Politics and Current
FBI informant reveals how he foiled KKK assassination attempt on Obama, claims he is president, Michael Brown protests increased Ku Klux Klan membership
In the summer of 2008, Joe Moore, a former Army sniper, insinuated himself right into a senior Ku Klux Klan chapter in Gainesville, Florida, while also serving as an undercover FBI informant. Then-U.S. Senator Barack Obama was running for president, and Moore’s KKK brothers had infiltrated a plot to assassinate the favored Democrat who desired to turn out to be the country’s first black president.
Obama was scheduled to come back to nearby Kissimmee in October and, as Moore told NPR In an interview with host Tonya Mosley this week, “they revealed to me that they have a plan that involves multiple members, vehicles, two anti-tank rifles, several law enforcement officers who will be involved to some degree” in a plan to “provide him with very substantial firepower” through the Obama motorcade and rally.
The Klan was getting inside details about Obama’s visit from police sources and other help from contacts on the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles who could help obtain false license plate numbers at a neighborhood junkyard, Moore said. He had earned the trust of KKK leaders as the proper man for the job due to his military experience as a sniper and intelligence gatherer, so he was well-positioned to step in and thwart their plot through the next planning meeting.
“And then a light bulb went off in my head,” he told Mosley. “And I said, ‘Hey, what are you guys going to do about the drones?’ And then they looked at me in shock, looked at each other, turned around and said, ‘Drones? What drones?’ I said, ‘Well, the Secret Service, you know, now that Obama is the candidate, they have heightened Secret Service protection, and at that level, that includes drones.’ I didn’t know that, but they didn’t know either. … Naturally, I came up with a solution on the spot that stopped it.”
Moore’s moving story of how he foiled an assassination attempt on Obama, in addition to two other plots in Florida that led to the convictions of three Ku Klux Klan members, is included in his latest book“White Robes and Broken Badges: Infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan and Exposing the Evil in Our Midst,” the story of the years he spent from 2007 to 2017 living a double life as an FBI informant.
In the book, he also describes witnessing first-hand the growing threat from white supremacist extremist groups and his concern about how their hateful ethos contributed to recent incidents of racial violence and domestic terrorism, including those in Charlottesville, Virginia; Ferguson, Missouri; and Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021.
In the book, Moore describes the Obama presidency as lighting the fuse and Ferguson because the powder keg for that fuse, resulting in the explosion of far-right extremism in America. He told NPR that the killing of Michael Brown and the next riots and protests across the country in 2014 further mobilized the KKK, partially because considered one of the Klan’s national leaders, Frank Ancona Jr., “lived near St. Louis and had been in contact with business owners in the area to ask them if they wanted the Klan to come in and provide protection.”
“And the (Klan) membership during the Obama years and the Ferguson riots also brought out people who already had similar views,” he said. “So those people who maybe had some white supremacist leanings were looking for people to join a group with. That accelerated the inquiries about the Klan recruitment process.”
Moore said the leaflets the KKK handed out during protests in Ferguson and St. Louis, criticizing protesters for disrupting town and warning that they’d not tolerate threats against law enforcement officials, were evidence of “an evolution in their propaganda skills.” Far-right extremist groups “cultivate fear, and then attract people who are afraid of that, and then continue to fuel that fiery hatred within the organization,” he said.
In its annual report on hate and extremism published in June Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) documented 595 hate groups in 2023, a 72 percent increase from 2022. That included only 10 lively Ku Klux Klan groups, but there was a 50 percent increase in white supremacist hate groups in 2023, which rose to 166 from 109 the previous 12 months.
“What we’re seeing now should be a wake-up call for all of us,” Margaret Huang, president and CEO of the SPLC, said during a call with reporters including Missouri Independent“Our 2023 report documents more hate and anti-government extremist groups than ever before. With historic elections just months away, these groups are multiplying, mobilizing, and creating, and in some cases already implementing, plans to overthrow democracy.”
Florida has long been a hotbed for the Ku Klux Klan and white nationalists, and Moore learned firsthand how dangerous their members may be — especially with the assistance of local law enforcement.
During his second stint as an FBI informant from 2013 to 2017, Moore infiltrated the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in north-central Florida, rising to the rank of Grand Knight for the Georgia-Florida area.
