October 14, 2024 03:49 PM UTC

So-Called "Patriot Front," Or Maybe Feds, March Through Downtown Denver

• 3 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

On Saturday afternoon in downtown Denver, a band of somewhere around 50 men wearing face masks and the loosely matching uniforms of the fascist ultranationalist group Patriot Front arrived on RTD trains to march around the city protesting the “unrestricted and unmitigated invasion” of Colorado they presumably heard about from a Donald Trump stump speech. Here’s the leader of the Patriot Front, a diminutive Texas firebrand named Thomas Rousseau, laying out their case while huffing and puffing to stay at the front of his quick-marching crew:

A message from Thomas Rousseau while Patriot Front was marching through Denver, CO pic.twitter.com/ucNT5UBFfx

— Battlinjack (@battlinjack88d) October 14, 2024

It’s not the first time we’ve seen this particular hate group on the ground in Colorado. In August of 2023, a contingent of Patriot Front protesters appeared outside the Douglas County Pride Fest to protest any such prideful decadence in Colorado’s most Christful exurb:

The Southern Poverty Law Center has more background on the organization, which grew out of a split between white nationalist groups in the aftermath of the infamous 2017 “Unite The Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia–the same deadly event Donald Trump infamously claimed featured “very fine people” on both sides:

Patriot Front (PF) is a white nationalist hate group that formed in the aftermath of the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, of August 12, 2017. The organization broke off from Vanguard America (VA), a neo-Nazi group that participated in the chaotic demonstration. PF’s founder, Thomas Rousseau, led VA members during “Unite the Right,” including James Alex Fields, Jr., the young man accused of murdering anti-racist protester Heather Heyer after fatally driving his vehicle into a crowd of protesters…

Rousseau’s conscious rebranding under the banner of PF was a direct consequence of “Unite the Right” organizers’ inability to control the rally’s presentation. Swastikas and other Nazi-era imagery was prominent among attendees who were also chanting slogans such as “Jews will not replace us.” PF was one of several hate groups that sought to recast itself as mainstream, patriotic Americans by dressing up their propaganda and rhetoric in Americana.

Patriot Front may have tried to “recast” itself as a patriotic American organization without the overt trappings of neo-Nazism, but Thomas Rousseau doesn’t hesitate to explain his views about among other things Jewish people:

A lot of people said they don’t know PFs stance on the JQ
Thomas Rousseau explains pic.twitter.com/VHrihlFU6r

— 🧯nø juíce før me, thanks🧯 (@__nicetrybud_) July 21, 2024

ROSSEAU: Am I positive on Jews? No I’m absolutely not. Do I think Jews are Americans? No I absolutely do not. Do I think Judaism is a practice of religion that could work with the Patriot Front’s ideals and morals? No I do not.

This year, the Patriot Front has popped up in a number of locations, including sign-waving at Trump rallies and most recently in alleged threats against FEMA workers responding to hurricanes in the Southeast that forced disaster relief workers to relocate. Despite this, there are a surprising number of conservatives who don’t trust this organization, even calling them “feds” suggesting they are an elaborate law enforcement front to lure in unwitting would-be neo-Nazis. That’s the view from Joshua Bly, communications director for the Colorado Senate Republican minority, to local Proud Boy Louie Huey:

Even Elon Musk entertained the idea that the Patriot Front is actually the “Fed Front,” but the group insists they are legitimate and the rumors about them are the result of backstabbing from the other side of the post-Charlottesville schism. With the Proud Boys having faded from popularity after their leader was jailed for his role in the January 6th 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, this group seems to have become the club of choice for the wannabe fascist thug crowd.

They don’t need to trust each other to share common goals, like electing Donald Trump. If conservatives want to distance themselves from these kinds of over hate groups, it will take more than dismissing them as “feds.”