DEFUND? OR KILL?:

Idaho's rogue lieutenant governor--now vying for the state's top job--loves to say she "backs the blue." But for several years she has funneled money to a far-right operative who uses his social media platform to advocate violence against law enforcement.

The $26,785 Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin's office has paid Parrish Miller for "professional services" and "computer services" since she assumed her position in 2019 attracted scrutiny during a legislative hearing this January. Democratic lawmakers in the solidly red state questioned her decision to allocate funds out of her small budget to Miller, given that he simultaneously serves as an analyst for the Idaho Freedom Foundation, a conservative think tank caught up in a recent illegal lobbying scandal. Public disclosures show Miller also worked for McGeachin's 2018 campaign for the second-highest post in the state, receiving a total of $9,425.

What has received less attention is Miller's frothing animosity toward government in general and toward police officers and federal agents in particular. In a pair of 2020 opinion pieces, the Idaho Falls Post Register called Miller out for a Facebook post that urged confronting police who arrested a pandemic lockdown protester in Meridia, Idaho, with "an army of heavily armed citizens who won't tolerate their tyranny any longer." The articles also noted Miller frequently equates arrest with kidnapping on his page, and has written that "shooting someone who is attempting to kidnap you is always justified," that "there is nothing wrong with hunting down active kidnappers to bring them to justice."

"If anyone--including an employee of a criminal gang which calls itself a government--attempts to initiate force against an innocent individual, it is perfectly justifiable for that individual... to use defensive force (up to and including lethal force)," the paper quoted what seems to be a since-deleted post on his personal blog.

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