US Politics Mega-thread - Page 8412

Meanwhile, Richard Spencer, an organizer of the Charlottesville rally, told reporters that Trump had not condemned his movement. “His statement today was more kumbaya nonsense,” Spencer said. “Only a dumb person would take those lines seriously.”

Pearce Tefft wrote a letter to members of his community in Fargo, N.D., to set the record straight about his family and the current state of his relationship to Peter Tefft, calling his son "an avowed white nationalist" who attended the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend.

"I, along with all of his siblings and his entire family, wish to loudly repudiate my son's vile, hateful and racist rhetoric and actions," Tefft wrote in a letter to The Forum newspaper on Monday. "We do not know specifically where he learned these beliefs. He did not learn them at home."

As for what Peter Tefft did learn at home, his father says he believes in equality and opened his house to "friends and acquaintances of every race, gender and creed."

This charming Nazi is Pete Tefft of Fargo, ND -- spotted in @UR_Ninja's video: https://t.co/2oslzXHtRZ #GoodNightAltRight #Charlottesville pic.twitter.com/Zqd2gm8mOC
— Yes, You're Racist (@YesYoureRacist) August 12, 2017
Peter Tefft's decision to "unlearn" what he was taught has brought heartbreak to the family, Pearce Tefft said. He added that he won't open his home to his son and that he is no longer welcome at any family gatherings.

Urging the community not to judge the entire family based on Peter Tefft's involvement with the neo-Nazi movement, Pearce Tefft said that while his son's beliefs are his own, they "are bringing hateful rhetoric to his siblings, cousins, nieces and nephews as well as his parents."

Calling Peter a prodigal son who might someday be welcomed back — but not until he disavows hatred — Pearce Tefft urged, "Please son, renounce the hate, accept and love all."

Peter Tefft was identified by an online campaign led by the Twitter account "Yes, You're Racist," which began working over the weekend to identify the non-hooded white supremacists who appeared at the march and rally in Charlottesville.

At least one attendee of the Unite the Right rally has lost his job; others have faced intense scrutiny. When it comes to Peter Tefft, his family is making it clear that his beliefs are not theirs — and that he is not welcome to come back home.

Other members of Tefft's family have also spoken out. When The Forum reported about Peter Tefft's involvement with the rally over the weekend, his nephew, Jacob Scott, issued a statement that read in part:

"In brief, we reject him wholly – both him personally as a vile person who has HIMSELF made violent threats against our family, and also his hideous ideology, which we abhor. We are all bleeding-heart liberals who believe in the fundamental equality of all human beings. Peter is a maniac, who has turned away from all of us and gone down some insane internet rabbit-hole, and turned into a crazy nazi. He scares us all, we don't feel safe around him, and we don't know how he came to be this way. My grandfather feels especially grieved, as though he has failed as a father."
In a Facebook post about his uncle, Scott wrote, "Peter, if you are reading this, PLEASE CHANGE YOUR NAME IMMEDIATELY. You are bringing shame and ignominy on your whole family, and causing a great deal of heartbreak and distress for all of us."

Both Jacob Scott and Pearce Tefft promised that they would resist their relative to the end, with Pearce Tefft telling his son, "you will have to shovel our bodies into the oven, too."

That sentiment, echoed by both relatives, was a reference to a joke they said Tefft had told about how fascists treat dissenting opinion.

On August 16 2017 01:37 Falling wrote:
Well, I mean, I can see some delay in a specific condemnation. (In Muslim terror attacks this is certainly the case because it takes some time for it to be established and/or released that it was such an attack.) And so in this case, I could see keeping your powder dry until such time that it confirmed to be a white supremacist attack.

Because if you have your ear to the ground there were all sorts of rumours: that it was false flag or that the car was surrounded, the driver panicked and gunned it to get out. Turns out, no he is a white supremacist and there is more video footage that shows the car lining up and accelerating into the crowd, but in the first hours there could be some sense in holding off condemning a white terror attack if it wasn't so clear to you at the time that that is what it was. Of course everything cleared up pretty quickly and so that would be the time to roundly condemn it.

On August 16 2017 01:37 Falling wrote:
Well, I mean, I can see some delay in a specific condemnation. (In Muslim terror attacks this is certainly the case because it takes some time for it to be established and/or released that it was such an attack.) And so in this case, I could see keeping your powder dry until such time that it confirmed to be a white supremacist attack.

Because if you have your ear to the ground there were all sorts of rumours: that it was false flag or that the car was surrounded, the driver panicked and gunned it to get out. Turns out, no he is a white supremacist and there is more video footage that shows the car lining up and accelerating into the crowd, but in the first hours there could be some sense in holding off condemning a white terror attack if it wasn't so clear to you at the time that that is what it was. Of course everything cleared up pretty quickly and so that would be the time to roundly condemn it.

On August 16 2017 01:33 Trainrunnef wrote:

This is my favorite line in that article:



This is why word choice, and timing mater...

On August 16 2017 01:34 Mohdoo wrote:


Is this guy a big deal? I'm not really sure what this means without context.

On August 16 2017 01:48 Diavlo wrote:

He's the president of the American Manufacturing Council which is now leaking CEOs left and right since the Charlottesville debacle.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Manufacturing_Council

On August 16 2017 01:44 On_Slaught wrote:


Except Trump doesn't show this kind of calm, calculated, response with attacks done by "brown" people. He goes straight to Islamic Terrorism, as he had done multiple times.

On August 16 2017 01:52 oBlade wrote:

Has he been wrong about Islamic terror attacks before though?

On August 16 2017 01:40 Mohdoo wrote:


Are you really saying you don't think the administration knew enough about the attacker for 2 full days? They likely had his entire life's timeline on Trump's desk within 6 hours of the attack.

On August 16 2017 01:44 On_Slaught wrote:


Except Trump doesn't show this kind of calm, calculated, response with attacks done by "brown" people. He goes straight to Islamic Terrorism, as he had done multiple times.

On August 16 2017 01:56 Falling wrote:

No, not two days necessarily. I'm just saying there's some cause for some delay.

On August 16 2017 01:57 Plansix wrote:

But there is no reason not to condemn the violence coming from the protest. We knew they were Nazis from the day before and the Mayor was saying they were responsible for the violence at the time.

On August 16 2017 02:03 xDaunt wrote:

Let's not rely upon the idiot mayor as any kind of authority -- moral or factual. He's the same clown who stupidly tried revoking the Nazi's event permit, thereby ratcheting up tensions going into the event. I also bet that he's at least partially responsible for the failure of the police department to keep things under control during the rally.

On August 16 2017 02:06 Mohdoo wrote:
So is ISIS able to apply for their own rally? What if there was a group that advocated for exterminating Christians and instating Sharia law across the US? Would they be granted a permit?