The late Maya Angelou was honored by the United States Mint Monday in a very special way.
Angelou became the first Black woman to have her image featured on a U.S. quarter.
“It is my honor to present our Nation’s first circulating coins dedicated to celebrating American women and their contributions to American history,” said Mint Deputy Director Ventris C. Gibson in a statement. “Each 2022 quarter is designed to reflect the breadth and depth of accomplishments being celebrated throughout this historic coin program. Maya Angelou, featured on the reverse of this first coin in the series, used words to inspire and uplift.”
Angelou is best known for her iconic 1969 autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Her many honors include the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of Arts, three Grammys, and a postage stamp in her name in 2015. Angelou passed away in 2014. She was 86.
In other news, Deadline reports that Whoopi Goldberg will star in a new TV series produced by CBS Studios in partnership with the NAACP. The View co-host will reprise her role from the 1991 Soapdish film in a new show of the same name on Paramount+. Also as part of the CBS Studios-NAACP partnership, comedians D.L Hughley and Earthquake are set for autobiographical shows; Hughley for Fox, and Earthquake for CBS.
Another series will tell the story of the Little Rock 9 who broke the color barrier at Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas in 1957. The nine Black students were barred from entering until President Eisenhower sent the National Guard to protect them.
Finally, Grammy, Emmy and Tony winner Cynthia Erivo will star in the sci-film film, Blink Speed. She is also featured with Tom Hanks in a remake of Pinocchio to be released later this year.
Students attending the University of Missouri’s School of Music will now be able to gather in Sheryl Crow Hall.
The university, which is Sheryl’s alma mater, has named a choral performance and rehearsal hall located inside the school’s Music Center after the Grammy winner, according to a Facebook post.
As the Columbia Missourian reports, Sheryl graduated from the University of Missouri in 1984 with a degree in music education, and later received an honorary doctorate from the school in 2011. The Hall was named in her honor because of her support for the building’s fundraising campaign, and the benefit concert she did for the cause in 2015.
Julia Gaines, the School of Music’s director, tells the publication that Sheryl Crow Hall will be used as a performance space, and also will host history lectures, and classes in conducting, chorus and more. It’s also the main space used by the public after performances and events, which is another reason they named the space after Sheryl.
The school had hoped to unveil the hall in September when Sheryl headlined the local Roots N Blues Festival, but COVID-19 policies prevented her from visiting.
Sheryl is one of many performers set to perform at Brandi Carlile‘s Girls Just Wanna Weekend destination festival in Mexico’s Riviera Maya early next month, and so far, the event appears to be proceeding as scheduled. On February 11, she’ll celebrate her 60th birthday.
Like many who grew up in the ’80s, Back to the Future was the film that made people very excited about the years ahead. For Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, he says the movie did way more than that — it’s the reason his band exists.
He appeared Tuesday on The Kelly Clarkson Showand said it was a life changing moment when he watched Michael J. Fox — who played Marty McFly in the franchise — jump on stage to perform a Chuck Berry song.
“That’s what made me want to be in a band, you know? That scene,” Chris revealed before poking fun at his seemingly old age. When gesturing to those in the audience, he noted a good handful of those watching are “probably too young to remember that bit.”
“I grew up in real farmland of England, before the internet,” the British singer explained, adding he would glom onto any movie or TV show that played a catchy tune. “The first thing I ever recorded was — there was a show called The A-Team — and I had a cassette recorder and held it against the TV to record the theme tune.”
The conversation was initially sparked by him and Kelly bonding over their love of covering other artists’ songs. He then revealed one of his favorite memories is playing a cover — because of who joined him on stage.
“Michael J. Fox came [on stage] and played two songs from Back to the Future with us in MetLife Stadium,” he grinned of the 2016 memory. “Him coming to play ‘Johnny B. Goode’ and stuff was wonderful.”
(ATLANTA) — With less than 10 months until the 2022 midterm elections, President Joe Biden headed to Georgia on Tuesday to make his biggest push yet for national voting rights bills and called for changes to the Senate filibuster rule in order to get them passed.
