A 'Stop the Steal' leader called for the execution of Trump's enemies weeks before Capitol coup
It still floors me that the federal government and law enforcement authorities weren’t ready for the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.
I mean, anyone hanging out at Parler for five minutes could have told you that some real, potentially fatal trouble was brewing.
They weren’t exactly hiding their intentions. They might as well have sent out Evites saying, “Mr. and Mrs. Donald Trump cordially invite you to the extrajudicial hanging of Mike Pence at 1 p.m. Jan. 6 in the Capitol rotunda. BYOB.”
But being a bloodthirsty white male seditionist means never having to say you’re sorry, apparently, so guys like this fly under the radar.
Weeks before the murderous mob of insurrectionists stormed the United States Capitol on January 6 to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s victory, a leader of the so-called Stop the Steal movement stood before a crowd of angry Donald Trump loyalists in California and called for the “execution” of those who had supposedly plotted against Trump. Afterward, he posted video of his demand for blood on YouTube.
Needless to say, if a Black man had agitated a crowd like this, nine Trumpy Nazgul would have wailed like banshees over hill and dale and started snatching insurgents left and right like salted caramel hobbits.
One hundred or so Trump devotees, some waving Trump and “Fuck Biden” flags, assembled at the town’s picturesque pier. The man leading that protest was Alan Hostetter, a police-chief-turned-yoga-instructor who last year became a prominent opponent of COVID shutdowns in the Golden State.
Yoga instructor?
“Namaste and fuckin’ A!”
Hostetter had a very specific idea of justice: “The enemies and traitors of America, both foreign and domestic, must be held accountable. And they will. There must be long prison terms, while execution is the just punishment for the ringleaders of this coup.” A woman at the front of the crowd yelled, “Gitmo!” Standing next to Hostetter, throughout this violent rant, was former GOP congressman Dana Rohrabacher, who long represented the area before losing his seat in 2018.
I don’t know what was the bigger red flag — the calls for executing political foes and sending them to Gitmo, or the fact that Dana Rohrabacher was there. That dude should be assigned a Secret Service detail in order to protect us. If a tumbleweed went in one of his ears and then 30 minutes later came whistling out the other — well, sure, I’d be surprised, but I wouldn’t exactly be shocked.
Weeks after urging the killing of Trump’s rivals, Hostetter was part of the Trump Resistance infrastructure that organized events in Washington leading up to the march that would turn into an insurrectionist raid on the Capitol. The American Phoenix Project joined forces with Virginia Women for Trump to hold a pre-march rally on January 5, obtaining the permit for the event and helping to finance it. (A video of the entire proceedings appeared later on Hostetter’s Instagram page.)
How was this not-at-all-concealed coup plot allowed to proceed all the way up to Insurrection Day? It was all out in the open. Like, waaaaaay out in the open.
Why didn’t Hostetter get a knock on his door well in advance of the attempted kidnapping of the speaker of the House?
Someone sure as hell dropped the ball.
Needless to say, we can’t exactly have “unity” until this is all sorted out.
This guy is a natural. Sometimes I laugh so hard I cry.” — Bette Midler on author Aldous J. Pennyfarthing, via Twitter. Trump is gone, but the righteous mocking goes on forever. Thanks to Goodbye, Asshat: 101 Farewell Letters to Donald Trump, Dear Fcking Lunatic: 101 Obscenely Rude Letters to Donald Trump, Dear Prsident A**clown and Dear F*cking Moron, you can purge the Trump years from your soul sans the existential dread. Only laughs from here on out. Click those links!
