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NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Friday, July 21, 2017, 5:00 AM

The bombshell emails exposing Donald Trump Jr.s meetings with Russian officials are proving Hillary Clinton's campaign right about the extent of foreign meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Yet the Russians werent the only bad actors whose support for Trump sparked a prophetic warning from Clinton last year.

Clinton also sounded an alarm about a threat whose origins were wholly domestic: right-wing, nationalist groups that were emboldened by Trumps rise. In August, she devoted an entire speech to outlining how Trumps campaign was luring this so-called alt-right movement out from the darkened corners of the internet.

At the time, alt-right was not a household term, and Clintons attention to this fringe elicited head-scratching from some. But six months into Trump's presidency, the groups comprising this movement are becoming dangerously mainstream.

The latest worrisome incident occurred just this weekend. For years, a remote Muslim settlement in the Catskills, known as Islamberg, has been the subject of unfounded rumors fanned by the right wing that the village of a few dozen families is a terrorist training camp. State and local police have openly refuted these allegations and asserted that the village, founded in 1980 by African-American Muslims seeking to escape crime and crowding in New York City, is peaceful and cooperative with authorities.

But right-wing activists, clad in militia-style uniforms, descended on the town Saturday anyway and staged a rally intimidating the Muslim community there.

This followed protests last month across dozens of U.S. cities that were nominally devoted to protesting sharia law, but seemed mainly designed to scare Muslims.

Among the ringleaders of these types of demonstrations is a group called the Proud Boys. The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights group, has called the Proud Boys a new fight-club fraternity of young white, pro-Trump men. The Proud Boys controversial founder, Gavin McInnes, is a frequent contributor to the pro-Trump, alt-right site known as InfoWars.

Among McInnes more offensive social media postings is a YouTube rant entitled Ten Things I Hate About Jews. In the video, he calls the Hebrew language spit talk and bemoans Israelis whiny, paranoid fear of Nazis. Others of his videos have been criticized for comments on women, Native Americans and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Much as InfoWars founder Alex Jones lawyer recently claimed in Jones divorce case that his work is satire, McInnes commentaries contain just enough ironic detachment for him to claim his purpose is not to actually promote bigotry.

But the Proud Boys embrace of violence is far less subtle or coy. Its initiation rituals include violent hazing. One ally, Kyle Chapman, has branched out to form an armor-clad, vigilante organization called the Fraternal Order of Alt Knights. Its goal is to provide security for right-wing activists at street demonstrations, but critics say the Alt Knights show up spoiling for a fight.

This is a war, McInnes has written in one of his online columns.

As a candidate, Trump courted this movement. As President, he mostly condones it. But the rest of us shouldnt just accept it as a new normal.

In the aftermath of the shooting at a baseball practice involving several members of Congress last month, there were widespread calls for return of civility to our public dialogue. Political differences among Republicans and Democrats are unlikely to subside anytime soon, but we should at least be able to mutually condemn groups that sow division and plainly glorify violence.

Elected leaders besides Trump should be confronted about whether they will disavow these groups activities. Advertisers that provide revenue to these right-wing figures propagandistic media companies should be boycotted. And social media platforms like Twitter should be pressed about continuing to allow them to post incendiary content and attract followings.

The rise of these groups is one of the more insidious trends in Donald Trumps America. Clintons early warning about these groups was treated as just another political swipe at Trump last summer, but it deserves heed now.

Fallon, a Democratic strategist, was press secretary for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.

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Hillary Clinton's alt-right warnings prove apt - New York Daily News