“We have no option but to change the Senate rules including getting rid of the filibuster for this,” Biden said.
Recalling the “violent mob” that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, Biden characterized the attack, for the first time publicly, as an “attempted coup.”
“That’s why we’re here today to stand against the forces in America that value power over principle, forces that attempted a coup — a coup against the legally expressed will of the American people by sowing doubt and vending charges of fraud, seeking to steal the 2020 election from the people,” he said.
“Hear me plainly,” Biden told the group gathered in Atlanta. “The battle for the soul of America is not over.”
“We must make sure Jan. 6 marks not the end of democracy but the renaissance for our democracy,” he continued.
The president called out congressional Republicans, he said, for turning the will of the voters into a “mere suggestion” in the case of the 2020 presidential election.
Biden spoke Tuesday alongside Vice President Kamala Harris from the grounds of Clark Atlanta University and Morehouse College.
“We will fight to secure our most fundamental freedom — the freedom to vote,” Harris said, opening for the president. “And that is why we have come to Atlanta today — to the cradle of the Civil Rights movement, to the district that was represented by the great Congressman John Lewis, on the eve of the birthday of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”
Harris blasted Senate Republicans over what she characterized as exploiting “acane” Senate rules — in an apparent nod to the filibuster — to block Democrats’ election reform bills.
“We will fight to safeguard our democracy,” she added.
To that end, Biden announced he supported changing the Senate rules surrounding the filibuster in “whichever way they need to be changed to prevent a minority of senators from blocking action on voting rights.”
Echoing his impassioned address on the anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection when he blamed former President Donald Trump and his supporters for holding a “dagger at the throat of democracy,” Biden’s remarks in Atlanta were expected to be a “forceful” call to action to protect voting rights.
“The president will forcefully advocate for protecting the most bedrock American rights: the right to vote and have your voice counted in a free, fair and secure election that is not tainted … by partisan manipulation,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki previewed in her press briefing Tuesday.
“He’ll make clear in the former district of the late Congressman John Lewis, that the only way to do that are (sic) for the Senate to pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.”
In excerpts of the speech released Tuesday morning, the White House said Biden would pressure the Senate to act.
“The next few days, when these bills come to a vote, will mark a turning point in this nation. Will we choose democracy over autocracy, light over shadow, justice over injustice?” he was expected to say. “I know where I stand. I will not yield. I will not flinch. I will defend your right to vote and our democracy against all enemies foreign and domestic. And so the question is where will the institution of United States Senate stand?”
As he left the White House Tuesday morning, Biden told reporters asking about the political risk he’s taking given the Senate uncertainty, “I risk not saying what I believe. That’s what I risk. This is one of those defining moments. It really is. People are gonna be judged – where were they before and where were they after the vote. History is going to judge us, it’s that consequential. And so the risk is making sure people understand just how important this is just so important.”
Georgia is one of 19 states that have passed new restrictive voting laws since the 2020 election. There have been 34 such new laws in total across the country, according to the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice, and most of them in states controlled by Republicans.
Many of the new laws, fueled by false claims of widespread election fraud by the former president, take aim at mail-in voting, implement stricter voter ID requirements, allow fewer early voting days and limit ballot drop boxes.
The Brennan Center calculates that 13 more restrictive laws are in the works, including one in Georgia that would ban the use of ballot boxes altogether.
But Tuesday’s trip has been met with criticism from some voting groups that warned in a statement to the Atlanta Constitution-Journal that “anything less” than a finalized plan to pass voting rights in the House and Senate is insufficient and unwelcome.”
On Monday afternoon, The Asian American Advocacy Fund, Atlanta North Georgia Labor Council, Black Voters Matter Fund, GALEO Impact Fund and New Georgia Project Action Fund all said they won’t be attending the event and asked Biden and Harris to stay in Washington.
“We don’t need another speech,” said Cliff Albright, executive director of the Black Voters Matter Fund. “What we need is action – what we need is a plan.”
