Mike Lee blames ‘leftists,’ ‘Democrats’ for white nationalist march on Fourth of July

SALT LAKE CITY — Sen. Mike Lee blamed “leftists,” “Democrats” and a civil rights organization after a white nationalist group staged a rally and march in the nation’s capital on Saturday but did not provide any evidence that any of the groups were behind the march.

Across several posts on his personal X account on Independence Day, Lee, R-Utah, shared videos of a Patriot Front rally and march in Washington, D.C., during which some 400 members — many of them masked and uniformed and some carrying American flags upside down — gathered on the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

“Patriot Front: Brought to you by leftists who don’t know that patriots don’t wear masks,” Lee said in one post.

A later post showed marchers carrying flags, including the Confederate battle flag, along a street. Lee wrote: “Democrats need to stop reminding America of their racist history.”

“Are these really the most believable fake white supremacists SPLC money can buy?” Lee asked in another.

The senator appeared to be referring to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit organization with the stated goal of “working in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements, and advance the human rights of all people.”

The U.S. Department of Justice secured a grand jury indictment against the organization in April, accusing it of 11 counts of wire and bank fraud-related charges. The department accused the group of paying undercover informants within extremist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan, without disclosing the payments to donors or banks, according to the grand jury indictment.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has denied the allegations and pleaded not guilty in the case, according to CBS News. It has sought to have the case dismissed and said the prosecution is vindictive.

A spokeswoman for the Southern Poverty Law Center described the Patriot Front as “a white nationalist hate group that formed in the aftermath of the deadly ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.”

“On America’s 250th birthday, members of the Patriot Front hid behind masks and marched the streets of Washington, D.C., ironically representing the opposite of patriotism. They chose fear and intimidation over unity and celebration,” Erin Wilson, intelligence project director for the organization, told KSL. “We will not let groups like the Patriot Front co-opt our nation’s promise. SPLC will continue its mission of fighting white supremacy and various forms of injustice to create a multi-racial democracy where we can all live and thrive.”

Fox News host Laura Ingraham also called the march “fake” in a post on X on Saturday. When former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger asked Ingraham to condemn the march, Lee responded saying: “I condemn SPLC for funding stuff like this.”

Lee has not provided any evidence to support his claims, and the Patriot Front was not among the organizations mentioned in the Department of Justice’s indictment.

What is Patriot Front?

The Patriot Front is a white supremacist group based in Texas, according to the Anti-Defamation League. The organization’s manifesto describes the United States as “European in racial character” and states that “nationhood cannot be bestowed upon those who are not of the founding stock of our people.”

Patriot Front is “responsible for the vast majority of white supremacist propaganda distributed in the United States” since 2019, and also espouses antisemitic, anti-LGBTQ+, anti-abortion and anti-immigration views, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

The group often organizes local “flash demonstrations,” including a demonstration in Herriman early last year.