MSNBC guest Paul Rieckhoff, director of the nonprofit Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, made a startling claim on MSNBC Tuesday night.
During a panel discussion with host Nicole Wallace, Rieckhoff alluded to the need for a new iteration of the Patriot Act to monitor potential right-wing threats.
Rieckhoff's argument for a 9/11-style response to so-called right-wing extremism received widespread ridicule online, as Fox News notes:
“We're in a battle for hearts and minds, and there are people who are on the fence, we've got to have leaders and messages and messengers and programs that get to those people, that bring them over to community organizing, into non-profit organizations and away from the Patriot Front and the Oath Keepers,” Army veteran and author Paul Rieckhoff told Nicolle Wallace on MSNBC on Tuesday night.
“After 9/11, we created the Department of Homeland Security,” Rieckhoff said. “There was the Patriot Act. There was massive change in our entire society to face the number one threat, at least what was communicated as the number one threat.”
“I think we need the same kind of tectonic shift,” he said about how to deal with right wing extremists. “It's got to be much more than ‘see something,' but maybe our laws need to change to respond to the fact that someone like Mike Flynn, the former national security director, is openly calling for violence consistently.”
Rieckhoff's call for a bigger government response to conservative groups drew criticism from people who accused MSNBC of promoting a government crackdown on opinions that are not shared by liberal Democrats.
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“We’re in a battle for hearts and minds, and there are people who are on the fence…”
The left is indeed in a battle. They have weaponized the Court of Popular Opinion into a mob of mindless Vatniki. This must be stopped.
as an x-soldier and disabled vet . I am totality disgusted with this paper soldier ,he’s a traitor in my opinion and he sure as hell does not represent “any combat soldier I ever knew ” what a arrogant bastard !!!
sorry Phoeff I don’t have any twitter account and I really wanted to respond to this JERK
As a vet myself I totally agree.
It amazes me that these fools say we need to go after people who dont commit crimes but are gung ho for America. They say nothing about the antifa and BLM who rioted, destroyed property assaulted people. When they start making an effort to make those people get arrested for their crimes and tag them as the criminals they are I might give them some respect. Until then they are just whiney, mentally challenged snow flakes.
In spite of claims that the First Amendment allows disruptive demonstrations and protests, the only thing allowed is peaceable assembly and petitioning the government for redress of grievances. Anything more disruptive is pure BS.
god created his globalists anad all his globalist puppets and all his CRIMINAL organizations to make hell on earth for all good people and make heaven on earth for all his globalists and all his globalist puppets and all his CRIMINAL organizations, you know you altar boy raping demonrat priests are included .
Just another stupid is as stupid does clown.
Guess he must not have watched all those videos of the left wing criminals from blm, antifa and the rest of those “protesters” burning public as well as private property in our cities. As a disabled vet that served 26 years, I disagree with what he is saying, and I would have to wonder just what his troops thought of him if he was this way while on active duty.
Maybe would have given him the Douglas C. Neidermeyer treatment?
If you get the book: Barack Obama’s True Legacy, you will know where this guy is coming from. He’s an ardent Anti-American (that’s the reason he’s on MSLSD) and most likely a Marxist. He’s part of Obama’s army to destroy the United States. I got my book at former communist, David Horowitz’ site, frontpagemagazine.
Timeline error: The Patriot Act came first, October 26, 2001; THEN the DHS – Department of Homeland Security – more than a year later, on November 25, 2002. The Patriot Act was supposed to be temporary, with renewal required periodically.
The main threats in this country are from left wing extremists, not the right wing. The left is constantly calling conservatives far right wing extremists. We only appear to be extreme to them because of how extreme they are.