![]() ![]() The book has become the Bible of right-wing extremism. McVeigh, like others, drew inspiration from The Turner Diaries, a novel written by the white nationalist William Luther Pierce, which depicts a right-wing insurrection against a tyrannical federal government seeking to deprive citizens of their Second Amendment rights to bear arms. McVeigh hated Bill Clinton and whenever the President came on TV, McVeigh would mutter “Someone should kill that son of a bitch.” He saw the Clinton era as a period when American society was being converted from a free republic into a socialist welfare state. ![]() The government was impinging on his right to bear arms. This view hardened even more when Clinton, in 1994, signed the ban on assault rifles. When Bill Clinton took office in 1993 and the Democrats were in charge, McVeigh’s view of federal law enforcement hardened into a sinister anger. By design McVeigh selected April 19 as the date of the Oklahoma bombing. It was common for McVeigh to quote from memory long segments of the Declaration of Independence, asserting that Americans should stand up to tyranny of the federal government just as their forefathers had done in their fight against the British.īy happenstance, the date of April 19, 1993, the final day of the Waco siege, coincided with the anniversary of April 19, 1775, the start of the American Revolution with the battles of Lexington and Concord. While these events at first glance seem to be divergent, Toobin demonstrates how they energized segments of the society against the federal government and caused them to identify with American revolutionaries. This was followed by the 51-day standoff in Waco, Texas, between federal agents and members of the Branch Davidians, leading to the death of 75 people, including 25 children, that ended on April 19, 1993. First was the 11-day government siege of Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in August 1992 that killed Randy Weaver and members of his family. There are two events that must be considered in understanding the radicalization of McVeigh. This notion, as history would show, was mistaken.” McVeigh was the tip of an iceberg, which prosecutors failed to see, that almost sunk the ship of state on January 6, 2020. While this strategy may be correct in many instances, in this case, as Toobin says, “The impression lingered that McVeigh was an aberration, a lone and lonely figure who represented only himself and his sad-sack codefendant (Terry Nichols). DO NOT BURY THE CRIME IN CLUTTER! In other words, just stick to the facts. Garland framed McVeigh’s prosecutions within the context of the sign he has on his office door. Toobin focuses on Attorney General Merrick Garland, who was the chief prosecutor in the Oklahoma City prosecution. They are known as the “Patriots,” the “Order,” and “Freemen,” who all share an agenda much like McVeigh’s, centered on gun rights, but also featuring a free-floating hostility to the federal government and a fear that America will cease to be a majority white nation. Toobin argues that government prosecutors and the media depicted McVeigh as a “lone wolf,” when in fact he was part of a large and growing right-wing extremist movement. He puts McVeigh’s act of domestic terrorism into the greater context of the American psyche, making a direct connection between the rise of rhetorical violence by the likes of Alex Jones and Rush Limbaugh, the Oklahoma bombing, and the events of January 6, 2020, in Washington, DC. It details the trials of McVeigh and co-defendant Terry Nichols, and the strange and sinister world of militiamen and gun show enthusiasts in which the nomadic McVeigh spent the two years before the bombing.īut more importantly, Toobin debunks the myth that would define terrorism as exclusively Islamic. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. The book details the life of Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh and the twisted rationale behind his plans to blow up the Alfred P. He exemplifies this skill in his latest book Homegrown - Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism (Simon and Schuster New York, 2023). ![]() As strange as the incident is, it does not diminish Toobin’s skill as a legal analysist, writer and interpreter of Americana. During a Zoom video call between the New Yorker and WNYC Toobin was seen masturbating on camera. On October 19, 2020, Toobin’s CNN gig took a nosedive. The author of nine books, he has delved into subjects ranging from the O.J, Simpson trial, the United States Supreme Court, and both the Obama and Trump White House. Jeffrey Toobin is a lawyer and author who spent almost two decades as a CNN legal analyst.
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