Finally, after a prayer from a pastor associated with the far-right religious website Church Militant, the motorcade departed an hour later than planned and headed down Interstate 95. A bus with MAGA slogans led the way.
Almost immediately, one of the vehicles in the convoy got lost, according to a message posted on the Zello walkie-talkie app that the group uses to communicate while on the road. The convoy then met up to discuss plans for the evening, and the meeting quickly devolved into a discussion about where to stay. Even trying to meet up at a gas station was difficult. Due to the large size of the South Carolina Buckeye, members of the convoy were unable to locate each other.
A few hours after departure, the first bus stopped on the shoulder of the freeway, ejecting a passenger who had traveled alone from Washington, D.C. It's unclear exactly why he was expelled, but the newspaper said he was part of a group that has been protesting daily in support of those jailed for rioting at the Capitol on January 6. He was stranded in Florence, South Carolina, without his wallet. Details were discussed on a livestream of someone in contact with the man.
The six people who were live-streaming the motorcade throughout the day spent much of their time answering questions from the thousands of people watching.
Most of the questions concerned a conspiracy that the convoy was “orchestrated” by the federal government to “entrap patriots.” According to leaks of the group's chat on Discord, that sense of paranoia has been present in the group from the beginning. “This group will quickly become full of trolls and baiters,” one member wrote a week ago.
Paranoia was also rampant on Telegram channels used to coordinate convoys in different parts of the country. “I hope this isn't another J6 trap. People need to pray for discernment about this. But after three years of this, people are tired of it,” one lawmaker said. People wrote, referring to the widely debunked conspiracy that the Capitol riot was a left-wing plot to trap Trump supporters.
On Monday, after cars started driving down the road, organizers issued a press release claiming that “groups are forming to infiltrate the convoy.” The statement also claims that “nowhere on the website does it say anything about the convoy heading to the border,” although the main convoy's route clearly states that its final destination is Eagle Pass. This is inaccurate because
Additionally, one of the convoy's organizers, Pete Chambers, told Alex Jones last week that his plan includes going to the border to hunt migrants and working with local law enforcement to capture them. He said that this also includes. He noted that several people traveling with the convoy will be going to Eagle Pass on Monday. “We're all going to the border,” one member declared on a livestream Monday night.
