TIME COLLAPSES INTO itself in a place like this. If you've been to one, you've been to them all, give or take an insurrection. The crowd is not representative of humanity and not representative of the voting public. It is a carnival for those with several hours to kill in the middle of a workday. The unemployed, the retired, the superfans, the super-freaks, and the super-curious. A tour bus pulled up to the corner to release dozens of star-spangled elderly people from Orlando, hunched over walkers and carrying banners and flags and assorted paraphernalia that read TRUMP and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN and 45 and SAVE AMERICA AGAIN and I STAND FOR THE FLAG, I KNEEL FOR THE CROSS.
I heard my name. Not something I especially wanted to hear in this crowd, if I'm being honest. "Sup, Olivia?" It was Anthime Gionet, a far-right personality known as "Baked Alaska." I'd last seen him in 2016 when he was chasing me around a press conference in Las Vegas to harass me on his livestream. Since then, he had documented his unlawful occupation of the Capitol on January 6, a crime for which he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 60 days in federal prison. I've got this primal aversion to being followed around by unstable men, and as I tried to shake Baked Alaska, he told me and his viewers not to worry, he wouldn't "troll" me this time.
This story is from the June 19-July 2, 2023 edition of New York magazine.
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This story is from the June 19-July 2, 2023 edition of New York magazine.
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