Notably, also not attending Biden’s speech is Stacey Abrams, the Georgia voting rights activist.
Biden said he spoke with her Tuesday morning and blamed it on a scheduling issue.
“I spoke with Stacey this morning. We have a great relationship. We got our scheduling mixed up. I talked to her at length this morning. We’re all on the same page and everything is fine.”
Biden’s speech will be the third he has delivered focused on the issue of voting rights. It comes after the president signaled in an interview with ABC “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir that he would be open to making a one-time Senate rule change to the filibuster that would allow a simple majority to pass new voting laws.
Psaki said the president would also directly address the issue of the filibuster.
“The president has spoken to this issue a number of times, as I’ve said before, including as recently as December where he said that, ‘if that is how we get this done, I’m open to that,'” Psaki said.
The president’s message, according to Psaki, will include a call to “ensure January 6 doesn’t mark the end of democracy, but the beginning of a renaissance for our democracy, where we stand up for the right to vote and have that vote counted fairly, not undermined by partisans.”
In her briefing, Psaki pushed back on criticism of the president, stressing that the speech Tuesday is focused on moving forward.
“We understand the frustration by many advocates that this is not passed into law yet. He would love to have signed this into law himself. But tomorrow’s an opportunity to speak about what the path forward looks like to advocate for – for this moving forward in the Senate.”
While Biden has signaled his openness to passing voting rights with a carveout to the filibuster, he would still need the support of all 50 Democratic senators to do so — which could prove challenging with holdout Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.
“Look, I think that everyone is going to have to take a hard look at where they want to be at this moment in history as we’re looking at efforts across the country to to prevent people from being able to exercise their fundamental rights,” Psaki said when asked about Sinema’s opposition.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has promised a vote on voting rights legislation soon and warned that if Republicans filibuster the effort, he will force another vote by Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
The White House has insisted Biden will “work in lockstep” with Schumer to move a vote forward but are taking it “day by day.”
Republicans, meanwhile, oppose the proposed federal voting laws as what they deem a government overreach. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has said Democrats are promoting a “fake narrative,” “fake outrage” and “fake hysteria” on voting rights “ginned up by partisans.”
Harris was tasked in June by the president to lead the administration’s efforts on voting rights reforms. Psaki said the vice president has worked to “help build a groundswell of support” and has been meeting with a number of advocates on the issue.
ABC News’ Meg Cunningham contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A 57-year-old man who underwent a first-of-its-kind heart transplant involving a genetically-modified pig heart is in a “much happier place” after the transplant, according to his son.
David Bennett Sr., of Maryland, suffered from terminal heart disease and was deemed ineligible for a conventional heart transplant because of his severe condition, according to University of Maryland Medicine, where Bennett underwent the transplant.
On New Year’s Eve, University of Maryland Medicine doctors were granted emergency authorization by the Food and Drug Administration to try the pig heart transplantation with Bennett, who had been hospitalized and bedridden for several months.
Bennett said he saw the risky surgery as his last option.
“It was either die or do this transplant. I want to live. I know it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s my last choice,” he said the day before the surgery, according to University of Maryland Medicine. “I look forward to getting out of bed after I recover.”
Bennett was so sick before the transplant that he was on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine — which pumps and oxygenates a patient’s blood outside the body — and had also been deemed ineligible for an artificial heart pump, according to University of Maryland Medicine.
“His level of illness probably exceeded our standards for what would be safe for human heart transplantation,” said Dr. Bartley P. Griffith, a professor in transplant surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
It was Griffith who surgically transplanted the pig heart into Bennett. He and a team of researchers have spent the past five years studying and perfecting the transplantation of pig hearts, according to University of Maryland Medicine.
Pig hearts are similar in size to human hearts and have an anatomy that is similar, but not identical.
So far, Bennett’s body has not rejected the pig heart, which experts said is the biggest concern after a transplant.