This role made him the highest-ranking Ku Klux Klan security officer within the region and the one that may very well be called upon to make use of violence if obligatory, in response to ABC Newswho collaborated with the AP to provide a documentary about Moore’s dangerous work as an informant during this era.
The FBI in Florida had been intercepting threats from domestic terrorist groups since 2006, and Moore said his mission was to “go inside the Ku Klux Klan to identify those involved and alert the FBI to any illegal activities.”
He soon learned of a plot to murder a black man named Warren Williams, a former prisoner who had gotten right into a fight in a jail hospital with a Florida corrections officer named Thomas Driver, who was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Williams bit Driver through the fight, and Driver was especially offended because he needed to undergo tests for infectious diseases reminiscent of HIV and hepatitis C.
In December 2014, during a cross-burning in rural north Florida, three Ku Klux Klan members, all Florida corrections officers, approached Moore and asked him to murder Williams. Moore reported this to his FBI superiors, who ordered him to wear a wire for the following several months to collect evidence of the conspiracy.
He did so, and all three men were found guilty in 2017 of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
The documentary includes compelling audio clips from a few of his undercover recordings, including a conversation while Moore was driving with two KKK hitmen who were searching Williams’ home, considered one of whom was an lively law enforcement officer, the opposite retired from a protracted profession in law enforcement.
They discussed a plan to grab Williams off the sidewalk, inject him with a lethal dose of insulin, and throw him into the river. The Ku Klux Klan got spooked that day when considered one of the officers spotted an unmarked police automotive tailing them, but Moore gathered enough evidence to convict them.
The Florida Department of Corrections later denied in an email to the AP claims of broader ties to white supremacist groups or a systemic problem beyond “the isolated actions of three individuals who committed heinous and illegal acts.”
Moore said that in his time as an informant, he discovered dozens of law enforcement officials, corrections officers, sheriff’s deputies and other law enforcement officials who were affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan and other extremist organizations.
IN investigative series In 2021, AP reporter Jason Dearen documented that Florida prisons were filled with guards and other staff who “openly publicized their ties to white supremacist groups in order to intimidate inmates and Black colleagues, a persistent practice that often goes unpunished.”
“The KKK has always wanted to take over law enforcement because it’s a power mechanism that if they can control, they can increase their power,” Moore said. “I don’t think people realize how dangerous it is to have one KKK member in the organization because then you recruit and eventually you spread and attract other people who you can maybe convince.”
Although membership within the Ku Klux Klan has declined precipitously over the past century, Moore said the organization is making up for the loss by skillfully utilizing people in high positions.
“What I learned… in what I could do for the FBI, the truth was so hidden from the public,” Moore said. “It wasn’t that the KKK was becoming less and less human. I mean, to some extent it was. The bigger problem was that the KKK was becoming more insidious, more involved in the art of the trade, more involved in how to be effective and less noisy.”
He said he was concerned concerning the messages former President Donald Trump has sent to far-right extremists since emerging on the national political scene in 2016, including on issues reminiscent of immigration.
“A lot of the things Donald Trump has said are consistent with white supremacist ideology and other like-minded movements,” Moore said. “But what I’ve learned in my investigations is that it’s not just what I see that should concern me. It’s often what I don’t see that I need to be able to recognize.”
Politics and Current
Matt Gaetz withdraws from Trump’s nomination for attorney general
Former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz is withdrawing from President-elect Donald Trump’s presidency nomination for attorney general after backlash.
In an announcement released Nov. 21 via X, Gaetz withdrew from the nomination, saying his confirmation was a “distraction.” “I had excellent meetings with senators yesterday. I appreciate their thoughtful opinions and the incredible support from so many people. While momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation unfairly distracted from the critical work of the Trump-Vance transition,” he wrote.
“There isn’t any time to waste on an unnecessarily prolonged fight in Washington. “I am therefore withdrawing my name from consideration for the position of Attorney General.”
Knowing that the appointed attorney general should be able to serve on the primary day of the brand new Trump-Vance administration, waiting for legal proceedings would make it harder for Gaetz to meet that commitment. A former lawmaker is under federal investigation for allegedly paying two women to have sex and watch him appear on Fox News. Both women claim that in 2019, Gaetz also paid them to accompany him to a Broadway show. During testimony before the bipartisan House Ethics Committee, the ladies alleged that Gaetz paid them to travel across state lines to have sex almost twice.
