A daughter has identified her mom as part of a group who confronted a Black woman in DC after spotting her in a video.
Speaking to Buzzfeed News, 18-year-old Helena Duke explained that it was out of character for her mom to shut off her location earlier this week on a phone-tracking app that they share.
The teenager's mom, Therese Duke, had informed her - without giving her too many details - that she was taking Helena's aunt for a procedure.
Helena, however, thought it may have been possible that her mom, a Trump supporter, was actually heading to Washington, DC to attend the "Stop the Steal" rally.
The 18-year-old told Buzzfeed News that on Thursday morning, Helena's cousin had sent her a viral video featuring her mom, aunt, and uncle - filmed in DC the night before the storming of the Capitol.
According to Helena's account to Buzzfeed News, in the video, her mom, her aunt Annie Lorenz, and her uncle Richard Lorenz can be seen confronting a Black woman who allegedly hit Therese in the face after she had attempted to grab her.
"My initial reaction was more like, Oh my gosh, I was right. I was actually right about them being there," Helena told the publication. "It was very surreal because it was an insane video, first of all, and then it was the revelation that, Oh, that’s my mother. That’s her."
It is believed that the woman being confronted in the video had tweeted that a group of five people were harassing her for a lengthy period and had attempted to take her belongings from her.
So, Helena decided to tweet about the video and identified her mom as one of the people in it.
"hi mom remember the time you told me I shouldn't go to BLM protests bc they could get violent...this you?" she wrote.
"Before President Trump was elected, she was a Democrat for the majority of her life," Helena said. "And then, I don't know what happened. Something switched in her brain, and she went through a very dramatic change to very far right."
Helena said she's gotten a number of direct messages from people who've had similar experiences.
"I think it kind of makes me feel better knowing other people have gone through the same thing," she said. "I obviously feel very sad that they have to go through it, too, but that I'm not alone, and that they’re not alone."
It is not known whether Helena's family members were at the Capitol on Wednesday when the violence broke out.
Per BuzzFeed News, Helena messaged her mom asking where she was on Wednesday night but did not get a response.
The following day, after Therese messaged saying she was home, Helena responded asking, "how's your nose."
"Please call me or talk to me if you really wanna know," her mom wrote.
Her mom and aunt have allegedly sent her threats to remove the damning tweets.
"We are not proud of how things went in DC," Annie wrote in a text. "I know you are upset but putting us in danger isn't going to solve anything. Please ... I am Begging you to remove."
"I honestly don't think I did anything wrong in this situation," Helena said.
Helena is in disbelief at the hypocrisy shown by her mom. Indeed, when her mom discovered last year that she'd taken part in a Black Lives Matter march, she told her she was no longer welcome at home.
"She told me she thought Black Lives Matter was a violent organization and they would be inciting violence," she recalled.