Former Oath Keepers spokesperson Jason Van Tatenhove shared his fears of another Donald Trump term in the White House, as he testified before the January 6 Committee.
“We’ve gotten exceedingly lucky that more bloodshed did not happen, because the potential has been there from the start,” he said on Tuesday.
“We saw on January 6, the potential was so much more … look at as the iconic images of that day with the gallows set up for Mike Pence, for the vice president of the United States,” Mr Van Tatenhove said.
“I do fear for this next election cycle because who knows what that might bring if a president that’s willing to try to instill and encourage to whip up a civil war amongst his followers using lies and deceit and snake oil,” he added. “Regardless of the human impact.”
“What else is he going to do? If he gets elected again, all bets are off at that point. And that’s a scary notion,” Mr Van Tatenhove said. “I have three daughters, I have a granddaughter, and I fear for the world that they will inherit if we do not start holding these people to account.”
“I think we need to stop mincing words and just talk about truths,” Mr Van Tatenhove said during his testimony. “What it was gonna be was an armed revolution … This could have been the spark that started a new civil war.”
The former spokesman said: “I spent a few years with the Oath Keepers and I can tell you that they may not like to call themselves a militia but they are.”
“The best illustration for what the Oath Keepers are happened January 6,” he added.
Jason Van Tatenhove, who served as national spokesman for the Oath Keepers and as a close aide to Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, testifies during the seventh hearing by the House Select Committee
(Getty Images)
Stephen Ayres, left, and Jason Van Tatenhove at Tuesday’s hearing
(Getty Images)
“I think we saw a glimpse of what the vision of the Oath Keepers is on January 6,” Mr Van Tatenhove said. “It doesn’t necessarily include the rule of law … it includes violence. It includes trying to get their way through lies, through deceit, through intimidation and through the perpetration of violence.”
When asked about why he left the group, Mr Van Tatenhove said they at one point started falsely claiming that the Holocaust hadn’t happened.
“That was it for me, I just could not abide,” he said.
