We reported over the weekend about the Patriot Front-like guys who showed up at a rally that involved the Proud Boys in a suburb of Portland. A bit of a brawl then ensued after the Proud Boys told the masked characters to get away from their group. They started pushing them away, calling them “racists.” They didn’t want to be smeared by being associated with the group. Then the rallygoers preceded to unmask a few of them.
Someone from the area familiar tweeted that the masked group was a local Rose City nationalist group. But that didn’t stop people from questioning/speculating about the masked group being astroturfed, with some thinking they were “feds” and others thinking they were Leftists. The video went viral with over ten million views, with some then trying to identify the people who had been unmasked.
It got even more attention after a former member of Congress, now “senior political commentator” for CNN, Adam Kinzinger, made a comment that got even more speculation going.
“These people (all blue checks) are celebrating a seemingly MAGA assault on federal officers,” Kinzinger said. “Now I don’t know what this really is, but take a gander at the comments of the ‘patriots’ who ‘love’ America.”
That went viral too with many people wondering if Kinzigner had just identified the Patriot Front as “federal officers” and/or the former Jan. 6 Committee member was acknowledging federal officers embed themselves in groups. He ended up feeding the perception that they were “feds” with his comment.
People also questioned why he seemed more concerned about people liking unmasking of the alleged white nationalists than about the white nationalists themselves.
Now the FBI has weighed in on the question, with an official statement, denying that they were involved in the group. They posted a statement from Special Agent in Charge Kieran L. Ramsey regarding this weekend’s events in Oregon City on their FBI Portland Twitter account.
“We are appalled by recent allegations that the FBI had personnel posing as protesters in Oregon City, OR this weekend. Any such claims are absolutely false.”
Given all that has taken place with the FBI and alleged bias over the past few years, the FBI making a statement is not received as it might once have been. So most of the responses from both sides of the aisle doubted what the FBI said.
Intriguingly, the FBI commented here, particularly when one of its officials refused to comment on the question of FBI personnel or informants being involved during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol when grilled by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) last year.
But the problem for the FBI is that they have lost any trust they might have once had and that’s a big problem.