Two Minutes Past Nine BBC Radio 4

In the run up to the 2020 Presidential election, journalist Leah Sottile explored the motivations and agendas of America’s far right for the Radio 4 series Two Minutes Past Nine. Recordings were made against a backdrop of a country that felt tense, divided and dangerous.

In the past month, a lot has happened. In this reactive and raw programme, Leah explores America’s far-right at this very moment; fired up by conspiracies, frustrations, and the defeat of the first President they have ever supported.

On Wednesday 6th January, as a Joint Session of Congress met to certify the election of Joe Biden, Trump supporters breached security lines and stormed the Capitol Building in scenes that looked straight out of the racist hate filled propaganda novel The Turner Diaries. Two pipe bombs were found just blocks away at the offices of the Republican and Democratic national committees.
Leah asks how Donald Trump has managed to manipulate a rabble of foot-soldier extremists and asks what’s next - and how worried we should be.

Interviews include Kelvin Pierce, son of William Luther Pierce, author of The Turner Diaries, Kerry Noble, and former elder of far right militant group The Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of the Lord.

Thanks to Dave Hawkins for additional archive.

Presenter: Leah Sottile
Producer: Georgia Catt

25 years after Timothy McVeigh bombed the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, journalist Leah Sottile investigates the far-right today in a divided and turbulent America.
Presenter: Leah Sottile
Producer: Georgia Catt
Editor: Philip Sellars
Narration recorded by Joe Preston
Additional Research by Robbie Wojciechowski
Featuring Archive from the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum, Richie McGinniss/ Daily Caller and Brendan Gutenschwager

When Timothy McVeigh bombed the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City he believed he was firing the first shot in a revolution that would bring down the American Government. He expected that others would flock to his cause.
That didn’t happen. In the immediate aftermath many left the movement.
But in the years that followed events would unfold that would see the far right re-align.
Journalist Leah Sottile investigates the fallout of McVeigh's actions amongst America's far-right in the decade after after the bombing.
Presenter: Leah Sottile
Producer: Georgia Catt
Editor: Philip Sellars
Narration recorded by Joe Preston
Additional Research by Robbie Wojciechowski
Archive: CBS News' 60 Minutes, March 2000

On April 19th 1995, 26 year old Timothy McVeigh committed the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in American history.
In investigating the events that led up to the attack, journalist Leah Sottile learned that at the heart of McVeigh’s story were inherently American things: an Army boy. A love of guns. And a version of the great American road trip.
In the years leading up to the bombing, McVeigh drove across America; touring gun shows, visiting acquantances who would go on to be accomplices, even paying a trip to area 51.
But there was one place he spent longer than anywhere else, a town way out in the desert of Arizona.
Journalist Leah Sottile tells the story of Kingman Arizona, a place where the wild west cowboy myth persists.
Presenter: Leah Sottile
Producer: Georgia Catt
Editor: Philip Sellars
Narration recorded by Joe Preston
Additional Research by Robbie Wojciechowski
Archive recordings from Dave Hawkins.

25 years on from the largest domestic terror incident in American history, journalist Leah Sottile investigates what made Timothy McVeigh the home-grown terrorist he was.
Two weeks before the Oklahoma City Bombing, the FBI learnt that Timothy McVeigh made a phone call to a secretive Christian Identity compound in the remote hills outside Oklahoma City, a place called Elohim City. Journalist Leah Sottile investigates the story behind the call and the secretive community.
Presenter: Leah Sottile
Producer: Georgia Catt
Editor: Philip Sellars
Narration recorded by Joe Preston
Additional Research by Robbie Wojciechowski

When Timothy Mcveigh bombed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, he committed the worst act of domestic terrorism in US history.
The reasons he gave shocked people around the world. A hatred of the government that was so strong, so virulent, he hoped to start a revolution that would bring the government down.
But lots of people dislike the government. And because of this, some take off, find somewhere to live where they can get away from society. In America, it’s easy to find somewhere remote, then buy a plot of land, get off grid, ‘live free’.
We meet someone who did just that and joined a group who he believed shared his values. But slowly, over time and through the group’s isolation, he found himself arming for war and even plotting an act of domestic terrorism himself.
Leah Sottile investigates the story of The Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of the Lord, and explores what can be learnt from the story of others who felt that same need for retaliation against the government that Mcveigh did.
Presenter: Leah Sottile
Producer: Georgia Catt
Editor: Philip Sellars
Narration recorded by Joe Preston
Additional Research by Robbie Wojciechowski