Extremist Groups Help Drive Newsom Recall Effort: Report
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LOS ANGELES, CA — California may well be on its way toward its second recall election targeting a sitting governor in less than 20 years, but a Los Angeles Times investigation Sunday raised new questions about the people behind the recall effort.
Recall proponents have gathered a remarkable 1.2 million signatures supporting the recall. With 1.5 million verified registered voter signatures needed to trigger a recall election, the movement could be a genuine threat to Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Newsom’s popularity has suffered as shutdown orders drag on, the pandemic continues to rage and vaccination efforts falter. Residents and business owners angry over the shutdown orders are increasingly directing their ire at the governor.
But an investigation by the Los Angeles Times Sunday found that much of the anger driving the recall effort is being channeled through extremist groups. Recall rally organizers include members of QAnon, white supremacist groups, anti-government paramilitary groups, and anti-vaxxer groups spreading disinformation about the coronavirus and the COVID-19 vaccine, the Los Angeles Times found. They are a motley crew of groups well-represented in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Founders of the recall effort defended the informal alliance with fringe political groups as a means to an end.
“Do we have to denounce everybody that is involved to move it forward?”Orrin Heatlie, the official proponent of the recall drive and a retired sheriff’s sergeant from Yolo County, asked The Times. “Or do we just move forward and ignore those other elements?”
“You cannot control a movement,” Randy Economy, senior advisor to the recall effort told the Times. “It’s not our job to manage what somebody says about the recall at a public event.”
Those who have helped organize signature gathering events include members of the far-right extremist group The Proud Boys and the anti-government group the Three Percenters, the Times found. According to the Times, speakers at one signature-gathering event claimed that hospitals are murdering patients to profit from the pandemic.
Click here for the full Los Angeles Times investigation.
This article originally appeared on the Los Angeles Patch