Xenotransplantation, transplanting animal cells, tissues or organs into a human, carries the risk of triggering a dangerous immune response, which can cause a “potentially deadly outcome to the patient,” according to University of Maryland Medicine.
“It is a game-changer,” Dr. Muhammad Mohiuddin, professor of surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, who oversaw the transplant procedure with Griffith, said. “We have modified 10 genes in this in this pig heart. Four genes were knocked out, three of them responsible for producing antibodies that causes rejection.”
Mohiuddin and Griffith said they are now closely monitoring Bennett to make sure his body continues to accept the new heart.
“He’s awake. He is recovering and speaking to his caregivers,” said Griffith. “And we hope that the recovery that he is having now will continue.”
Speaking of the possibility of rejection, Griffith added, “The pig heart will be attacked by different soldiers in our body, different immune players can take it out and we have designed a treatment plan, in addition to the humanized, genetically-edited heart, to try to account for that.”
Bennett’s son, David Bennett, Jr., told “Good Morning America” the transplant provided his father a “level of hope.”
“Hope that he could go home and hope that he could have the quality of life that he’s so much desired,” Bennett, Jr said. “He’s in a much better place and a much happier place right now following this transplant procedure. He is happy with where he is at. Happy with the potential to get out of the hospital.”
While the type of transplant Bennett received is groundbreaking, experts said it does not minimize the ongoing need for human organ donations.
Around 110,000 people in the United States are on the organ transplant waiting list, and more than 6,000 patients die each year before getting a transplant, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
“Whether it’s 3-D printing or growing organs in a lab setting or donations, we desperately need more organs,” said ABC News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton, a board-certified OBGYN.
(CHICAGO) — More than 350,000 public school students in Chicago are expected to resume in-person learning on Wednesday after a tentative agreement was reached between the school district and the Chicago Teachers Union to bolster classroom safety amid a wave of COVID-19 infections.
A deal was struck Monday night to end nearly a week of in-classroom cancellations and remote learning. Tuesday marked the fifth day students have been out of classrooms after a long holiday break.
The more than 25,000 teachers and staff in the nation’s third-largest school district are to return to their schools on Tuesday to prepare for reopening classrooms.
Negotiations between the CTU and the district focused on demands to expand student testing for the virus and to create a set of metrics designed to trigger closing schools and returning remote learning if coronavirus infections continue to soar. The talks grew contentious at times as union leaders accused Mayor Lori Lightfoot of “bullying” teachers back to the classrooms and school district officials accused the union of staging an “illegal walkout.”
Both sides filed complaints to a state labor board.
“Some will ask who won and who lost,” Lightfoot said Monday night. “No one wins when our students are out of the place where they can learn the best and where they’re safest. After being out of school for four days in a row, I’m sure many students will be excited to get back in the classroom with their teachers and peers. And their parents and guardians can now breathe a much deserved sigh of relief.”
Pedro Martinez, CEO of Chicago Public Schools, said the district is committed to the safety of its students, teachers and staff, and said the negotiations forged “some really good things.”
CTU President Jesse Sharkey said Monday that the union fought to improve classroom safety for both students and teachers.
“I’m ultimately proud the Chicago Teachers Union took a stand,” Sharkey said at a news conference. “We’re going to keep doing what’s right as we navigate this. It’s not a perfect agreement but we’ll hold our heads up high, as it was hard to get.”
The agreement also includes new incentives to boost the number of substitute teachers in the district and establishes metrics that will prompt a return to remote learning, but for individual schools, not the districtwide protocols for which CTU had asked.
The district also offered to spend about $100 million to implement a safety plan that includes air purifiers for all classrooms. The district said it will provide KN95 masks for all teachers and students.
The union’s governing body, composed of 700 members, voted by nearly a 2-to-1 margin — 63% to 27% — to end remote teaching. Rank-and-file members have until later this week to vote on whether to ratify the agreement.
Like Chicago, school districts nationwide are reeling from a surge in COVID-19 cases sparked by the highly contagious omicron variant.
