Aymann Ismail: The last time we spoke, you told me that if Trump didn’t get impeached and removed from office, we were doomed to see the Capitol riot repeated. Do you still believe that?
Colin Clarke: I don’t know if I’d say now that we could repeat that same exact incident, but I certainly think that that president retains a hardcore group of supporters and loyalists, and they may become further emboldened if he runs in 2024. One of the major things that has changed my mind is the vigor with which federal law enforcement has pursued, identified, arrested, and prosecuted people involved in the Capitol insurrection. There’s a real sense of accountability finally. A lot of the people that took part in that event realized that the double standard seems to be wearing down. White people can’t just commit acts of terrorism and have it called mental illness. They’re being prosecuted now for crimes that they committed the same way that anyone else would be. That’s a rude awakening for a lot of these people.
Are you still monitoring extremist message boards? Can you share some of the chatter you’ve seen since the crackdown on rioters began?
I’m still on there probably more than I’d like to be. It’s still a lot of the same stuff. Stop the Steal. Not a whole lot has changed in that regard. It depends where you are—we tend to look at the more hardcore white supremacist channels and, yeah, they’re still super racist. Some of the QAnon channels that we used to monitor have migrated elsewhere. What we see is almost a grab bag of motivators, but now we’re seeing that blended with anti-vaccination stuff. A lot of it has turned into attacking Biden, spreading conspiracies that he’s a tool for Chinese communists.
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