By Brian Smith, Des Moines Register
Des Moines, IA-Officials in Iowa are condemning a white supremacist group seen marching around the Iowa Capitol and through Des Moines’ East Village on Saturday.
Videos sent to the Register and social media posts showed a group of about two dozen individuals carrying 13 colony flags and banners for the group Patriot Front on Saturday.
What is Patriot Front?
Patriot Front is a white supremacist organization that was formed when leaders from Vanguard America split off following the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigations.
The Southern Poverty Law Center considers the organization a hate group.
Patriot Front was responsible for about 60% of white supremacist propaganda distributed in the United States in 2023, according to the Anti-Defamation League. It was also responsible for some of the largest white supremacist marches in 2023.
The group’s members are required to participate in on-the-ground activities and to distribute materials or risk expulsion, the ADL reported.
What did Patriot Front do in Des Moines?
Members of the group were seen marching around the Iowa Capitol complex and through Des Moines’ East Village on Saturday afternoon.
One of the group’s banners read “Deport Invaders: Keep America, American.”
The group also chanted phrases like “life, liberty, victory” and “reclaim America,” according to videos shared with the Register and posted on the group’s website.
One video showed the group standing on a bridge over Interstate 235 with flags.
The group’s website showed similar marches taking place in Providence, Rhode Island and Houston, Texas on Saturday.
Political leaders say Patriot Front and its hate ‘have no place in Iowa’
Leaders from across the political spectrum condemned Patriot Front’s march in Des Moines.
Rita Hart, chair of the Iowa Democratic Party, criticized the group for hiding their faces behind white masks while trying to intimidate Iowans and spreading hate.
“Let me be clear: This group, their scare tactics, and their hate have no place in Iowa,” she said in a statement.
Republican Party of Iowa Chair Jeff Kauffman told KCCI that the group sounded “like morons” and that “the Republican Party will always condemn crap like this.”
A Muslim civil rights group also condemned the hate, while acknowledging the group’s right to free speech.
“We join all those who seek a society based on justice and mutual respect in condemning any efforts to promote racist hate and white supremacy,” said Ibrahim Hooper, communications director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “While even bigots have free speech rights, the majority of Americans also have the right and duty to repudiate hatred and division.”
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