sabatini, anthony rep
<span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">beaten? by?</font></span><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>claremonster</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">lie resume // santos
</font><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/Bank/anthony-sabatini/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/Bank/anthony-sabatini/</a></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p></span></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 7 23 no lnx</font></font></font></font></div><div><b>far-right Florida Republican: 'We need to extinguish the left'</b></div><div>
</div><div>Alex Henderson July 13, 2023</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">During an angry, vitriolic July 12 speech, former Florida State Rep. Sabatini not only called for defunding federal law enforcement, but also, for abolishing public education in Florida and going to a private-schools-only system. And he wants to "extinguish the left."</span></div><div>
</div><div>Countless MAGA Republicans and pundits for right-wing media outlets have accused Democrats of wanting to "defund the police," conflating a slogan of street activists with actual Democratic Party policies. In fact, a long list of Democrats — from President Joe Biden to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) to New York City Mayor Eric Adams — have emphasized that they are vehemently opposed to defunding the police. Democrat and former Pennsylvania State Rep. Cherelle Parker, likely to become Philadelphia's next mayor, has campaigned on increasing the size of Philly's police department.</div><div>
</div><div>But defunding the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is something that many MAGA Republicans are openly promoting, including far-right Lake County, Florida Chairman Sabatini.</div><div>
</div><div>READ MORE: Inflation is plummeting across America except in Ron DeSantis’ Florida</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">The 34-year-old Sabatini, who formerly served in the Florida House of Representatives, told the crowd, "The only thing that's good enough is to completely and totally destroy the left in this county. Destroy it."</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">After that line drew applause from the crowd, Sabatini went on to say, "Defense gets you nowhere except where you already are in you're lucky…. It's tough to defund the left. I'm talking about defunding government agencies, defunding bureaucrats, defunding government schools and going to 100 percent private schools like Florida is making gestures at right now…. Let's truly beat the left at the federal level."</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>Sabatini called for "gutting the DOJ like a fish and defunding these government agencies."</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>"I think we should actually push for a government shutdown,"</b> Sabatini told attendees. "I think we actually need to <b>defund and destabilize this terror</b> that's happening to Washington, D.C. that's<b> quite literally aimed at us and our families and our children</b> and everything that's going on here. Defund and shut down and destroy the <b>woke</b>ism that exists in this country.</span>"</div><div>
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</div><div>READ MORE: Florida Republicans strive for 'maximum unity' by forcing GOP candidates to sign loyalty pledge</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Sabatini has a long history of making inflammatory remarks. When Biden, in January 2022, promised to nominate a Black woman for the U.S. Supreme Court, Sabatini tweeted<b>, "Biden MUST be impeached</b> for his<b> anti-white racist exclusion </b>of any white nominee to the Supreme Court."</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">It was also in 2022 that Sabatini quoted Gen. Francisco Franco, the fascist dictator who ruled Spain from the late 1930s until his death in 1975. Sabatini tweeted, "I answer only to God and to History" — a Franco quote — and he later tweeted a photo of El Generalísimo with President Dwight D. Eisenhower and said critics of his pro-Franco tweet were "extremely unamerican."</span></div><div>
</div><div>Sabatini took that photo out of context. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Lyndon B. Johnson and other U.S. presidents had close relations with the Franco dictatorship during the Cold War, but not because they truly admired Franco. It was more a belief that as bad as Franco was, at least he kept the Soviet Union out of Spain.</div><div>
</div><div>READ MORE: How Ron DeSantis is 'trying to out-Trump Trump' on climate: report</div><div>
</div><div>Watch the full video below or at this link.</div><div>
