When Tina Forte registered as a candidate in NY-14, a D+25 district in the Bronx where Trump took just 25.9% of the vote last year, she listed herself as a "businesswoman and Covid re-open activist." Along with Bronx Republican Party chair Mike Rendino, she's one of 3 Republicans "running" against AOC as vanity candidates. Still, it's worth noting that last year, the GOP candidate against AOC, John Cummings, spent $10,947,758 against her. It didn't do him much good and AOC beat him 152,661 (71.6%) to 58,440 (27.4%).
Forte, a QAnon activist who hasn't reported any contributions to the FEC yet, thinks she can do better. And, in fact, if she was running in a rural district in the Old Confederacy, she might be the next Marjorie Traitor Greene (Q-GA), Madison Cawthorn (Nazi-NC), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Mo Brooks (R-AL), Beth Van Duyne (R-TX) or Barry Moore (R-AL). After all, she has the kind of cred low-info, fascist-oriented voters love: she took part in the 1/6 attempted coup and insurrection, as you can see in this deranged, hysterical, profanity-laced video. Forte is the screeching, loudmouthed crackpot in the ski-cap:
On Social media, she boasted "we are in the House" while the insurrectionists were storming the Capitol and defecating on the floor and smearing human feces on the walls. Many people say the shit was Forte's but like most of the seditionists, she now claims she never actually entered the Capitol, even though there are photos of her in restricted areas. She spent the week before the attack on social media urging people to take part in it:
Last night, we showcased the best criminal justice reform platform I've seen, Shervin Aazami's. Forte, whose campaign website is, to put it mildly, short on policy, has a section on criminal justice reform too, where she advocates "extending the Trump administration’s criminal justice reform" and runs this snappy meme for Republicans and fascists who are challenged by too much writing.
On Wednesday, Scopes' Jordan Liles exposed the connections between QAnon and Forte and her extensive role before, during and after in the attempted coup and sacking on the Capitol.
We found Forte repeatedly used hashtags related to QAnon conspiracy theories. The QAnon mentions even included cries of “Save the Children,” referring to the debunked conspiracy theory that makes claims of mass pedophilia and “Satanic blood-drinking” by Democrats. She took multiple photographs in October, November, and December 2020 with far-right Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio. Further, we uncovered evidence that Forte pushed false election conspiracy theories, including the phrase “Stop the Steal.”
Forte’s accounts that pushed potentially dangerous content were still active months later on Facebook, Instagram (which is owned by Facebook), Twitter, and YouTube. Even more striking was the fact that Forte herself attended the Capitol riot, where she livestreamed on Facebook. She took selfies with a number of attendees who considered her a “superstar.” In a live video, she urged people at then-U.S. President Donald Trump’s rally on the Ellipse to make their way to the Capitol. We even found that she entered a restricted area after the crowd knocked down barriers that law enforcement installed. All of her posts promoting the date in the weeks before Jan. 6 appeared to reach at least tens of thousands of people, but likely many more.
...In a livestreamed video, Forte stood in front of a massive poster of artwork that she brought with her. The art depicted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It was created by Scott LoBaido and purportedly measured 40 feet by 30 feet. Forte and others laid it out on the ground. The poster altered Pelosi’s appearance, giving her fangs and a somewhat menacing appearance. “Hey just let us know when we can walk across this cunt,” one man off-camera said. Earlier that morning, Forte had unfurled it at the Lincoln Memorial, according to a Twitter video that received 5,350 retweets, 851 quote tweets, and 12,700 likes. Newsmax correspondent Mike Carter also recorded a video of Forte early in the day at the same place. He then appeared to show her the tweet while she was livestreaming.
After Forte left the Lincoln Memorial, she made her way toward the Capitol. When she arrived in front of the building, she said in a Facebook Live video: “Get your asses to the Capitol.” She was speaking to viewers who were watching from the Ellipse, where Trump was speaking. “We need to fight for our freedom, fight for our country, fight for our president, fight for our Constitution.” After this moment, one of several people who wanted a picture with Forte asked her: “Quick pic?” He then called her a “superstar.”
“So we’re out here in front of the Capitol right now, waiting for everybody who’s at the rally at the Ellipse to head over,” she said. After another person asked for a selfie with her, Forte told her viewers: “People need to leave the Ellipse and get to the Capitol. So if anybody who has service over there and is watching this, get your ass to the Capitol.”
...Seven minutes before the scene was officially declared a riot by the Washington, D.C., police department, Forte tweeted a link to her Cameo account, an apparent effort to earn money based on what was unfolding at the Capitol.
Further, on the afternoon of Jan. 6, Forte said in a new Twitter video: “We spoke today, and we spoke loud and proud, and we’re not violent.” However, as of Aug. 24, The Associated Press reported that “nearly 600 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the riots in the six months since the siege,” and that “dozens have been charged with assaulting police officers who were trying to protect the Capitol.” The Washington Post reported that 140 law enforcement officers were injured in the Capitol riot. Further, CNBC published that Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died the day after the riot, and four other officers also later died by suicide.
In another video also tweeted late in the day on Jan. 6, Forte wrote in the caption: “We the warriors have come out to play … now what?”
On Jan. 5, she uploaded a meme that said: “It’s time.” That night, a man identified as Will Johnson spoke at a dinner Forte attended, just hours before the Capitol riot began. In the video, which was hosted by Facebook and remained available months later, Johnson said: “I would rather die a free man for this country and every single person in this country and God almighty. Be safe, and get ready for a fight.”
...Recently, Forte made an appearance at a school board meeting where she interrupted the proceedings to rant about not wanting children to wear masks for protection against the COVID-19 virus. Her objections were lodged at the same time that children’s hospitals in several states were overwhelmed with sick kids who had been infected during the global pandemic. Children under the age of 12 were not yet eligible for the vaccine.
If you'd like to contribute to AOC's reelection campaign-- and the campaigns of other anti-fascist incumbents-- you can do it here.
There is a principle in bioethics that goes: "do no harm". Hippocrates averred "first, do no harm". And the advice was published first by a physician in the 17th-century named Sydenham.
But fuck all that.
American nazis and other sundry hubris-overloaded pinheads act on the principle of: 'do as much harm as humanly possible'
American democraps and their voters believe in the principle of: "do whatever harms the people if it helps the money. But pretend it does not. And, at all costs, do no good... but don't be a nazi"
All the above hit home today as I drove by a collection of unmasked pinheads of the former stripe at an intersection holding signs about stopping tyranny. It struc…