizational support for domestic extremist networks. It not only appears likely that such inquiries will reach Republican officeholders, but also some of the party’s wealthiest donors, many of whom have previously been able to mask their identities and roles behind dark money conduits.”
“One can well expect those with the most to lose from an effective investigation of the nature and scope of domestic extremism will do everything they can to increase the political stakes, and to demonize the investigators, a strategy Donald Trump employed to great effect. Leaders on the right are already sending out warning flares to their followers, preemptively challenging the legitimacy of such law enforcement efforts. Tucker Carlson has declaimed to his audience that investigations of white supremacist violence will be an investigation of ‘you,’ and asserted that the direction of law enforcement resources against domestic extremism is a threat to the liberty of all on the right.”