The Los Angeles Unified School District is planning to reopen schools for in-person learning on Tuesday, although some schools in the nation’s second-largest school district have opted to delay reopening due to an increase in reported COVID-19 cases.
LAUSD officials are requiring all students and staff to get tested for COVID-19 before the first day of classes. The district announced on Monday that at least 65,630 of those tests have come back positive.
The Philadelphia School District announced on Friday that 46 schools would switch to virtual learning as the omicron variant and a winter storm took a toll on staffing.
Paramount Pictures has dropped the final trailer to its upcoming fifth Scream film. As previously reported, the new film has Neve Campbell‘s Sidney Prescott, David Arquette‘s Dewey Riley, and Courteney Cox‘s Gale Weathers again facing somebody donning the mask of the Ghostface killer.
The series survivors are joined on the fifth film by some new blood, including The Boys‘ Jack Quaid, 13 Reasons Why‘s Dylan Minnette, Mikey Madison from Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood, Yes Day‘s Jenna Ortega, Yellowjackets co-star Jasmin Savoy Brown, and In the Heights‘ Melissa Barrera.
“There’s certain rules for surviving,” Arquette’s character tells the new characters. “Believe me, I know.”
He explains, “They always come back: The killer is a part of something in the past.”
The final coming attraction is peppered with glowing blurbs from outlets that have gotten a sneak peek of the film.
“I’ve seen this movie before,” Sidney tells the killer over the phone, gun in hand. “Not this movie,” he hisses.
Later on, Cox urges, “You said we were gonna finish this! Go finish it, Sidney!”
The snippet ends with a callback. “I’ll be right back,” Quaid says, laughing as he catches himself uttering a phrase Scream taught fans is usually the last thing most victims in horror movies say.
(KAZAKHSTAN) — Russian-led troops sent to help quell protests will begin leaving Kazakhstan in two days now that the government is back in control, the country’s president has said.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in an address to Kazakhstan’s parliament Tuesday said the troops, deployed by the Moscow-dominated military alliance, the Collective Security Treaty Organisation at his request last week, would start a phased withdrawal that would finish in no more than 10 days.
“The main mission of the CSTO peacekeeping forces has been successfully completed,” Tokayev told lawmakers. He said that the situation was now stable in all regions of Kazakhstan.
The Russian-led alliance sent troops late last week to Kazakhstan as violent protests saw Tokayev’s authoritarian government lose control over its biggest city, Almaty. Russia sent the largest contingent, deploying paratroopers units with armored vehicles, backed by several hundred soldiers from the other former Soviet countries in the alliance: Belarus, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Tokayev has said the force numbers around 2,300 troops.
In recent days, Tokayev’s security forces have forcibly regained control in Kazakhstan, using live fire to end the uprising in Almaty and arresting nearly 10,000 people. The unrest saw at least 164 people killed and over 2,000 injured, according to authorities.
The Russian-led troops have not been used in combat or in direct clashes with protesters, according to the authorities, who say instead they were used to guard key facilities, including Almaty’s airport which was overrun by protesters. Tokayev has said the arrival of the foreign forces freed up his security forces in the capital Nur-Sultan to help quash the unrest in other regions.
The Russian intervention had worried Western countries that have expressed fear the Kremlin’s forces might remain indefinitely and that Kazakhstan could find its independence eroded.
The U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken this weekend told reporters, “I think one lesson in recent history is that once Russians are in your house, it’s sometimes very difficult to get them to leave.”
Russia’s president Vladimir Putin a day earlier has insisted his troops would “without question” leave as soon as their mission was complete.
Life was slowly returning to some normalcy in Almaty on Tuesday, although the city remained under heavy guard by security forces. Troops are posted at key buildings and checkpoints, stopping people and examining their phones for signs they may have taken part in the protests, according to an ABC reporter on the ground.
