Thanks to the Media Research Center, a media watchdog group, the public is now learning the Biden-led Department of Homeland Security has passed out $40 million in grant funds to left-leaning recipients through a program called Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Grant Program, or TVTP. Those funds, which ranged from a $85,000 to $1.1 million, were spread among 80 grants to recipients such as an extremism prevention program at the University of Dayton and a homosexual rights group named Out Boulder County.
Free Speech America, a division of Media Research, learned about the flow of grant money and its recipients thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request. That public records request forced DHS to hand over some – but not all – public documents related to the federal agency's ongoing effort to condemn its right-wing enemies, such as think tank The Heritage Foundation and cable news outlet Fox News.
With some of that public request information in hand, MRC and Free Speech America were able to track down the TVTP grant recipients and request the results they produced from their taxpayer-funded grants.
Michael Morris, who leads Free Speech America, tells AFN the most alarming revelation so far was a “Pyramid of Far-Right Radicalization” that categorizes right-wing threats in four tiers. It includes little-known Neo-Nazi groups with well-known groups such as the NRA and media outlets such a Fox News.
“When [Joe] Biden goes out and says that they're administration is looking to go after white supremacists,” Morris tells AFN, “they're not talking about actual white supremacists. They're talking about you.”
Like a food pyramid with whole grains at the bottom and sugar at the top, the top of the pyramid lists anti-Semitic Neo-Nazi groups as the most dangerous enemy of the American public. In the chart, they fill up the No. 4 and No. 3 slots. Meanwhile, Fox News, The Heritage Foundation, Christian Broadcasting Network, the National Rifle Association, and the Republican Party are listed at the bottom.
Just above them, in the No. 2 slot, are PragerUniversity, Breitbart News, pro-police group Blue Lives Matter, Turning Point USA, and Infowars.
Ed Vitagliano, a spokesman for the American Family Association, calls the DHS grant program a "full-frontal campaign of political extermination" by radical leftists.
Back in 2015, during the Obama administration, a U.S. Army briefing labeled the Mississippi-based ministry and radio network a "domestic hate group." That briefing was held at Camp Shelby, a training facility in Mississippi. After a whistleblower revealed the slide presentation, the Pentagon claimed the soldier had acted on his own even though other soldiers at other facilities reported similar briefings about right-wing "extremism."
Pyramid a 'path of radicalization'
In a detailed story about the DHS grant funding, No. 1 spot holder Fox News describes how the Pyramid was shown at a University of Dayton seminar in 2021. That seminar called “Extremism, Rhetoric, and Democratic Precarity” featured a researcher named Michael Loadenthal, who showed the Pyramid during his presentation. (Click on image below for larger version)
In a statement to Fox News, Loadenthal pointed out he is not the creator of the “Far-Right Radicalization” Pyramid but found it useful for his presentation. He also said MRC was “misinterpreting and misrepresenting” the Pyramid because the bottom tier is labeled “mainstream conservatism” in an original version.
That “mainstream conservatism” text at the bottom of the Pyramid was not visible to the audience during Loadenthal’s presentation, bottom-tier Fox News points out.
“The chart is meant to show that what is termed 'the right' is not monolithic and that some individuals travel to a path of radicalization, beginning with more mainstream sources,” he told Fox News.
According to Morris, a genocide expert at the conference compared President Donald Trump to Pol Pot, the Cambodian leader who oversaw the massacre of millions. A second speaker, with Human Rights Watch, suggested Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, wants to start a second Holocaust by creating a state militia.
In its story, Fox News was not done with Loadenthal. It points out how he spoke at a second seminar on "White Nationalism" in which he praised "antifascists" and Antifa for fighting the Far Right. Like a war veteran describing battle, Loadenthal recalled fondly how he had fought "white supremacists" in his "younger years" before that movement evolved into what is now known as Antifa.
"Antifascists" is where "Antifa" gets it name, and its violent members are self-described Communists, Marxists, and anarchists.
"A lot of things we're doing are illegal," the researcher said. "A lot of it involves breaking the law."
Editor's Note: The American Family Association is the parent organization of the American Family News Network, which operates AFN.net.
