SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
A year and a half ago, in the summer of 2022, a sheriff from upstate New York shared a photo of himself online. He was holding an award from the Oath Keepers, the far-right militia group at the center of the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. That photo caught the attention of two reporters who cover upstate New York, and it kicked off a months-long investigation into the far-right landscape there. That reporting is now the subject of a new podcast called If All Else Fails from North Country Public Radio. And the hosts of that podcast are Emily Russell and Zach Hirsch, who join us now. Hey there.
ZACH HIRSCH, BYLINE: Hey, Scott.
EMILY RUSSELL, BYLINE: Hey, Scott.
DETROW: Thanks for being here. And before we dive into the story here and the and the far-right’s presence, just set the broader scene for us. The podcast is about upstate New York, specifically a part of the region called the North Country. Tell us about that area, Emily.
HIRSCH: It’s a massive part of northern New York, and it’s really similar to other parts of rural America. It’s pretty remote. Not that many people live here. The population has actually been dwindling. It’s very white working class. And we’ve seen the region get more conservative in recent years, with some people embracing far-right ideas and groups.
DETROW: And like you said, these are trends we’re seeing in so many parts of the country right now. Let’s talk about that sheriff that I mentioned that kicked off the series. Zach, what did you find when you started to investigate Lewis County Sheriff Mike Carpinelli?
HIRSCH: Yeah. So, Sheriff Carpinelli, we found he does have real connections to the Oath Keepers militia. He had contact with that group’s founder, Stewart Rhodes. The summer after January 6, Carpinelli emailed Rhodes, saying he’d been to a rally to support people arrested for the Capitol attack. We also found that Carpinelli has ties to a group called the Constitutional Sheriffs…
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