Tokayev on Tuesday announced his picks for a new government, including a new prime minister. The lower house of parliament quickly approved Tokayev’s acting prime minister, Alikhan Smailov, to the the post. In a special session of parliament, Tokayev also promised to launch broad reforms to overhaul Kazakhstan’s government and tackle economic problems in the country — addressing concerns that led to the protests. The unrest was triggered by a sudden hike in fuel prices, and came amid wide discontent with rising prices on basic goods and stagnant wages that have worsened with the pandemic.
Tokayev said his government would announce a new packet of measures within two months aimed at tackling inflation and raising incomes.
He also declared he would radically improve Kazakhstan’s security forces to prevent a repeat of last week’s unrest, promising to increase the number of special forces units in the police and create new ones in the national guard. He also promised to announce in September a packet of political reforms, saying Kazakhstan would “continue a course of political modernisation.”
(WASHINGTON) — Senators from both sides of the aisle grilled top health officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, on the latest COVID-19 guidance during a Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee hearing Tuesday.
Democrats and Republicans both demanded better communication on rules for testing, isolation and quarantine.
“I’m not questioning the science… but I’m questioning your communication strategies. It’s no wonder that the American people are confused,” Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, who is also the ranking HELP Republican, said.
Committee chair Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said: “I have heard from so many people who find the latest CDC isolation and quarantine guidance confusing and hard to interpret.”
Murray pressed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Rochelle Walensky to provide not just “background” but a “straightforward” answer.
“If they are exposed to COVID-19 and they are completely boosted, they should — they do not need to stay home, but they should get a test at day five,” Walensky responded.
“If they have COVID, our guidance does not distinguish between your vaccination status. And our science has demonstrated that you’re maximally infectious two days before and two-to-three days after,” Walensky continued.
“By five days after your symptoms, if you’re feeling better, if your fever is better, if your cough and sore throat are better, then on day six you can go out,” Walensky said. “But you have to wear a mask — you have to wear a mask reliably and you should not go to places you can’t wear a mask. You probably shouldn’t go and visit grandma, you shouldn’t get on an airplane.”
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah asked for clarity on the latest definition of exposure.
“When you say what people have been exposed, please let us know what it means to be exposed. We’re in a room right now — I’m sure someone here has omicron. Are we all exposed? And therefore, need to get tested? What does it mean to be exposed? And when do we need to get tested?” Romney asked.
Fauci reiterated that the CDC guideline for exposure is if you are in close contact with someone with COVID-19 for “a period of 15 minutes at a time, or a total of 15 minutes over a 24-hour period.”
CDC guidance is to test on day five if you are exposed.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., brought up the scarce availability of N95 masks.
“Americans still can’t go to a local pharmacy and purchase an American-made N95,” Baldwin said. “So President [Joe] Biden has now personally urged Americans to upgrade the quality of the masks they wear — I want to know when the American people will be able to buy an American-made N95 mask?”
Dawn O’Connell, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services, told the committee that the Biden administration plans to sign a contract with a supplier by next month to get 140 million N95 masks per month.
Some 737 million N95 masks are in the national stockpile that could be provided to hospitals that need them, and those masks come from a dozen domestic suppliers, she said.
O’Connell said the plan is to reach an agreement with a company to create “warm-based manufacturing,” meaning the factory would be able to expand in times of high demand.
“We are very invested in N95 masks being made available. And we’ll continue to look — and I appreciate your support in getting us the American rescue plan dollars that we’re currently investing — and we’ll continue to look at the right ways to invest,” she said.
This hearing also featured another contentious exchange between Fauci and Republican Sen. Rand Paul.
Paul asked Fauci about his email correspondence and accused Fauci of trying to “attack scientists who disagree with you.”
Fauci responded, “you keep distorting the truth.”
“I brought together a group of people to look at every possibility with an open mind … you’re completely turning it around,” Fauci said.
Fauci said the purpose of the committee is to help the American public, but he said Paul instead chooses to “keep coming back to personal attacks on me that have absolutely no relevance.”
Fauci said Paul’s attacks are “for political reasons” and inspire “the crazies out there.”
