State Rep Whose Wife Praised Hitler Spotted With Militia Sticker

ILLINOIS — An Illinois lawmaker said he didn't know anything about the sticker of an anti-government extremist group spotted on his truck outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

State Rep. Chris Miller, a downstate Republican, told the Daily Beast that the Three Percenter logo emblazoned on his rear window was given to him by a friend, and he didn't know what it meant.

"Army friend gave me decal," Miller told the website in an email. "Thought it was a cool decal."

Miller said he didn't know anything about the right-wing militia group and blamed the "fake news" for negative publicity.

In a separate statement to the Washington Post, Miller said his intention "was to display what I thought was a patriotic statement."

"I love our country and consider myself a patriot," he said.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Three Percenters are one of the principal groups involved in the American anti-government movement, which often espouses racist conspiracy theories against Jews, immigrants and African Americans.

Though not all anti-government groups are racist, and many do not advocate violence, the SPLC cautions, the Three Percenters have been linked to a 2017 bomb plot modeled on the Oklahoma City Bombing, the bombing of a Minnesota Islamic Center in 2018, and a failed kidnapping plot targeting Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

"The reference to 3 percent stems from the dubious historical claim that only 3 percent of American colonists fought against the British during the War of Independence," according to the SPLC.

Miller's truck was spotted at the Capitol the same day a pro-Trump mob ransacked the building in an attempt to stop lawmakers from certifying Joe Biden's win in the Electoral College, leading to the death of four rioters and one police officer.

Miller was there to visit his wife, he said, U.S. Rep. Mary Miller, who just a day prior had praised Hitler at a "Moms for America" rally, saying, "Hitler was right on one thing, he said: whoever has the youth has the future."

She later apologized, insisting that she is "passionately pro-Israel" and a "strong advocate and ally of the Jewish community."

Chris Miller also attended the so-called "Save America" rally just prior to the deadly insurrection, posting a video from the Ellipse in which he said, "We're engaged in a great cultural war to see which world view will survive, whether we will remain a free people under free-market capitalism, or whether they will put us under the tyranny of socialism and communism."

In the video, he accused "dangerous Democrat terrorists" of "trying to destroy the country."

The Illinois Democratic County Chairs Association accused Miller of removing such social media posts in hopes of distancing himself from the insurrection and called on the Office of the Legislative Inspector General to investigate his involvement in the day's events.

"Representative Chris Miller swore an oath of office to support the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of the State of Illinois," the group said in a Feb. 26 letter. "Miller’s attendance at the rally that turned into a mob and insurrection of our nation’s Capitol is troubling, and to date many unanswered questions remain about his subsequent actions and whereabouts that day."

ABC News reports Jan. 6 was not the first time Miller has been spotted with the Three Percenter logo. At a rally in May 2020, organized by an Illinois group affiliated with the Three Percenters, Miller spoke in front of a Three Percenter banner.

"We can be thankful [that] neither 'Crooked Hillary' or 'Creepy, Sleepy Joe' will ever be the president of the United States," Miller said during that speech.