DESCENDENTS React To Ex-Oath Keepers Spokesperson Wearing Band T-Shirt While Testifying Before Jan. 6 Committee

DESCENDENTS have publicly distanced themselves from an ex-Oath Keepers spokesperson who testified before the January 6 committee while wearing the band's merchandise.

Jason Van Tatenhove was the former national media director of the Oath Keepers, a radical far-right anti-government group. He began working with them in 2014 but said he stopped when they he heard them falsely claiming that the Holocaust hadn't happened.

Earlier today (Tuesday, July 12), Van Tatenhove wore a shirt with the DESCENDENTS logo while testifying on in front of the House committee investigating the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, prompting the long-running Californian hardcore punk group to release the following statement via Twitter: "We completely disavow groups like the Oath Keepers and in no way condone their hateful ideology."

The committee has been probing whether extremist groups such as the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys coordinated with allies in the White House before the violence erupted at the Capitol.

During his testimony, Van Tatenhove said: "In my opinion, the Oath Keepers are a very dangerous organization. I can tell you that they may not like to call themselves a militia, but they are. They're a violent militia. I think the best illustration for what the Oath Keepers are happened January 6th, when we saw that stacked military formation going up the stairs of our Capitol. What it was going to be was an armed revolution. I think we've gotten exceedingly lucky that more bloodshed did not happen."

ICED EARTH guitarist Jon Schaffer is one of more than two dozen members of the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys who were sued by District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine last December in an effort to recover the millions of dollars the city spent to defend the U.S. Capitol during the January 6 attack.

According to CNN, the lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., accused 31 members of the extremist groups of "conspiring to terrorize the District" on Jan. 6, calling their actions "a coordinated act of domestic terrorism." The lawsuit cited the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, a federal law created after the Civil War to protect civil rights and, as Racine noted, "to protect against vigilantes and insurrectionists."

"I think the damages are substantial," Racine told The Washington Post. "If it so happens that it bankrupts or puts these individuals and entities in financial peril, so be it."

The Indiana chapter of the Oath Keepers distanced itself from Schaffer after his arrest, claiming he was not a member of the local group. But the national organization, which sells lifetime memberships for $1,200, has not commented on his alleged affiliation with the group.

At a November 2020 Donald Trump rally in Washington, D.C., Schaffer was videotaped walking behind a Florida couple, Kelly Meggs and Connie Meggs, who were accused of being among 10 members of the Oath Keepers to have played a leading role in the Capitol assault. According to federal authorities, Kelly and Connie Meggs plotted for weeks ahead of the attack, attended training sessions and recruited others. Kelly Meggs is the head of the Oath Keepers' chapter in Florida.