Truck crashes into WH security barriers; Nazi flag found

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The U.S. Secret Service said it had detained the driver of a rented box truck that crashed into security barriers near the White House on Monday night, perhaps intentionally, but that there were no injuries or ongoing danger.

A Reuters witness said investigators found a Nazi swastika flag that apparently came from inside the truck, which crashed into barriers at Lafayette Square, adjacent to the White House grounds.

Officers retrieved the flag and plastic evidence bags that had been laid out on the sidewalk following the crash and placed them in the back of the U-Haul, a Reuters photographer said.

"Preliminary investigation reveals the driver may have intentionally struck the security barriers at Lafayette Square," Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the Secret Service, said on Twitter.

U.S. Park Police would file charges with investigative support from the Secret Service, he added.

WUSA television showed video of a box-type, U-Haul truck stopped alongside a row of steel bollards, with uniformed law-enforcement officers and a dog approaching the vehicle. A remote-controlled robot pried open the truck's rear door, revealing a dolly but no other obvious cargo.

Chris Zaboji, a witness to the crash, posted a brief video on social media showing the truck driving into the barricades. The video was verified by Reuters. After crashing once, the driver hit the barriers a second time, he said.

A previous tweet from the Secret Service's Guglielmi said nobody from the White House or Secret Service was injured.

Soon there was a major law-enforcement and public safety response, before investigators determined the contents of the mostly empty truck were harmless.

A Missouri man who drove a rented box truck into security barriers near the White House was charged with threatening the president after authorities said they believe he may have deliberately crashed.

The driver, identified as Sai Varshith Kandula, 19, of Chesterfield, Missouri, was detained by the Secret Service.

Kandula faces a battery of charges, including threatening to kill, kidnap or inflict harm on the president, vice president or a family member, the U.S. Park Police said in a statement.

"Preliminary investigation reveals the driver may have intentionally struck the security barriers at Lafayette Square," Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said on Twitter.

For decades, Lafayette Square has been a prominent site for political protests and free-speech events. It was closed off in May 2020 by a perimeter fence installed after the Black Lives Matter protests. The fence has since been removed but barriers blocking traffic from the side streets remain.

This dude is a nazi? WTF

The leader of the proud boys is a person of color. Politics makes strange bedfellows.

The man accused of crashing a U-Haul truck into a security barrier near the White House Monday night praised Adolf Hitler to investigators after his arrest and said that he aimed to “kill the President,” according to court documents.

Sai Varshith Kandula, 19, of Chesterfield, Missouri, is in custody and has been charged in federal court with one count of depredation of property of the United States in excess of $1,000. US Park Police originally arrested Kandula on several charges, including threatening to kill or harm a president, vice president or family member. It’s possible that prosecutors add additional charges as the case progresses.

Kandula, in handcuffs and wearing a t-shirt and shorts, appeared in DC Superior Court Tuesday afternoon, US Park Police told CNN, and was held in custody without bail. He has not yet entered a formal plea in federal court – where his case is expected to continue with an initial appearance on the single charge Wednesday – and a lawyer for him in that case has not yet been named publicly.

The Secret Service said no agency or White House personnel were injured in the incident.

Kandula made threatening comments regarding the White House at the scene, including that he wanted to kidnap and harm President Joe Biden, law enforcement sources told CNN.

In court documents unsealed Tuesday, investigators said that a US Park Police officer saw Kandula drive up onto the sidewalk and into metal barriers, sending several pedestrians running. When the truck failed to go through the barriers, Kandula allegedly backed up before striking the barriers a second time.

After the crash, Kandula allegedly removed the flag “from a black backpack he was carrying.”

In an interview after the arrest, investigators asked Kandula about the Nazi flag he displayed after the crash. The 19-year-old said he bought the flag because “Nazi’s have a great history,” adding that he admires their “authoritarian nature, Eugenics, and their one world order,” according to court documents. Investigators wrote that “when asked if he looks up to any leaders, Kandula answered ‘Hitler, because he was a strong leader.’”

Kandula told officers that he had been planning the attack for six months and had flown to Washington from St. Louis earlier that evening, according to court documents.

Prosecutors said Kandula also told officers that he aimed to “get to the White House, seize power, and be put in charge of the nation,” and was prepared to “kill the President if that’s what I have to do and would hurt anyone that would stand in my way.”

The White House said Biden was not in danger during the incident. National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told CNN’s Kate Bolduan that it was “difficult to know for sure” what the suspect’s motivations were and that the incident was still being investigated.

Video taken by a witness showed the 26-foot moving truck stopped on the sidewalk near Lafayette Square before the driver accelerates and crashes into a set of security bollards that ring the White House complex to prevent unauthorized vehicular traffic.

The leader of the proud boys is a person of color. Politics makes strange bedfellows.

If only all Nazi’s were this dumb.

Don't forget incel, Holocaust denier, Anti-Semite-racist, and Hitler fan, Nick Fuentes, whose very name gives away his ethnicity.

Idi Amin praised Hitler frequently during his regime in Uganda.

Far-right politics are not strictly a white thing.