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</div><div>FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</div><div>'Authoritarian' Ron DeSantis’ campaign to 'weaponize state power' hasn’t made Florida any safer: libertarian ›</div><div>Ron DeSantis’ 'hostile takeover' could cost a Florida college $29 million in donations: report ›</div><div>'He is afraid of Donald Trump': How Florida Democrats are capitalizing on Ron DeSantis’ corrosive campaign ›</div><div>RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB</div><div>Florida blackface photo: State Rep. Anthony Sabatini's friend says ... ›</div><div>Some compassion, please, for Anthony Sabatini, 'the worst person in ... ›</div><div>Anthony Sabatini commercial claims fact checked ›</div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">mar a lago raid</font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Cabin, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Veteran journalist Sarah Posner, who has spent years writing about religion and the Christian right, has an explanation for the outraged response from some Trump supporters over the <a href="https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2022/08/read-trump-likens-fbi-executing-search-warrant-at-mar-a-lago-to-watergate-in-new-statement/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">FBI executing a legal search warrant on Mar-a-Lago</a>.</p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Cabin, sans-serif; font-size: 17px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Hours after the news broke, Florida Republican state representative Anthony Sabatini <a href="https://twitter.com/AnthonySabatini/status/1556805568207196160" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">called for</a> “an emergency legislative session” to “Sever all ties with DOJ immediately” over the FBI executing a legal search warrant of Trump’s home. “Any FBI agent conducting law enforcement functions outside the purview of our State should be arrested upon sight,” he wrote, apparently unaware of the U.S. Constitution.</span></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Cabin, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Tuesday night Trump supporters formed a small convoy driving outside Mar-a-Lago, some with Trump banners, Trump flags, or the American flag, – even one vehicle painted with the American flag – to show their support for the former president who might be facing legal consequences, as <a href="https://twitter.com/cbenavidesTV/status/1556832133653708803?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">video</a> from NBC 6 reporter Cristian Benavides shows.</p></span></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://twitter.com/AnthonySabatini/status/1556805568207196160">https://twitter.com/AnthonySabatini/status/1556805568207196160</a></font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">top 5 rw alec</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></p><div><b>COVID DENIAL AND THE INFLUENCE OF THE POSSE COMITATUS: ANTHONY SABATINI</b></div><div><b>(R-Florida House of Representatives, District 32)</b></div><div>
</div><div>Member of ALEC’s Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development Task Force </div><div>
</div><div>Florida State Representative Anthony Sabatini provides an example of the radicalization seen in the overlapping Stop the Steal and COVID Denial mobilizations. As captured in this report, in 2020, Sabatini joined five COVID Denial, and six Stop the Steal groups. Also that year, Sabatini joined the Posse Comitatus-influenced Constitutional Grassroots Movement.</div><div>
</div><div>In keeping with his Stop the Steal memberships, Sabatini pushed election conspiracies and a bill for an election audit in Florida (where Donald Trump won) because, he alleged, several counties had double-scanned ballots “or did things that are far, far worse than that.” Almost three weeks after the election, Sabatini tweeted, “I’m extremely thankful Biden lost in 2020;” in December 2020, he tweeted, “Stop the Steal.”</div><div>
</div><div><b>Sabatini’s COVID Denial activism took him into the realm of Posse-Influenced politics</b>. For instance, he joined the group, <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">ReOpen South Florida</span> (3,070 members). Under the name “Chris Paul,” Florida People’s Rights network activist Chris Nelson is a group administrator. Sabatini appeared in an interview on Nelson’s ReOpen America Podcast and was announced as a speaker along with Nelson and People’s Rights figure Rachael Love Cohen at a 2020 Florida COVID Denial rally.</div><div>
</div><div>Sabatini has a long history of racial insensitivity. In his younger days, Sabatini dressed in blackface and as a stereotype of a Mexican. Then, when Confederate statues began to be taken down across the South, he declared that the “solemn” Confederate monuments facing removal “can find a home” in Eustis, where he served as a City Commissioner.</div><div>
</div><div>In May 2020, Sabatini joined the Constitutional Grassroots Movement (7,029 members), a group whose administrator, the Constitutional Grassroots Movement Facebook page, frequently posts material from <b>KrisAnne Hall.</b> For his part, Sabatini applied nullification and Posse-style approaches to COVID-19, writing in September 2021, “Today I submitted a Bill (bill draft #79925) which will NULLIFY Biden’s forthcoming vaccine mandate. ANY federal employee in Florida imposing the mandate will be arrested and prosecuted under Florida state law.”</div><div>
