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It hasn’t even been 24 hours as of this writing, but the crash of a U-Haul truck into barriers outside the White House gate has drawn out the media hysterics, in both mainstream and social media. Everybody seems to have a theory.
Here’s what we know so far.
Late on Monday night, a man driving a U-Haul box truck rammed into security barriers outside the White House. Secret Service detained the driver and bomb technicians searched the truck, fearing that explosives might be inside. However, they found very little, outside of a black backpack, a roll of duct tape, a notebook … and a Nazi flag, with swastika.
Authorities charged the driver with trespassing, destruction of federal property, and threatening to kill, kidnap or inflict harm on the president, vice president, or a family member.
We now know the man’s identity. He is 19-year-old Sai Varshith Kandula, of Chesterfield, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. Kandula allegedly flew from St. Louis to Dulles International Airport, rented a U-Haul truck, and drove to the White House. After ramming into the White House barriers, he left the truck and began waving what appeared to be the Nazi flag. That’s when Park Police arrested him.
Breaking News: I have a very reliable tip that the driver of the U-haul that crashed into Lafayette Square near the White House gate is Sai Varshith Kandula. This pic is from his Missouri Driver's License. pic.twitter.com/XNLmN9l39J
— Karol Markowicz (@karol) May 23, 2023
And that’s what we know as of this writing, folks.
So here we go. On Tuesday morning, CNN anchors Poppy Harlow and Sara Sidner spoke with former FBI director-turned-CNN analyst Andrew McCabe about the truck incident. McCabe opined that this attack smelled to him like … wait for it … White supremacy! Never mind that a guy with the name of Sai Varshith Kandula is hardly of European heritage.
Plus, we should draw a line between last night’s event and January 6 rioters, according to McCabe:
And I think you have to draw a line from this apparent attack on the White House by someone bearing a Nazi flag to at least some of the people, it’s hard to say how many, but some of the people involved in the January 6th attack on the Capitol. How do we know that? Because some of those folks were carrying the same sort of symbols, Nazi flags, Confederate flags, things like that, that show you a commonality of ideology.
You’d think a former law enforcement bigwig would know better than to jump to conclusions. But no, this is CNN.
Poor Poppy Harlow. Andrew McCabe left her … what’s the social media phrase? Literally shaking!
It’s terrifying! Andrew McCabe, thank you for all that.
I’m old enough to remember the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, as well as that of Sen. Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. And I don’t recall the grown-ups in my world being “terrified,” or “literally shaking.” But then, adults back then were made of sterner stuff than the Poppy Harlows of today’s left-leaning media.
On the other hand, right wing meme meisters had a field day cranking out conspiracy theory memes. It’s gotta be a false flag operation! You know, by the “fed bois.”
Screenshot: @edwardrussl/Twitter.
“Relentless” podcast host Kyle Becker had questions, which he posted at Twitter:
Here’s a quick analysis: WHY? Why crash a U-Haul truck with a “Nazi flag” into White House barriers? What’s the motive? Get arrested? For what? Or maybe, hear me out, maybe this was staged by people who need “Nazi” bogeymen to distract us from failed policies. Just a thought.
And this, from the popular Twitter account “Catturd”:
Good morning to everyone except lame FBI psyops.
Yet another Twitter user posted suspicions of an even wider conspiracy:
30 tons of ammonium nitrate missing. 50 U.S. senators have been issued satellite phones for emergency communication. U-Haul truck with a “Nazi flag” crashes into White House barriers Patriot Front (Feds) holding rallies and marches. What are “they” planning?
The website Twitchy, which aggregates tweets on news topics, began their coverage of the incident with a disclaimer: This is a breaking story, so the 24-hour rule applies: All reports within the first 24 hours are suspect.
But their headline said this:
People are already calling this alleged U-Haul attack near the White House a false flag.
So much for their “24-hour rule.”
Writer John Sexton at Hot Air said the conspiracy theorists should just calm down:
I don’t blame anyone for being suspicious when a news story seems too good (or bad) to be true. Skepticism is normal and indeed necessary. But at some point, you have to have actual reasons to back up your doubts. Calling everything you want to discount a lame FBI psyop doesn’t cut it. There are in fact some crazy people out there who do crazy things. Absent some additional evidence, that’s what we’ve got here.
He added:
Of course we could learn tomorrow that this guy was talking to someone before this dumb stunt. If so we’ll have to factor that in but right now there’s no evidence of anything besides a 19-year-old in a rented truck with a Nazi flag rambling about harming the president and/or the vice president. Let’s wait and see what the evidence shows.
Of course that should also apply to guys like Andrew McCabe, who, as I wrote above, should know better than to jump to conclusions. And scare the bejeebers out of terrified Poppy Harlow.
I tend to believe that the simplest explanation is most likely the correct one. I don’t seek out conspiracy theories that bolster my political leanings. After all, as the saying goes, Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. And sometimes a kook who rams a truck into White House barriers while holding a Nazi flag and threatening the president is just that: a kook.
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Featured image: Christine Krizsa/flickr/cropped/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Oh, definitely a nut case.
