Washington state Republican representative Matt Shea and several associates regaled an audience with conspiracy theories, separatist visions and exhortations for listeners to arm themselves ahead of a looming civil war, at a gathering at a remote religious compound in the north-east of the state last year.
In recordings obtained by the Guardian, Shea and Jack Robertson, also known as radio personality John Jacob Schmidt, invoked their visions and fears of a violent leftist revolt in speeches at the 2018 God and Country event in Marble.
The Guardian last week published leaked chat records in which Shea and Robertson were revealed to have discussed the use of surveillance, “psyops” and violence against liberal and leftist activists.
Robertson – who aired fantasies of extreme violence against liberal activists in the leaked chats – told the audience at the 2018 event that they should be prepared for civil war.
In his speech at God and Country last June, which immediately followed Shea’s speech, Robertson said: “Of course, you all know that you should have an AR-15 and a thousand rounds of ammo, right? Because Antifa is kicking up and getting ready to defend, right?”
Shea’s speech flirted with themes of civil war, but mostly focused on the idea of separating eastern Washington out into a separate political entity, with the view of having “an entire geographic area repent”.
He began by proposing “a simple idea that may make you cringe a little at first. And that idea is that liberty must be kept by force.”
Shea said the reason America was no longer a “beacon of Christianity”, was “because of compromise. And it’s not knowing that the communists are training, they’re planning, they’re organizing and they are lying in wait.”
He added: “If you don’t believe that, then you don’t understand what is really wrong with America.”
The Guardian’s revelations about the chat records prompted widespread condemnation from all levels of politics in Washington.
Governor and presidential candidate Jay Inslee, lieutenant governor Cyrus Habib, the state Democratic party, and House Democrats all condemned Shea’s remarks, along with Spokane county’s Republican sheriff, Ozzie Knezovich.
The state house Republican leader JT Wilcox condemned talk of violence in the chats, but stopped short of criticizing Shea. On Friday, Republicans reportedly announced that they would conduct a review of Shea’s action at the end of the legislative session.
Shea first responded late on Monday night with a brief statement on Facebook calling the news “an extremely misleading hit piece”, claiming that he had received death threats in the past, and a link to an Australian white nationalist website post which criticizes this writer. It came almost a week after he was first contacted by the Guardian for comment.
On far-right websites, podcasts, and in media interviews, Shea, Robertson and another participant in the chat, Anthony Bosworth, claimed that Shea did not see the parts of the chat where they threatened violence.
However, the records show Shea to have been added at the beginning of the conversation, and to have posted immediately before and after the most elaborate evocations of violence.
In his 2018 speech, Robertson said the audience should prepare for the threat of civil war. “It’s a fact that what we see on the political landscape and our cultural landscape are indicative of a coming civil war,” he said.
Robertson is a close ally of Shea’s. In a phone conversation with the Guardian earlier this month, he said: “I consider representative Shea to be a friend.” The pair are regular guests on each other’s broadcasts on a local Christian network, and often share a stage at “patriot movement” events.
Shea, who rarely talks to reporters, did not respond to requests for comment.
Asked earlier this month whether he still stood by his remarks at God and Country, Robertson said: “Oh, of course I stand by that statement. I think it’s the duty of every American. From the beginning of this country every male was armed and had adequate arms and ammunition to defend himself and his community.”
At Marble, Robertson blamed Democrats for the supposed impending insurrection, saying: “Maxine Waters says we need to take the struggle to them and get in their face and be confrontational and Antifa and the communists are responding to that message, are they not?”
But Shea mostly addressed his long-held plan to divide Washington, with the eastern half to be renamed “Liberty State”. In more public presentations in the Liberty State campaign, Shea has often given economic, cultural, and political reasons for the separation. In this speech he appeared to propose a more radical vision, which was divinely ordained.
“Think about it. God has established the boundaries of the, what people call, The American Redoubt,” referring to the political movement he is associated with, initiated by survivalist author James Wesley Rawles,which encourages “Christian patriots” to move en masse to the mountain west.
“I think it is our job just to implement it,” he added.
God and Country has been held as an annual event at the private compound known as Marble Country, at Marble in Stevens county, Washington. The facility was developed to house an intentional community attached to a church, the Marble Community Fellowship, which was founded in 1991 and led ever since by Barry and Anne Byrd.
During the 1990s, the Byrds associated with adherents of the Christian Identity movement, which interprets the Bible as establishing a racial hierarchy, wherein Jews and blacks are enemies of the white race, who are the true Israelites.
Though it is not clear that the Byrds still embrace Christian Identity beliefs, they do still adhere to Dominionist theology, which holds that the United States should be a theocracy: governed by Christians, according to divine law.
In a broadcast immediately after Trump’s election in 2016, Shea hosted Byrd on his radio broadcast and podcast, where they reflected on the opportunity the election presented.
“We’re here to take dominion under Christ,” Byrd reminded Shea at one point in the broadcast. “As you know, that has to do with government.”