The women were between 19 and 21 years old on the time of the alleged encounters. They testified that the disgraced congressman paid them to travel to the Bahamas with other young women – including one who alleged that she had had sex. with Gaetz when she was a minor.
After Trump announced his nomination to move the Department of Justice (DOJ), attention focused on outdated allegations, prompting the discharge of an Ethics Committee investigation report.
As committee members failed to determine whether to release the report’s findings, Sen. John Cornyn (Texas) characterised Gaetz’s potential confirmation as “Kavanaugh on steroids” in reference to the 2018 racial and sexual misconduct hearings. – Judge Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. “He’s a smart guy, I’m sure he realizes that,” Cornyn said, in line with .
A senior member of the Judiciary Committee warned that each one details of the FBI’s investigation and committee report – each good and bad – will eventually develop into public. “It will reach us a technique or one other. There are not any secrets here,” Cornyn said.
Before withdrawing, Gaetz met with Cornynand in addition Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and John Kennedy (R-La.) .). Vice President-elect J.D. VAnka also took part within the meetings. He encouraged lawmakers to present their former colleague a likelihood to present his vision for reforming the Justice Department and to carry off on making judgments about his fitness to serve.
At the time of Gaetz’s withdrawal, Trump had not yet issued an announcement.
Politics and Current
Missouri police officer fatally shot 2-month-old baby and her mother after relative called police for help, family says
A Missouri family and community are mourning the tragic death of a 34-year-old woman and her infant daughter who were killed in an officer-involved shooting earlier this month.
Family members say Maria Pike and her 2-month-old daughter, Destinii Hope, were shot to death on November 7 after police were called to an apartment in Independence, Missouri, in response to a domestic disturbance.
In the weeks for the reason that shooting, local law enforcement has released few details, but eyewitnesses have provided local media with their accounts of what happened.
said Talisa Coombs, the baby’s grandmother Kansas City Star that she was the one who called the police after a physical altercation with the kid’s mother. Family members say Maria Pike has had mental health issues, anger issues and most recently suffered from postpartum depression.
Coombs said that when she called the police, she thought authorities would arrive, arrest Pike and get her the assistance she needed. She told her son and Destinia’s father, Mitchell Holder, that she desired to press charges against Pike for assault.
When police arrived, Holder initially refused to allow them to inside, however the apartment constructing’s assistant manager persuaded him to let two officers inside.
Assistant manager Gavin Delaney told The Star that when police entered the apartment, Pike was sitting within the bedroom closet, holding Destinia, not doing or saying anything.
Destinia’s father, who witnessed the shooting, recounted the moments leading as much as the shooting to his sister, Ashley Greenfield.
Greenfield told The Star that when officers entered the apartment, she and Holder tried to take the baby from Pike as she moved from the closet to the bed. Greenfield stated that when Pike reached for an object on the nightstand, the officer shot the baby in the top while he was still in his mother’s arms.
Holder later recalled his horrified response to the shooting of “The Kansas City Defender.”
“They shot my baby,” Holder said outlet. “It looked like her head had exploded. Her blood splattered throughout my glasses and throughout me. All I could do was scream. I just kept repeating three words – the identical three words – “You killed her!” I screamed it. Time and time again.”
He added that Pike jumped after the primary shot and the officer opened fire on her.
Accounts vary as as to if Pike had a gun when officers entered the apartment.
Local news outlets reported that among the many few details police have released up to now concerning the shooting is that Pike was armed with a knife.
“When we arrived, officers encountered a woman who was ultimately armed with a knife,” said Independence Police Chief Adam Dustman. “As a result of this encounter, two people died, one was an armed woman and the other was a child.”
However, family members say otherwise. Before calling the police, Destinia’s grandmother stated that there have been no weapons in the home. Holder also said he never saw Pike holding a knife in the course of the encounter with police.
“Yes, I was in the room when it all happened,” Holder he said. “From what I saw, I never once saw Maria armed with anything. Honestly, I do not even know where that got here from. I heard crazy things like she held a baby hostage in a closet, that she had a knife, and all this crazy stuff that is not true. I mean, all I can say is that it’s possible she had a knife and I didn’t see it, but all I do know is that I never saw her holding anything – and I used to be there within the room.
Independence police said the investigation has been turned over to the Jackson County Police Involvement Investigative Team (PIIT), a team of detectives that investigates police shootings and use of force incidents.
