Time - USA (2021-07-19)

30 TIME July 19/July 26, 2021

chapters of the Oath Keepers in central
Florida, whose recruiting materials re-
minded members that their oath was for-
ever. “America’s veterans truly are like a
sleeping giant. It is time to awaken them
and fi ll them with a terrible resolve to de-
feat the domestic enemies of our Consti-
tution,” says one chapter’s mission state-
ment, according to documents reviewed
by TIME. “If we can’t get the veterans to
step up... to save our Republic, then how
can we expect to get the rest of our people
to do what must be done?”
In September 2017, James traveled
to the Florida Keys with members of the
group to help disaster-relief eff orts after
Hurricane Irma devastated the area. He
volunteered to drive one of the trucks, de-
livering pallets of rice and beans. “As Oath
Keepers, we are on location helping... by
any means necessary,” he wrote in a now
deleted Insta gram post with the hashtags
#patriots, #selfl ess and #forthepeople.
Videos posted to YouTube at the time
show him standing next to the local chap-
ter’s self- professed leader, Kelly Meggs,
passing out water bottles to locals.
In 2018, Joshua and Audrey moved
their newborn son and Audrey’s two
children from her previous marriage to
her hometown of Arab to be closer to
her family. There, he received treatment
through Veterans Aff airs and launched
American Pro Hydro Services, a pressure-
washing business that advertises with pa-
triotic red, white and blue logos that it is
“veteran-owned.”
James also seemed to stay in touch
with members of the Oath Keepers back
in Florida and make connections with
new ones in the region. On social media,
his wife referred to James’ network of
“fellow vets/retired police,” seemingly
in reference to the Oath Keepers. But
with no active chapters near him, James
seemed to drift toward right-wing spaces
online. His YouTube habits mixed fi sh-
ing and cooking accounts with a range
of far-right conspiracy and survivalist
channels. On Pinterest, he saved images
of American fl ags and eagles with quotes
like “I have the right to bear arms: your
approval is not required.” His page in-
cluded posts linked to sites like Patriot
Depot, which advertises “supplies for the
conservative revolution,” alongside styl-
ing ideas for his daughter’s hair.
By 2020, even the professional social

media presence of the pressure-washing

business James had painstakingly built

had started to slip. “Invoke the Insurrec-

tion ACT NOW!!!” the handle for Amer-

ican Pro Hydro tweeted at Trump in Au-

gust 2020 in response to the President’s

tweets about racial-justice protests. The

following month, James joined Parler,

a largely right-wing social media site,

where he followed a slate of conserva-

tive fi gures, accounts like the conspiracy

website Infowars and fellow Oath Keep-

ers. “Looking forward to meeting every-

one!” he posted on Sept. 8.

After the election, James began trav-

eling with the Oath Keepers to events in

Texas, Georgia and D.C. to provide “secu-

rity” for right-wing speakers, including

longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone, re-

tired general Michael Flynn and conspir-

acy theorist Alex Jones. These trips were

frequent enough that his wife received

$1,500 in several payments from January

to March from an Oath Keepers account

through a mobile cash app “to help sup-

port my children while he was not there,”

according to her March 11 deposition.

On Nov. 21, James attended a “Stop

the Steal” rally in Atlanta, where speak-

ers urged participants to “accept noth-

ing less than a Donald Trump victory.”

A photo from the event shows him wear-

ing a bullet proof vest with the Oath

Keepers logo and the motto “Guardians

of the Republic/Not on Our Watch.” Al-

though James deleted most of his social

media, an archived version of his Parler

account shows his posts were peppered

with hashtags like #stopthe steal2020,

#saveamerica and #deepstatecorruption.

He posted a photo from a “Stop the Steal”

rally in front of the White House on Nov. 14

with the caption “Communists and CCP

Loyalists want to change our way of life!”

It was a dramatic evolution for a man

who hadn’t been registered to vote before

Nation

Militia groups like the

Oath Keepers exploit the

sense of isolation that

may plague returning

combat veterans