</div><div>As Black Lives Matter demonstrations against police racism and violence were unfolding across the country, Sabatini posted a photo of an AR-15 rifle on Facebook, writing, “Attention potential ‘protesters’ coming near Lake County, FL. This is an AR-15—this will be a very common sight upon illegal entry at any Lake County business—FYI!.”</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Sabatini promoted a “Constitutional Carry Rally” featuring himself and Luis Valdes, Florida Director of militia advocate Larry Pratt’s Gun Owners of America</span>. Far-right “constitutionalist” KrisAnne Hall, who refers to Sabatini as her “friend,” engaged in COVID Denial activism with Sabatini, speaking at a June 2020 event with the far-right legislator and writing, “WE WON the Florida mask mandate appeal TODAY! Bravo all who fought!… Congratulations to my friend Anthony Sabatini—Thank you for letting me join you in this fight for #LibertyFirst.”</div><div>
</div><div>In November 2021, Sabatini described his and KrisAnne Hall’s joint COVID Denial activism:</div><div>
</div><div>“Just spoke to 400+ patriots from around Florida at a rally in Tallahassee in support of a TOTAL BAN on private sector vaccine and mask mandates! Then, constitutional activist KrisAnne Hall, JD and I led the whole crowd through the State Capitol building demanding a meeting with all legislative leaders—calling on them to go on the record in support of a FULL ban.”</div><div>
</div><div><b>Sabatini had attended the far-right National Conservatism conference in Orlando the previous month.</b> CMD</div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;">aha/hmmn:</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;">ar15 totemic, tribal membership and a tool/power/spell to defend themselves (hype fear soc med] gubmint tyrant black antifa commie rioters --> MAGA</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;">chris hayes had 2 experts and ref'd sev artl but not sure i found]</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/guns-republican-primary-campaign-ads-midterms-1336903/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/guns-republican-primary-campaign-ads-midterms-1336903/</a></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;">see greitens rino hunt, assault ar15</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;">no lnx twt many pix</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><b>The Real Reason Republicans Are Loading Their 2022 Campaign Ads With Guns</b></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;">Conservative candidates have responded to the attack on the Capitol by doubling down on firearm worship and violent imagery to court their base</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;">By RYAN BORT </p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;">A Republican official poses with a large gunA Republican official poses with a large gun</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;">20,885 people were killed by guns in America in 2021, according to the Gun Violence Archive. That figure does not include suicides.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;">Youtube</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;">Garrett Soldano released a pretty strange campaign ad last fall. The only words spoken in it came from a voice aggressively asking, “WHO?” and a chorus twice chanting “WE THE PEOPLE!” in response. The rest of the ad was 45 seconds of Soldano firing various weapons at a gun range, set to a heavy, looping guitar riff.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;">Soldano is not running for sheriff, or even for a seat in the state House. He’s a <b>Republican running to become the next governor of Michigan.</b></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;">Soldano’s ad may have been absurd, but it wasn’t atypical. Republican candidates are turning to guns, guns, guns in a very big way ahead of the midterms, serving their potential constituents with a torrent of campaign ads, Instagram posts, and even Christmas cards of themselves toting and firing deadly weapons. <b>Conservatives using guns in campaign ads is nothing new, of course, but the way in which they’re being used in the wake of Trump’s term in office — and particularly in the wake the violent attack on the Capitol that ended it — portends a dark future for the party, and if it regains control of Washington, D.C., for the nation.</b></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;">Ron Filipkowski, a researcher who tracks right-wing activity online and has highlighted several examples of Republicans going gun crazy in their campaign ads, says the use of guns in ads has “absolutely” ratcheted up this primary cycle compared to 2020 and 2018.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">[RELATED STORIES</span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;">GOP Candidate Fantasizes About Murdering Political Opponents in New Ad [greitens?]