Hillary Clinton probably shouldn’t have said it, but she wasn’t wrong. Sometimes politicians are bit too candid when they’re appearing at fundraisers, and that’s where Clinton was in September 2016 when she made the infamous remarks about “deplorable” supporters of Donald Trump.
“You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right?” Clinton said. “The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic—you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up.”
I thought about Clinton when I read about a Proud Boy named Hatchet Speed. That’s one badass name, I have to admit. But poor Mr. Speed is headed to prison for a long spell. A federal judge just threw the book at him largely because he’s a complete scumbag.
A former Navy reservist who the government said expressed admiration for Hitler, among other antisemitic views, was sentenced to four years in prison on Monday for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Prosecutors described Hatchet Speed as an avowed antisemite who posed an increasing threat to the public.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden agreed that Speed’s hateful motivations warranted a longer sentence beyond other rioters who were not accused of specific acts of violence in the Capitol assault.
While Speed was not charged with assault or destruction of government property, prosecutors say he went on a spending spree after Jan. 6, acquiring weapons and ammunition worth thousands of dollars.
The first thing to ask yourself is why people showed up on January 6, 2021 and tried to prevent Joe Biden and Kamala Harris from being formalized by Congress as the winners of the presidential election. I’m not talking about their credulity in believing lies about widespread fraud. The key motivator was strong support for Trump and his policies. The January 6 rioters really liked their president and they were desperate not to give him up.
That’s leads to the second thing. Why would a guy who loves Hitler feel so enthusiastic about Trump’s presidency?
Let’s look a little deeper into Mr. Speed’s thinking. The following comes from the Department of Justice:
In March 2021, during the midst of his firearm purchases, Speed purchased three silencers from a company in Georgia. While the silencers were marketed as “solvent traps” ostensibly to be used in cleaning the barrel of a firearm, they were actually designed to serve as silencers. The silencers were not registered to Speed in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record, as required by law. By circumventing the registration requirements for silencers, Speed was able to take possession of the silencers within a week of purchasing them.
In early 2022, Speed met with an undercover employee of the FBI. During these meetings, Speed discussed his anti-Semitic, anti-government ideologies with the FBI undercover employee. Speed also discussed taking violent action in furtherance of his ideologies. Speed praised the approach of jihadists and suggested that their approach would be an effective way to “wipe out” the opposition, referring to Jewish people. Speed discussed his efforts to identify targets who were “reachable” by someone like him, stating that he thought about using a “mock trial” to decide which people to add to “the list.” During this discussion, Speed confirmed to the FBI undercover employee that he believed his “solvent traps,” meaning his unregistered silencers, would come in handy for this purpose.
I guess I am just weird, but if I were a Nazi who was intent on wiping out Jews, it would give me pause to realize that Trump’s son-in-law is an Orthodox Jew, his daughter is a converted Jew, and his top domestic policy adviser Stephen Miller is a Jew. I’d certainly notice that Trump’s biggest foreign policy achievement was the Abraham Accords, a major priority for Israel that allowed for normalization of relations with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
Somehow, however, Trump managed to negotiate the Abraham Accords and also move the American embassy to Jerusalem without alienating people like Mr, Speed. Just as Clinton described, Trump had a way of lifting up antisemites. They saw his presidency as something worth fighting for rather than something to be resisted.
It’s some strange jujitsu that allows Trump to pull off this trick. It certainly lured Mr. Speed into a trap. He got three years for illegal gun purchases and four years for showing up on January 6.
There will now be one less deplorable in the basket.
