Leaders of the far-right “Patriot” faction in Washington state are angrily lining up in defense of their leading voice in the Legislature, Rep. Matt Shea of Spokane Valley, who was denounced and disowned by Republican leadership in the wake of the recent report from an independent investigation that found he had participated in acts of “domestic terrorism.”
On Sunday, 3% of Washington—a “Patriot”/militia movement group based in rural Eatonville—held a rally downtown at Seattle City Hall titled “United Against Hate,” ostensibly organized to protest the antifascist factions that in fact showed up to oppose them with a counterprotest. (“An exercise on tolerance in Seattle! Seattle is known as the most politically intolerant city in our country, let's prove them wrong!” read the Facebook announcement.)
But the chief message of the day was really about standing up in defense of Shea. Joey Gibson, leader of the far-right street-brawling group Patriot Prayer, was the most outspoken of the day’s speakers about Shea. When Gibson asked the audience their opinion of GOP leadership’s handling of the matter, someone shouted loudly: “Traitors!!!!”
“That’s right, it’s treason,” declared Gibson. “When they throw Matt Shea under the bus, they throw each and every single one of us under the bus. You have to take that personal, what they did to him.”
Several other speakers, including 3% of Washington leader Matt Marshall, voiced their support for Shea, as well as their anger with the mainstream Republicans who have scrambled to distance themselves from the controversial legislator with a propensity for endorsing violent far-right rhetoric.
Marshall has also been outspoken in defense of Shea on Facebook, suggesting that the investigation was “done by Dems via the FBI” (in reality, the investigation was paid for by both parties under the auspices of the Washington House). He insists the investigation represents a violation of Shea’s right to the presumption of innocence, and that it was produced by “the Evergreen State Deep State.”
A counterprotester is arrested by Seattle police on Sunday.
The rally attracted only about fifty participants in front of City Hall. Across the street, a gathering of over a hundred counterprotesters chanted slogans, while some got into conflicts with police. Afterward, Seattle Police Department reported it had arrested four counterprotesters.
Even though 3% of Washington is a chapter of a larger national movement based on “Patriot”/militia ideology, and many of its members participate in paramilitary and arms training, Marshall insisted to the audience that “a militia” is among the many things his group is not. “We aren’t right, we aren’t left,” Marshall told the gathering. “What we follow is this,” he said, holding up a copy of the U.S. Constitution.
Matt Marshall addresses the gathering at Seattle City Hall on Sunday.
Marshall, who recently won election to the Eatonville School Board, nonetheless eagerly participates in Facebook discussions about a supposed “Second Civil War,” or “Boogaloo” as its proponents have named it, including a recent post suggesting that a United Nations job posting might inspire such a violent armed response. He also has posted memes suggesting that liberal attempts at passing gun-control legislation are likely to trigger similar violence.
There were hints Sunday that efforts to remove Matt Shea from his legislative seat would inspire similar threats. Once again, Joey Gibson was leading that charge, claiming that the attempts to demonize Shea were actually directed at people like those gathered for the rally.
“Matt Shea, he does things and he says things because he believes in it,” Gibson said.
“You can’t corrupt him, you can’t pay him out, right? There’s none of that. Matt Shea’s a symbol, he’s a voice, and that’s why they’re doing everything that they can to destroy him.
Joey Gibson at Sunday’s rally.
“What they want, is they want you guys to be extremists. You guys who show up. So they don’t want Rep. Matt Shea or other representatives to stand with you guys. If something like what happened down in Oregon ever happens again, they’re trying to send a message to every single elected official—either stand with the feds, or we’re going to label you a domestic terrorist. That’s what it is.
“So we have to do everything we can to support Matt Shea. … I think it’s an opportunity to get people more involved in what we’re doing in Olympia. And we’ve got to call out the Republican establishment in Washington state! Do you agree with me?”
The rallygoers cheered: “Yeah!”
Their contempt for mainstream-establishment Republicans—particularly House Minority Leader J.T. Wilcox of Puyallup, who announced that Shea had been kicked out of the state caucus the day the report was released—was undisguised.
“In my opinion, Matt Shea is a hero!” Gibson declared. “Think about this—We elect these people to protect us, to protect the Constitution, and especially the Second Amendment. And Matt Shea—a guy who obviously isn’t about talk—he’s willing to take his boots and put them on the ground. All the way into Idaho, and to protect a veteran’s Second Amendment rights. How beautiful is that? Instead of throwing Matt Shea under the bus, Wilcox should have been standing shoulder to shoulder with Shea,” he added, to further cheers.
Gibson announced that he would be leading a rally in defense of Shea in Olympia on Jan. 17.
Marshall also told the audience about a petition to recall state Attorney General Robert Ferguson, devised with the help of Yelm “constitutionalist” Scott Bannister, who has been involved in the far-right anti-gun-control scene for years.
Bannister spouted constitutionalist theories to Sunday’s crowd: “They are tyrants, and we need to remove them all,” he said. “They don’t think that we can do this. They think we’re barking up a tree. They don’t know that [the Revised Code of Washington] is for them, not us. Common Law is for the people.”
The militiamen and other “Patriots” are not alone in announcing their defense of Matt Shea. The Republican Central Committee in both Grays Harbor and Kitsap counties this week posted resolutions defending Shea. The Kitsap resolution admonished Wilcox and other House leaders for stripping Shea of his party positions and demanding they be restored.
The Grays Harbor resolution was a striking exercise in paranoia, claiming that one of the report’s authors is “a far left socialist Democrat contributor and Marxist with political bias,” and similarly demanded the restoration of Shea’s GOP caucus positions.
