WASHINGTON, July 4 (Reuters) – Hundreds of masked members of the white nationalist group Patriot Front marched through parts of Washington, D.C., on Saturday ahead of the Independence Day festivities planned for the evening.
The group posted on social media that it had arrived in the capital with about 400 members, and Reuters photographers saw hundreds of people dressed in Patriot Front outfits traveling on D.C. Metro trains.
Videos posted on various social media platforms and shared on Patriot Front’s own Telegram channel showed the group marching to drummers near the U.S. Capitol building while wearing khaki pants and caps, blue shirts, white face coverings and sunglasses. Many were carrying the group’s flag, Confederate flags, and variations of the American flag, at times chanting “Reclaim America.”
Around midday, they boarded Metro trains and exited at New Carrollton, Maryland, in Washington’s northeast suburbs.
The Patriot Front, known for its uniforms, face masks and flash mob-style demonstrations, formed in 2017 after the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, breaking off from the Vanguard America white supremacist group that was at the center of that protest, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
A manifesto on the Patriot Front website says, “Democracy has failed this once great nation,” and a “hard reset” is needed to “return to the traditions and virtues of our forefathers,” identifying them as European settlers.
(Reporting by David Lawder and Jana Winter; Editing by Sergio Non and Rod Nickel)
