How a standoff in Nevada years ago set the militia movement on a crash course with the US Capitol

One year after the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol, experts say some of the rhetoric behind the attack got a big boost from a clash that took place years before in Nevada.

Within days of Joe Biden being projected the winner of the 2020 presidential election, the founder of the Oath Keepers militia, Stewart Rhodes, appeared on right-wing radio to warn of a coming "bloody fight" to save "the republic."

The election had been "stolen" from Donald Trump, Rhodes declared to conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, saying that "just as Americans across the country stormed the Bundy ranch to stand up for a rancher's family, we need to go to Washington with the same conviction."

It was a fleeting moment on fringe radio, but it reflected nearly a decade's worth of anti-government rhetoric. In one moment, it connected some of the nation's most prominent anti-government figures: Jones, Rhodes, and the Bundy family, who led two high-profile confrontations with the federal government in 2014 and 2016.

Two months after Rhodes' radio appearance, on Jan. 6, 2021, the so-called "big lie" of a stolen presidential election drove a mob to attack the U.S. Capitol, as Congress met to certify the 2020 election results.