Trump rally in Dallas: What to know about the Oath Keepers militia group – Times Record News

John C Moritz Austin Bureau USA TODAY NETWORK, Corpus Christi Caller Times Published 4:19 p.m. CT Oct. 15, 2019 | Updated 4:25 p.m. CT Oct. 15, 2019

A self-styled militia group called Oath Keepers is seekingvolunteers to help "protectTrump supporters" during the president's rally in Dallas.

AUSTIN A 10-year-old self-styled militia group called Oath Keepers is seekingvolunteers to help "protectTrump supporters" during the president's rally Thursday in downtown Dallas.

"As always, we are confident that the interior of the venue itself will be safe (the Secret Service will see to that)," Stewart Rhodes, who founded the organization of military veterans and former law enforcement officers in 2009, wrote on the organization's website this week."But we have serious concerns for the safety of attendees as they walk from their vehicles to the venue, and then especially as they walk back to their vehicles in the dark afterward."

The anti-government group, Oath Keepers, says it plans to help protect Trump supporters at the president's rally in Dallas, Oct. 17, 2019.(Photo: Oath Keepers' Twitter page)

The group that calls itself defenders of the Constitution also lists a series what is says are potential government directives it will not obey, including disarming citizens.

The group was at Trump's rally last week in Minneapolis, and says it also will be at Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke counter-rally to Trump's appearance in nearby Grand Prairie.

Protesters clashed with supporters outside a rally in Minneapolis. Some burned MAGA hats and threw urine in the streets. USA TODAY

The organization, which according to several reports claims about 35,000 members, bills itself as a"non-partisan association of current and formerly serving military, police, and first responders, who pledge to fulfill the oath all military and police take to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Rhodes, a one-time staffer to former Texas Congressman Ron Paul, says on his personal website he is an "ex-paratrooper, disabled vet, ex-firearms instructor" and a graduate of Yale University School of Law.

"If a police state comes to America, it will ultimately be byyourhands," Rhodes wrotein an article called "Just Following Orders" in S.W.A.T. Magazine."That is a harsh reality, but you had better come to terms with it now, and resolve to not let it happen on your watch."

Rhodes also referred to Hillary Clinton as "Herr Hitlery" during the 2008 race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

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Several articles and essays on the organization's website decry the decision by Democratic U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to move forward with an impeachment inquiry into Trump as a "circus" and a push to overturn the 2016 election.

Last month, the organization retweeted Trump when he said impeachment and removal from office would "cause a Civil War like fracture" of the nation and added a comment:

"This is the truth. This is where we are. We ARE on the verge of a HOT civil war. Like in 1859. Thats where we are. And the Right has ZERO trust or respect for anything the left is doing. We see THEM as illegitimate too."

As demonstrators began organizing a protest in Ferguson, Missouri, on the one-year anniversary of the shooting of Michael Brown in August 2015, ablack man who was shot and killed by a white police officer, an armed group of protesters came to the city ostensibly to help law enforcement.

According to a USA TODAY report at the time, several members rifle-toting Oath Keepers walked amongthe protesters. Missouri law permits license-holders to openly carry weapons.

St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar called the group's presence "unnecessary and inflammatory."

Officers form a line across First Avenue following the rally for Donald J. Trump Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019, outside the Target Center in Minneapolis. (Photo: Dave Schwarz, dschwarz@stcloudtimes.com)

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks what calls extremist groups, describes Oath Keepers as "one of the largest radical anti-government groups" in the nation.

"While it claims only to be defending the Constitution, the entire organization is based on a set of baseless conspiracy theories about the federal government working to destroy the liberties of Americans," SPLC says on its website.

In an interview with the Dallas Morning News, Rhodes disputed the characterization and called his organization "the right-wing version of the ACLU."

John C. Moritz covers Texas government and politics for the USA Today Network in Austin. Contact him at jmoritz@gannett.comand follow him on Twitter@JohnnieMo.

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