Lawyers remain in disbelief over ‘fascist Hellscape’ July 4 display in DC

Hundreds of members of the white nationalist hate group Patriot Front descended on Washington DC Saturday morning as the nation’s capital prepared to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

Members of the group, wearing masks and carrying Confederate and US flags, rode the DC metro and marched around parts of Capitol Hill before departing the city by train, as WUSA reported. Beyond the march itself, no other incidents were reported connected to the group.

“What kind of fascist hellscape is [happening] on Pennsylvania Ave at the Eastern Market Metro stop?” Georgetown Law professor Josh Chafetz wrote on Bluesky upon spotting the group.

Chafetz said the group appeared to be all white and all male.

“Absolutely terrifying to have white supremacist hate group Patriot Front march through our streets today in Washington, DC,” human rights lawyer Mai El-Sadany wrote on social media. “Their manifesto calls for a white ethnostate, excludes people of color from their definition of citizenship, and is deeply antisemitic and xenophobic.”

In one video shared by WTOP reporter Mitchell Miller, members of the group stood in a line outside DC’s Union Station chanting, “Life, liberty, victory” and “Reclaim America.”

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Patriot Front split from Vanguard America after the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, at which white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. drove his car into counterprotesters, killing anti-racist activist Heather Heyer and injuring 35 others.

“Patriot Front is an image-obsessed organization that rehabilitated the explicitly fascist agenda of Vanguard America with garish patriotism. Patriot Front focuses on theatrical rhetoric and activism that can be easily distributed as propaganda for its chapters across the country,” SPLC explains.

The group believes that democracy no longer functions and wants to transform the US into a “pan-European” ethnostate that excludes both citizens of color and new immigrants and refugees.

One image from a Reuters photographer shows the masked Patriot Front marchers standing around a Black woman sitting on the DC Metro.

“This image is from today. A Black woman sits on the DC metro as masked white nationalists prepare to march on our nation’s capital. This is America’s 250th anniversary,” attorney Aaron Parnas posted on social media.

Melanie D’Arrigo, executive director of the Campaign for New York Health, blasted the group for carrying Confederate flags and embracing fascism while claiming the mantle of US patriotism.

“You have no right to call yourself a ‘[patriot]’ while carrying the flag of one of America’s enemies, and claiming victory on behalf of the ideology that fueled another—both of which the US defeated,” D’Arrigo wrote on social media.