</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;">Ohio Shrinks Training Requirement for Teachers to Carry Guns From 700 Hours to 24]</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>“I started noticing it and was like, ‘What’s going on?'” he says. “I think it’s almost like the [Lauren] Boebert-, [Marjorie Taylor] Greene-ization of the whole America First movement</b> that’s driving the Republican Party now. It’s those candidates who are the ones that are doing it. I feel like the establishment candidates kind of feel like they have to do it too, now.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><b>Boebert built her successful 2020 campaign largely around guns, and last year released an ad promising to carry a Glock on Capitol Hill.</b> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Greene in an ad for her 2020 campaign cocked an assault rifle as she warned “antifa terrorists” to stay out of her district, and last fall blew up a Prius with a 50-caliber rifle</span>. Establishment Republicans like Lindsey Graham, who last year released a video of himself at a shooting range in khakis, are struggling to keep up, but the point is that they feel like they need to try. This is what the party is now.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;">Filipowski says he really started noticing the uptick in gun-centric ads, which were often the first big campaign rollout ads candidates would release, last fall. They haven’t stopped since.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><b>Here’s Max Miller, a former Trump aide running for the Ohio U.S. House seat left vacant by retiring Republican Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, talking about using “a rifle to protect our country.” </b></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Here’s Georgia U.S. House candidate Michael Collins blowing up “Nancy Pelosi’s Plan for America” before hopping in a big rig, throwing a football, and firing another assault rifle for good measure. “I’m not afraid to say I was pro-Trump from Day One,” he adds.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><b>Here’s Blake Masters, who’s running for Senate in Arizona, with an intimate — and frankly, creepy — ad about his love for his Walther PPK and silencers.</b></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;">Masters, a venture capitalist and favorite of Trump-loving billionaire Peter Thiel, has featured guns prominently throughout his primary campaign. He responded to President Biden’s promise on Monday to crack down on “ghost guns,” which are homemade and untraceable, by tweeting a picture of a “ghost gun” he recently built himself. “Very legal & very cool,” he wrote.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">“Our founders built their own guns,” Masters added. “They intended us to as well — it’s the ultimate political act, a liberty the 2A protects. Technology will not stop. With 3D printing, this is going to get easier year after year. I’ll be a political check on ‘gun control,’ but the technological check is inevitable.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Masters isn’t the only Republican to cry that the Second Amendment is under assault while vowing to scale back gun reform policy —</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"> Florida U.S. House candidate Anthony Sabatini even responded to Biden’s address on Tuesday by calling for the abolition of the ATF</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">— and if the party takes back Congress in November they are likely to attempt to pass a slew of pro-gun legislation, from clearing the way for nationwide open carry to doing away with background checks. “<b>Far-right politicians in primaries are licking the boots of gun lobbyists,” Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts told Rolling Stone in an email on Tuesday. They’ll certainly continue to do so once in office.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">But there’s something more insidious behind the sudden rash of pro-gun ads than protecting the Second Amendment<b>. It’s a visual reminder that the party believes Jan. 6 was a good thing, that the attack on the Capitol was a valiant effort, and that Republicans deserve candidates who is willing to implicitly or explicitly condone the use of violence to reclaim a bygone version of the United States </b>they’ve seen slip through their fingers under Democratic leadership — to make America great again.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;">“It’s an extremist movement,” says Mike Madrid, a Republican strategist and co-founder of The Lincoln Project. “<b>The GOP base, at least a wide swath of it, has been radicalized.</b> There are very few things you can do to demonstrate you’re more extreme and intense on tribal issues than to insinuate, tacitly or overtly, violence, that you are willing to fight for the cause. That’s what it is. It’s not a Second Amendment issue. It’s saying, ‘<b>I’m this intense. I’m this extreme. I’m willing to go to these measures to fight for our tribe.’ That’s what it’s all about.”