Jason van Tatenhove, a former member of the far-right Oath Keepers militia, testified Tuesday at the seventh public hearing of the January 6 Committee that he worried about what would happen if former President Donald Trump ran for president again in the 2024 election.
Van Tatenhove “worked as the national media director for the Oath Keepers in 2015 and 2016,” according to Yahoo! News. He was not at the Capitol riot, but was called as a witness in a hearing that purported to tie extremist groups to Trump.
Dressed in a denim jacket and T-shirt, Van Tatenhove was questioned by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), who led the second impeachment trial against Trump and attempted to object to the certification of the Electoral College vote in the 2016 election — an act now identified as “insurrection.”
The following exchange took place toward the end of his testimony:
RASKIN:Mr. Van Tatenhove, you say new very thoughtful written testimony that we received today that you fear with the next election cycle will bring. You also say that we have been exceedingly lucky in that we have not seen more bloodshed so far. I wonder if you would elaborate on those two statements.
VAN TATENHOVE: I think, as far as luck goes, we’ve had the potential from [Cliven] Bundy ranch on. Being boots on the ground at these standoffs, and they were standoffs, where there were firearms pointed across lines at federal law enforcement agents. whatever it may be with that particular standoff. But i think that we’ve gotten exceedingly lucky that more bloodshed did not happen, because the potential has been there from the start. We got very lucky that the loss of life was, as tragic as it is that we saw on January sixth, the potential was so much more. Again, all we have to look at is the iconic images of that day. with the gallows set up for Mike Pence, the Vice President of the United States. 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. Regardless of the human impact, what else is he going to do if he gets elected again? All bets are off at that point. That’s a scary notion. 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.
Van Tatenhove is the second witness to have used his testimony to make a nakedly political statement against Trump’s 2024 election prospects, after retired judge Michael Luttig.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.