  A well-known white nationalist is still serving in the Air Force, Pentagon officials have confirmed, two months after HuffPost first reported on his enlistment. And on Thursday, the chair of a House Armed Services subcommittee said she will contact Air Force leadership to see why there hasn’t been any action.
The inquiry from Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), who chairs the military personnel subcommittee, concerns Airman 1st Class Shawn McCaffrey, a well-known white nationalist. McCaffrey graduated from boot camp in March, as HuffPost reported earlier this year, even as the military received a historic stand-down order so it could address the problem of extremism in its ranks.
“I will be contacting Air Force leadership to find out why this individual ― who has his own author page on a website for far right extremists, describes himself as an ‘activist,’ and co-hosted a weekly podcast in which he attacked Jews, women, LGBTQ+ people, the U.S. armed forces, and many others using unacceptable slurs ― remains on active duty and under review given the very public and abundant evidence of his extremist ties,” Speier said in an emailed statement.
Last week, the Air Force confirmed to HuffPost that McCaffrey has not been kicked out of the military.
“He is currently on active duty in technical training,” Air Force spokesperson Ann Stefanek said in an email. “His case remains under review and no determination has been made at this time.”
Stefanek wouldn’t give a timeline for when the Air Force review will determine whether McCaffrey has violated military regulations regarding extremism.
Speier thinks it’s already been too long.
“When you swear allegiance to an organization or ideology that poses a clear threat to our democracy and government,” she said, “you should not be able to wear the uniform of the United States of America and have access to sensitive government information.”
New emails released Tuesday by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee reveal a pressure campaign by then-President Donald Trump and his allies to push Justice Department officials to overturn the 2020 election results. Documents obtained by the committee show that Trump, his then-chief of staff Mark Meadows and Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani repeatedly pressured senior DOJ officials in December and January to advance baseless election fraud conspiracy theories in an effort to keep Trump in power. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is attempting to present herself as someone who is not full of hate for marginalized people after receiving intense bipartisan backlash for her repeated comments comparing pandemic-era public health recommendations to the Holocaust. The Georgia Republican and QAnon conspiracy theorist said at a press conference on Monday that she was sorry for those comments. She visited the Holocaust Museum the same day and said she had learned more about the horrors of the Nazi genocide against Jewish people.
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