</b></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><b>As Idaho gubernatorial candidate Janice McGeachin put it in an ad released Monday in which she fires an assault rifle, “the Second Amendment wasn’t ratified into the Bill of Rights so we could bird hunt.”</b></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“The Second Amendment has always been a defensive posture,” Madrid continues. “It’s always been don’t take my guns. What we are moving into now is something foundationally different. It’s now advocating that gun ownership and <b>bearing arms is a virtue. It’s not a right. It’s almost an obligation. … There’s a desire to see a society that is centralized on this type of weaponry. There’s a lot of paranoia involved here, but it’s also demonstrative of a society that a lot of these members feel is out of their control. </b>They feel quote unquote America is gone. It’s behind them. It’s already been taken, and the<b> only way to defend themselves from whatever that boogeyman is, is to have a stockpile of gold bullion, canned goods, and a ton of weaponry</b>.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;">Madrid, like Filipkowski, acknowledges that the use of guns in political ads is “growing,” and that by 2024 Republicans are going to be blowing stuff up. “Brandishing weapons and leaning into gun culture is viewed as revolutionary, and by revolutionary I mean, in their minds, the most virtuous sense, as defenders of quote unquote America,” he says. “<b>There’s the 1776 rhetoric and there’s the patriot rhetoric, and there’s the American flag that’s always waved. It’s this absurd definition of what American is, and it’s getting more and more extreme in the Republican Party every election cycle.”</b></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;">The fact that it’s getting so extreme among Republicans, and Republicans alone, may lead some to believe that the tenor of the ads could calm down a little ahead of the general election, when candidates typically pivot to a more moderate message in an effort to court a wider swath of voters. </p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><b>In last year’s gubernatorial election in Virginia, Glenn Youngkin hammered guns, abortion, and his love of Trump during the Republican primary, but eased up on guns and abortion and distanced himself from Trump ahead of the general election, which he went on to win convincingly over Democrat Terry McAullife.</b></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;">But this new fixation on guns is not coming from savvy billionaires like Youngkin. It’s coming from the hardcore MAGA set, and not only is it likely to stick around beyond the primaries, it’s likely hardwired into the DNA of a party now driven by extremism, conspiracy, and a belief that violence is a legitimate tool to achieve desired political outcomes.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;">“It’s not going to change,” Madrid says. “This is not this is not a primary tactic. This is mainstream Republicanism. So once you start to move off of that, you will start to lose the intensity of the support and turnout you need from the shrinking Republican base. R<b>adicalization is the goal. This is about saying I’m willing to go to arms to overthrow what’s here or what’s coming. I’m willing to be violent in that cause. It’s not a small fringe group. These people are winning Republican primaries.</b>”</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;" /><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;">In This Article: guns, Lauren Boebert, marjorie taylor greene</p></div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">=</span></p></span></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">claremont fellow incub</font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Anthony Sabatini serves as a member of the Florida House of Representatives, representing District 32 in central Florida<b>. He has had five of his legislative bills signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis.</b> He has filed and sponsored legislation on a variety of issues, such as legislation to crack down on Big-Tech censorship, mandate the use of E-Verify, make Florida a Second-Amendment Sanctuary, tighten election laws, eliminate corporate welfare, prohibit mandatory vaccines during COVID-19, and to prohibit transgender surgeries on children. As an attorney, Sabatini fought the emergency orders of Florida’s local governments through numerous legal battles during COVID-19. </span><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"> He also serves as a captain in the Florida Army National Guard. He received his B.A. and J.D. from the University of Florida.</span></font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As for Republicans, much of their rhetoric shifted from a simple defense of Rittenhouse’s actions to full-throated commendation. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky stated that Rittenhouse showed “incredible restraint and presence and situational awareness” because he “didn’t empty a magazine” on the protesters. Florida State Rep. Anthony Sabatini wrote “KYLE RITTENHOUSE FOR CONGRESS” in a tweet that had some demanding his resignation.</font></span></div></div>