Thursday, February 25, 2021

#Sedition3PTruck

From The Daily Beast, “Three Percenter Truck at Capitol on Jan. 6 Belongs to Hitler-Quoting Rep’s Husband”:

A pickup truck parked at the United States Capitol and bearing a Three Percenter militia sticker on the day of the Jan. 6 riot belongs to the husband of freshman U.S. Rep. Mary Miller of Illinois, who approvingly quoted Adolf Hitler a day earlier.

Researchers on Twitter first noticed the Ford pickup truck with the far-right militia’s decal parked on the Capitol grounds in footage posted to social media and taken by CBS News.
Oh, the Millers, Mary and Chris. On Twitter she’s now called #HitlerLady. And he’s #Sedition3PTruck. She’s “my” representative in Congress. He’s “my” rep in the Illinois House.

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February 26: Chris Miller has now given two explanations of the sticker. One, in the Daily Beast article:
“Army friend gave me decal. Thought it was a cool decal. Took it off because of negative pub,” Miller wrote in an email late Thursday. He says he “never was member” of the militia and “didn’t know anything about 3% till fake news started this fake story and read about them.”
A different explanation, given to a Nexstar outlet:
“My son received the sticker that was on my truck from a family friend who said that it represented patriotism and love of country,” Miller said. “The original group, which has disbanded, was not a violent anti-government group. They were not involved in the Jan. 6th riots. They have issued a statement distancing themselves from the extremists who have copied their name. I have since removed the sticker. My intention was to display what I thought was a patriotic statement. I love our country and consider myself a patriot. My intention was not to hurt or offend anyone but simply to express what I thought was a statement of patriotism. God bless America.”
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February 27: The Chicago Tribune reports that the Illinois Democratic County Chairs’ Association has asked for a state investigation of Chris Miller. Representative Adam Kinzinger (R, Illinois-16) also supports an investigation.

February 27: ABC News reports that Chris Miller spoke in front of 3P and QAnon banners last May. You can see the performance on Miller’s Facebook page.

February 27: Here’s Mary Miller on February 22, sans mask, among hundreds of people at a largely maskless indoor event for Illinois gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey. You can see her at the 1:10 mark. And listen to what Bailey has to say about masks. Christ, what an airhole.

February 28: USA Today and The Washington Post have picked up the truck story. To its credit, the Post includes Chris Miller’s two explanations of how the decal ended up in his possession.

March 1: From the Chicago Sun-Times :
llinois House Democrats introduced a resolution Monday condemning Republican state Rep. Chris Miller for slapping a decal with the logo of a far-right anti-government militia group on his pick-up truck and accusing him of helping incite the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Here’s the text of the resolution.

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March 6: The Miller have made it into Vanity Fair: “Were Republican Lawmakers In On the U.S. Capitol Siege?”

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March 19: The Illinois House has voted to censure Chris Miller, 57 to 36, with no Republican votes for censure.

Related posts
Chris Miller, no pandemic : January 5 and 6 in D.C., with Mary Miller : The objectors included Mary Miller : A letter to Mary Miller : Mary Miller, with no mask : Mary Miller, still in trouble : His ’n’ resignations are in order : Mary Miller in The New Yorker : Mary Miller vs. AOC

comments: 4

Daughter Number Three said...

I saw that reporting yesterday and thought of you... he needs to get his story straighter. So there was an OG Three Percent group, huh?

Michael Leddy said...

Hold on there: there’s no one straighter than Chris Miller.

His wife, incidentally, is introducing a bill to prevent trans people from using their appropriate bathroom. She’ll vote against the stimulus soon. She represents a district in which about 30% of children live below the poverty line (no doubt a higher percentage since COVID).

CM's language — e.g., “Democrat terrorists” — is very much in line with that of 3Pers. By the way, it’s meaningless if he claims that he’s never belonged to the group. Anyone can identify as a 3Per, no membership needed.

Fresca said...

I am riveted reading about "your" Mary Miller.
I know it's all too, too true, but it's like it's one of your movie write-ups about a nefarious couple in a dark noir story...

Michael Leddy said...

If only they were fictional.

The thing that’s esp. troubling about Mary Miller is that she presents as sunny and perky, not as obviously unhinged as, say, Boebert or Greene. To my mind, that makes her more dangerous. She refused to debate her opponent while running for office and now seems willing to be more open about her hard right positions. She had a last-minute town call event yesterday via Facebook, during which she told people not to let their kids watch CNN