{"id":128860,"date":"2026-07-06T12:11:04","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T07:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=128860"},"modified":"2026-07-06T12:11:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T07:11:37","slug":"us-official-defends-july-4-white-supremacist-march","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128860\/","title":{"rendered":"US official defends July 4 white supremacist march"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON(National Times)-  A top US official on Sunday shrugged off a July Fourth parade by masked white supremacists in Washington as an example of \u201cmessy\u201d democracy that fell under the banner of constitutionally protected free speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cCertainly what they stand for is nothing that I could possibly agree with. But one of the foundational principles of the United States, which makes democracy messy, is free speech,\u201d Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told&nbsp;<em>CNN<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In striking scenes as Americans celebrated the nation\u2019s 250th birthday on Saturday, hundreds of masked men carrying Confederate battle flags or US flags and sporting logos of the white supremacist Patriot Front movement were seen marching through parts of Washington, shouting \u201cReclaim America!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wearing a uniform of tan pants and hats and dark blue shirts, and apparently led by the neo-fascist group\u2019s founder Thomas Rousseau, the masked men crowded onto the city\u2019s Metro system, gathered outside Union Station train station and marched towards Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Asked by CNN whether he would condemn the group and what they stand for, and whether he would urge President Donald Trump to do the same, Burgum couched his language carefully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere are plenty of things that I see that I might personally find offensive, irreprehensible (sic). But in America, free speech is allowed\u201d under the US Constitution, the interior secretary said, going on to decry progressive candidates who were running for election as \u201ccommunists\u201d in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Washington\u2019s Metropolitan Police Department said the white nationalist group marched briefly through neighbourhoods around the US Capitol and left the city before 11am.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMPD recognises the rights of individuals to peacefully express their views and remains committed to maintaining public safety and security for DC residents and visitors,\u201d a police spokeswoman said in a statement reported by US media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Patriot Front was founded in the aftermath of a deadly \u201cUnite the Right\u201d rally in 2017 that brought torch-bearing white nationalists from all over the country to Charlottesville, Virginia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u2018Very fine people\u2019 remarks by Trump<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That rally culminated in an avowed white supremacist driving a car into counter-protesters, killing one woman and injuring 19 other people. Trump infamously took 48 hours to respond to the violence, and then said there were \u201cvery fine people on both sides\u201d of the protests, drawing widespread criticism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Southern Poverty Law Center, a legal advocacy group that tracks extremism in the US, describes the Patriot Front as a white nationalist hate group that \u201cfocuses on theatrical rhetoric and activism.\u201d In a new counterterrorism strategy released in May, the Trump administration identified \u201cviolent leftwing extremists\u201d as among three major types of terror threats that the country faces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This marked a break from the previous administration of Democrat Joe Biden, which had identified far-right fringe groups, particularly those espousing white supremacy, as a major threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>New York shooting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At least eight people, including four children, were shot and injured late on the US Independence Day holiday in New York City\u2019s Coney Island neighbourhood, ABC News said on Sunday, citing the New York City Police Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Officers from the NYPD responded to reports of a shooting at around 10:37pm (0237 GMT on Sunday) on the Brooklyn neighbourhood\u2019s West 31st Street, the NYPD said in a statement to ABC News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The injured included two men, two women, and four children aged 14, 12, 7 and 6 according to the news outlet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It quoted the NYPD as saying all the victims had been transported to hospitals. Seven were in stable condition, it said, while a 21-year-old woman was in critical condition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Police said they recovered a firearm at the scene but have not made any arrests, according to ABC. Saturday marked the 250th anniversary of the independence of the United States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON(National Times)- A top US official on Sunday shrugged off a July Fourth parade by masked white supremacists in Washington as an example of \u201cmessy\u201d democracy that fell under the banner of constitutionally protected free speech. \u201cCertainly what they stand for is nothing that I could possibly agree with. But one of the foundational principles [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>US official defends July 4 white supremacist march - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128860\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"US official defends July 4 white supremacist march - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"WASHINGTON(National Times)- A top US official on Sunday shrugged off a July Fourth parade by masked white supremacists in Washington as an example of \u201cmessy\u201d democracy that fell under the banner of constitutionally protected free speech. \u201cCertainly what they stand for is nothing that I could possibly agree with. But one of the foundational principles [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128860\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-06T07:11:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-07-06T07:11:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Untitled-design-10-3.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"670\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"370\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128860\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128860\/\",\"name\":\"US official defends July 4 white supremacist march - Nation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128860\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128860\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Untitled-design-10-3.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-06T07:11:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-06T07:11:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128860\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128860\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128860\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Untitled-design-10-3.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Untitled-design-10-3.png\",\"width\":670,\"height\":370},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128860\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"US official defends July 4 white supremacist march\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\",\"name\":\"Nation\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\",\"name\":\"humza Jahangir\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"humza Jahangir\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/author\/humza\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"US official defends July 4 white supremacist march - Nation","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128860\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"US official defends July 4 white supremacist march - Nation","og_description":"WASHINGTON(National Times)- A top US official on Sunday shrugged off a July Fourth parade by masked white supremacists in Washington as an example of \u201cmessy\u201d democracy that fell under the banner of constitutionally protected free speech. \u201cCertainly what they stand for is nothing that I could possibly agree with. 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