Dr. Fauci, in another contentious exchange with Sen. Rand Paul, says Paul’s attacks against him “kindles the crazies out there, and I have threats upon my life, harassment of my family and my children.”
Fauci referenced the December arrest of a California man who, at a traffic stop, was allegedly found with an AR-15 style rifle, loaded magazines, boxes of ammunition and body armor. Prosecutors said the driver downloaded TikTok videos, compiling a list of people he allegedly wanted to kill, including Fauci and former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
Fauci and Paul have butted heads repeatedly. At a hearing in July 2021, Paul and Fauci got in a shouting match over COVID-19’s origins.
ABC News’ Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — When U.S. Army veteran Brian Snow drove 12 hours from his home in Indiana to Washington for then-President Donald Trump’s rally on the Ellipse Jan. 6 — amid chants of “stop the steal” — he came prepared for a fight. Clad in body armor, the father or four feared he could be attacked just for attending the event.
Still, he said, he felt called to be there.
“The president asked for people to come himself. So, you know, that’s what we do,” Snow said on that day a year ago, standing just outside the White House grounds.
But as that protest escalated into an insurrection, it was Trump’s supporters who turned to violence, brutally overtaking security forces to breach the U.S. Capitol and temporarily derailing the certification of the 2020 election.
Among those rioters were dozens of former members of the armed forces, as well as a handful of current service members sworn to protect the country and the Constitution. Roughly 70 of the 800 people who faced criminal charges in the wake of the attack had a military background.
While Snow calls violence against police officers “appalling” and did not storm the Capitol himself, he says he understands the motivation driving the military men and women who did. Because despite the more than 60 unsuccessful lawsuits filed by the former president and his allies, thorough reviews across six critical swing states, and zero documented evidence of widespread voter fraud, he still insists the election was “tainted.”
“If you feel like liberty is being trampled on, then you have a responsibility,” Snow said.
To the Pentagon, the elevated number of military-trained rioters motivated by these false claims is not coincidental, but a sign of extremism in the ranks–an enduring, nocuous problem thrown under a new spotlight by the events of Jan. 6th and one in urgent need of attention.
In the weeks following the attack, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered an unprecedented stand down across the armed services to address extremism. And in the final weeks of 2021, the Pentagon issued a new definition of prohibited extremist activities intended to identify radicalized service members and updated guidelines on social media, warning that “liking” or reposting extremist content could result in disciplinary action.
“The new definition preserves a service members right of expression to the extent possible, while also balancing the need for good order and discipline to affect military combat and unit readiness,” said John Kirby, the Pentagon’s top spokesman.
Additionally, military recruiters are now required to ask candidates about any connections they may have to extremist groups, and service members transitioning to civilian life are warned that they might be approached by these organizations.
While the impact of these measures remain to be see, many — like David Smith, a former Navy medic who served in Afghanistan — fear that without further action, the issue will only intensify.
“I think when we talk about extremism, we should actually like focus in on what the actual extremism is, which is white nationalism,” Smith said. “The military doesn’t want to have to actively address it.”
Smith happened to be passing out hand-warmers to homeless people near the Capitol on Jan. 6, and witnessed some of the rioters’ brutality firsthand.
“It was gut-wrenching,” Smith said, noting especially his fellow veterans among the mob. “To see them storming the building and to do so as if they had the authority to do so — it goes against everything and we swore an oath to protect.”
Smith is the founder of Continue to Serve, a grassroots organization dedicated to engaging former members of the military in lawful activism and community service centered on social justice issues. But he says many veterans are still vulnerable to being swayed by extremists.
“When we talk about veterans and their willingness to serve, they have an undying patriotism. And when politicians can manipulate that, that’s going to give them a lot of power,” Smith said.
Inaction, he predicts, will invite history to repeat itself.
“We’ve got to ensure that we’re creating mechanisms so that when people are getting out of the military, they actually have a place to go,” he said. “And they’re not falling into these groups where they are being indoctrinated and they’re being radicalized and they’re, they’re doing what they did on January 6th.”