Until one learns differently (or there is radio silence that tells you just as much), you can’t tell what KIND of nut case. Could easily be one that thinks “Mein Kampf” is rational – OR one that thinks the installation isn’t doing enough to implement “The Communist Manifesto.”
Could be either one – remember that some nuts were calling BIDEN a Nazi because he wasn’t cancelling ALL debt.
American Human says: A nineteen year old man is not old enough to rent a vehicle.
Kim Hirsch says: Not true. From the U-Haul website:
“Customers must be 16 years of age to rent trailers and 18 years of age to rent trucks. A government-issued driver’s license is required to rent our trucks and trailers.”
GWB says: It is true of a lot of car rentals, though, so I can understand the confusion.
Hate_me says: The other kind of Aryan, perhaps? The ones who actually succeeded in dominating a caste-based society.
Michael Gilson says: I was thinking yesterday that every assassin I can think of was a nut. The connection between what they did and what they want to achieve is always underwear gnomes logic.
GWB says: You take that back!
/Underwear gnomes
GWB says: that show you a commonality of ideology
Hoo boy. If you’re going to link the Confederacy with NAZI Germany, you’re going to cast a might wide net. Along the lines of “You know who else wanted the people to take mass transit? Hitler!” arguments. “You know who else liked snow? Stalin!”
the assassination of President John F. Kennedy
I don’t recall the grown-ups in my world being “terrified,”
Maybe not, but I do know an awful lot of them thought their world had ended. (Because they literally idolized the man.)
Why crash a U-Haul truck with a “Nazi flag” into White House barriers?
Remember, too, he did NOT crash into the White House barriers. He crashed into the park barriers next to the White House. Lafayette Park is a large chunk of property north of the White House. Not saying he wasn’t aiming for the White House, but he was still a long way from it.
So much for their “24-hour rule.”
They’re reporting what other people are saying. So, not under the 24-hour rule.
but right now
Well, right now, it simply falls into a pattern of so much other false crap from the feds. And of a bunch of leftists losing their nut and trying to hurt people. And, of course, along with the 24-hour rule comes the “Will we hear anything we can trust about this from the feds?” What if they just refuse to answer any questions and let the media spew forth whatever their narrative is? So that it poisons the political conversation?
This is the real problem of the gov’t destroying our trust in them. And I doubt they can ever earn it back without DC (and other places) being purged.
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar
But, most of the time? Grandma, cover your ears! 😉
I remember the conspiracy theories of the early Clinton years. And the actual things done. And the kooks weren’t always that far wrong. And now, after COVID, almost no one trusts the gov’t, nor the science, nor the cops, nor the “world leaders.”
Lastly, one thing I’ve seen no one bring up is that the swastika is a holy symbol for the Hindus. Yes, the legs are sometimes bent the other way from what the NAZIs used, but it’s substantially the same. Could anyone here identify (without comparing to another source) which one was the NAZI one out of a lineup? If this guy is of Indian descent and a practicing Hindu (or a few other religions, I think) might he have been using the symbol to relate to that instead of NAZIism?
Kim Hirsch says: “Maybe not, but I do know an awful lot of them thought their world had ended. (Because they literally idolized the man.)”
The main grown-ups in my world at the time were my parents, who were lifelong Republicans from the Greatest Generation. Like I said, sterner stuff.
“Lastly, one thing I’ve seen no one bring up is that the swastika is a holy symbol for the Hindus. Yes, the legs are sometimes bent the other way from what the NAZIs used, but it’s substantially the same. Could anyone here identify (without comparing to another source) which one was the NAZI one out of a lineup? If this guy is of Indian descent and a practicing Hindu (or a few other religions, I think) might he have been using the symbol to relate to that instead of NAZIism?”
Karol Markowicz (who identified the driver in tweet I embedded) did bring up that idea. But no — the context for that swastika was a Nazi battle flag.
You’re right — the swastika was used in Hinduism, along with some Southwestern Native American tribes. But the one major difference is that the Nazi party tilted the swastika, while in India and among SW tribes the symbol was flat. Yes there were variations — sort of like the variations on the Maltese cross in Christian societies.
Here’s a good article from the BBC which shows the traditional display in Indian culture. Here’s one on the swastika’s use among Native American tribes. The British author Rudyard Kipling also used it — remember he hailed from British India and based a lot of his works there.
All the above primarily used the swastika in its traditional flat orientation.
My husband’s high school in Wichita, KS, was built in 1929, and utilized tiles with Native America motifs. The top corner tiles have swastikas — again, lying flat. BTW, as a graphic artist he has found the history of the swastika to be quite interesting because of how this graphically strong symbol — which seemed to pop up in indigenous cultures worldwide — has become so reviled. He also suggested that the hammer-and-sickle should go the same way, but, well, you know…
GWB says: Excellent bundle of information, Kim.
I wouldn’t put it past someone, though, who wasn’t remarkably bright (this guy might not be, though 24 hours) to only be able to get a flag like that.
And, yes, it was purely speculation and a way to pull back from the assumptions a bit.
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