Sunday Speaker Series: Jeffrey Toobin, author

Join us at 1:00 on Sunday July 23rd for our Sunday Speaker Series as we welcome Jeffrey Toobin, NYTimes Bestselling Author to speak with us about his newest book HOMEGROWN : Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism.

Violent right-wing extremism wasn’t born at the Capital on January 6th , 2021. In HOMEGROWN: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism (May 2nd , 2023/$29.99 hardcover), legal scholar and bestselling author Jeffrey Toobin traces a direct line from the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing carried out by McVeigh to the January 6 insurrection, providing not only a powerful retelling of one of the great outrages of our time but also a warning for our future.

Timothy McVeigh wanted to start a movement. Speaking to his lawyers days after the Oklahoma City bombing, the Gulf War veteran expressed no regrets: killing 168 people was his patriotic duty. He cited the Declaration of independence from memory: “Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it.” He had obsessively followed the siege of Waco, seethed at President Bill Clinton’s assault weapons ban, and drawn inspiration from Rush Limbaugh. He conducted target practice by shooting at pictures of Hillary Clinton. A self-proclaimed white separatist, he abhorred immigration and wanted women to return to traditional roles. As he watched the industrial decline of his native Buffalo, McVeigh longed for a time when America was great.

McVeigh once declared, “I believe there is an army out there, ready to rise up, even though I never found it.” But that doesn’t mean his army wasn’t there. As Toobin makes clear, McVeigh was not an ideological loner, as he is often portrayed, but rather a participant in the conservative counter-revolution of the 1990s. Toobin details how McVeigh’s principles and tactics have flourished in the decades since his death in 2001, reaching a culmination on January 6 when hundreds of rioters stormed the Capitol.

Based on an exclusive interview with Attorney General Merrick Garland, who, as a mid-level Justice Department lawyer, supervised the Oklahoma City bombing investigation, Toobin also reveals how Garland is displaying the same mix of strengths and weaknesses in the January 6 probe that he did a quarter-century earlier.

HOMEGROWN breaks news with original reportage based on nearly a million previously unreleased tapes, photographs, and documents, including detailed communications between McVeigh and his lawyers. It also benefits from new interviews with such key figures as Bill Clinton, Garland, and virtually every major participant in the case.

HOMEGROWN provides invaluable insight into the roots and gestation of the resentments and beliefs that continue to fuel a propensity for violence among the radical ideologues of today.