If you ever thought what Donald Trump might sound like if he were a former Green Beret, then you might have a good idea about Robert Patrick Lewis, the co-founder of the 1st Amendment Praetorian, who provides security at MAGA/QAnon events, and whose individual star is rising among the far right.
The Daily Beast took an in-depth look at Lewis and his group – and let’s just say it seems there’s no deep end this crowd isn’t willing to jump off.
In the lead-up to the presidential election, Lewis appeared on several right-wing media outlets to make dire predictions about looming antifa violence. In one appearance on a QAnon online show on Nov. 2, Lewis claimed that he had evidence that antifa agents planned to attack the suburbs, and agreed with a host’s claim that antifa activists were getting lists of Trump voters from corrupt government officials with plans to carry out some kind of nationwide purge.
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Despite Lewis’s claims about 1A Praetorian’s intelligence-collecting abilities, their intelligence memos often read like something ripped from the thrillers Lewis once wrote. In the groups’ telling, the United States has been targeted by a “North American Insurgency Syndicate” that includes both liberal groups, antifa, and organizations described in another group’s document promoted by 1A Praetorians as “pro-choice extremists” and “Canadian extremists.”
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In an memo posted on social media site Telegram in May, for example, the 1A Praetorian seized on a series of apparently unrelated train derailments across the country to suggest Chinese commandos were readying an attack on the country.
Not surprisingly, some of the people Lewis pals around with are Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell, Allen West and “Stop the Steal” organizer Ali Alexander, currently in hiding, according to The Daily Beast. Also, on YouTube, “Lewis identified Alexander as the group’s ‘primary that we were guarding,’ and would boast in future posts of their close coordination.”
Just like with Alexander, a big question here is how far up the GOP food chain does Lewis go? He has already been interviewed by Fox News and he clearly has designs on a bigger profile.