Chief Dustman said just one officer, a “long-time law enforcement veteran,” fired in the course of the incident. The officer and two other people on the scene were placed on administrative leave.
Capt. Kyle Flowers, who heads the PIIT team investigating the shooting, said last week that investigators had reviewed body camera footage and planned to interview witnesses. According to KMBCthe team will turn over the findings of the investigation to the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office, but Flowers didn’t specify exactly when that will occur.
Family members have called on authorities to release the body camera footage, which is able to hopefully reveal once and for all whether Pike was armed with a knife on the time of the shooting. They also call for punishment of the officers involved within the shooting.
“Why hasn’t the body camera footage been released?” Amber Travis, cousin of the victims, he said at a community vigil for Pike and her daughter. “Give my family a break.”
“It means a lot that the community feels the same way we do,” Holder he said. “It means the world. It won’t bring her back, but no less than we all know now we have loads of support here.
AND GoFundMe page was created to assist pay for Destinia’s funeral. As of Wednesday afternoon, greater than $3,000 had been raised.
On November 22, Destinii would have turned 3 months old.
Politics and Current
Jasmine Crockett blasts Republicans for so-called white “oppression” over anti-DEI bill
On Wednesday, during a passionate speech before the committee, Sen. Jasmine Crockett, R-Texas, chided her Republican colleagues for the content of an anti-DEI bill that calls for eliminating all diversity, equity and inclusion programs and offices within the federal government.
Crockett, a 43-year-old congressional student who has change into a star within the Democratic Party because of her quite a few viral committee appearances, condemned the Dismantle DEI Act of 2024. The bill, H.R. 8706 – first introduced by Republican Vice President-elect J.D. Vance – essentially prohibit all DEI-related activities within the federal government, including all related positions, offices, training, and funding. Strikingly, the bill also prohibits federal employees working in DEI positions from transferring to a different federal position.
During a House Oversight Committee hearing wherein she responded to Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., who repeatedly called DEI policies “oppression” — seemingly aimed toward white people, as many Republicans suggested — Crockett used the committee’s speaking time to criticize the suggestion that white individuals are oppressed in consequence of efforts to shut racial disparities in sectors resembling business, education, and health.
“You don’t understand the definition of oppression… I would ask you to just Google it,” said Crockett, who moments later read the dictionary definition of the word, adding: “Oppression is long-term cruel or unfair treatment or control, that’s the definition of oppression.” The congresswoman emphasized: “There was no oppression of the white man in this country.”
Referring to the history of chattel slavery and racial segregation within the US, the Texas lawmaker said: “Tell me which white men were dragged from their homes. Tell me which one was dragged across the ocean and that you will go to work. We will steal your wives. We will rape your wives. It didn’t happen. This is oppression.”
Attempting to further explain the importance of DEI, Crockett noted that she is barely the fifty fifth Black woman elected to Congress in its 235-year history, unlike the 1000’s of white men who’ve served on Capitol Hill.
“So if you want to talk about history and pretend it was that long ago, it wasn’t,” Crockett said, citing data showing that corporations perform higher and are more profitable after they are more diversified.
The anti-DEI movement, championed exclusively by Republicans, has led to several lawsuits invalidating federal programs, including debt forgiveness for Black farmers and business loans to Black and other disadvantaged businesses. Many states led by Republican governors have indicated that DEI – especially teaching about slavery and racism – is harmful to students, namely white students. In response, they banned such topics from public classrooms.
Jamarr Brown, executive director of Color of Change PAC, the political arm of the civil rights organization, said Congresswoman Crockett’s statements on DEI were “poignant and necessary.”
While the Dismantling DEI Act actually won’t be passed while Democrats control the Senate and President Joe Biden stays in office, it signals what may very well be a priority for Republicans next yr, as outlined within the pro-Trump “Project 2025” political manifesto “.
“According to Project 2025, diversity, equity and inclusion is synonymous with ‘White lives don’t matter,’” Brown noted. “Now more than ever, we at Color Of Change PAC, as well as advocates and activists across the country, must work to protect Black people and other people of color from harm resulting from anti-DEI attacks.”
Brown continued, “Civil rights protections have helped reduce mortgage discrimination, increase the number of Black physicians to counter problems such as Black maternal mortality, and provide financing for Black-owned businesses.”
He added: “Our country thrives and everyone benefits when diversity, equality and inclusion are valued rather than stifled.”
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