WEBVTT - The Enid, OK Recall Election 0:00:01.760 --> 0:00:02.880 Cool Zone Media. 0:00:05.080 --> 0:00:09.840 Welcome back to it could Happen Here a podcast about 0:00:09.880 --> 0:00:13.119 things falling apart. And when things fall apart, one of 0:00:13.119 --> 0:00:14.920 the things that happens is you get a bunch of 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:17.720 a lot of opportunities for a lot of weird little guys, 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:20.000 a lot a lot of Nazis and other kinds of 0:00:20.040 --> 0:00:23.000 scums start, you know, sliding up to the surface in 0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:26.040 the hopes that they can get some of the sweet 0:00:26.079 --> 0:00:30.080 sweet oxygen of collapse. And that's why we've brought onto 0:00:30.120 --> 0:00:32.960 the program and are bringing into the network our good 0:00:32.960 --> 0:00:37.600 friend Molly Conger for a little recurrence series. I like 0:00:37.680 --> 0:00:41.240 to call look Who's stalking? That was the That was 0:00:41.280 --> 0:00:43.559 the stocking joke. I'm wanted to open the episode with 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:44.400 my ow journey. 0:00:44.560 --> 0:00:47.519 I'm not stalking anyone. I would never do that. That 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:49.560 is a crime. This is reporting. 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:53.800 It is reporting, and the line between reporting and stalking 0:00:53.960 --> 0:00:56.400 always clear, you know. 0:00:56.560 --> 0:01:02.280 I think it's it's on the publication. Yeah, yeah, so, Robert, 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:05.720 Today's topic is such a perfect mashup of so many 0:01:05.800 --> 0:01:08.679 of my favorite things. It couldn't be more my speed 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:13.120 unless this whole story took place on a Wiener dog ranch. Right, Yeah, 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:15.959 this story has city council meetings that got rowdy. It 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:18.120 has unite the right attendee getting docks. It has the 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:20.640 internal calms of a hate group getting leaked. It has 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:23.080 regular ass people putting their foot down about hate in 0:01:23.120 --> 0:01:26.160 their town. It is a year's long arc of one 0:01:26.200 --> 0:01:30.360 man's journey from fucking around to finding out his evolution, 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:34.520 from chanting you will not replace us to getting replaced 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:38.399 at the ballot box. This is the story of Enid, Oklahoma. 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:42.920 Ward one City Commissioner Judson Gannon Blevins. 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:46.360 Oh my god, Ah, we're going back to my old home. 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:50.320 That's why you spent some time in Oklahoma as a kid. 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:52.920 So so, jud Levins was raised in the town of 0:01:53.080 --> 0:01:56.440 en in Oklahoma, and the listener, you'd be forgiven for 0:01:56.480 --> 0:01:58.720 thinking this is the story of a small town. And 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:01.040 I'll be honest, I did. I never heard of Enid, 0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:03.040 but you grew up in the area. Do you have 0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:06.800 any sort of pre existing notions of Garfield County? Uh? 0:02:06.880 --> 0:02:10.920 Yeah, I mean Enid was like a bigger play. I 0:02:10.960 --> 0:02:13.000 grew up in Ida Bell, which was really out in 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:17.000 the sticks, so kind of everywhere was more civilization than 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:20.480 Ida Bell, but Enid certainly was. Although not much. No 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:23.080 one would No one would accuse it of much civilization. 0:02:23.880 --> 0:02:27.400 It is apparently the ninth largest city in Oklahoma, which 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:29.120 was surprising to me. It's an hour and a half 0:02:29.160 --> 0:02:33.679 outside of Oklahoma City, seventy six percent white, sixty percent Republican, 0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:36.840 and according to a twenty twenty one article on Yahoo 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:39.960 News that reads like it was written by an intoxicated chatbot, 0:02:40.280 --> 0:02:42.680 it is ranked one of the most conservative cities in 0:02:42.720 --> 0:02:43.200 the country. 0:02:43.800 --> 0:02:47.720 Yeah that all scans for enid share. Now that scans 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:51.120 for a lot of cities in Oklahoma, mind you right. 0:02:50.960 --> 0:02:54.040 They could have named any of them. Yeah, but it 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:56.480 has a population of about fifty thousand, which is actually 0:02:56.520 --> 0:03:00.480 the same size as Charlottesville, my hometown and a city 0:03:00.520 --> 0:03:03.480 that Judson Blevins happened to visit in the summer of 0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:06.600 twenty seventeen. In twenty eighteen, the former US Marine moved 0:03:06.600 --> 0:03:09.040 back to his hometown to work at his father's roofing business. 0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:12.680 In twenty nineteen, he was publicly identified as a regional 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:16.720 leader in a white supremacist organization, and in twenty twenty 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:19.520 two he announced he was running for office. 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:24.600 I mean that all that's a very Oklahoma politician. Route 0:03:24.680 --> 0:03:27.720 it's also like a not a white like. From roofing 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:31.800 to white supremacy not a wildly uncommon route for people 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:32.799 to take in Oklahoma. 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:34.040 Now he's still doing both. 0:03:34.520 --> 0:03:36.280 Oh good. I mean, you never want to give up 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:39.040 on your passion for roofing. That would have made me sad. 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:41.120 Although some of his supporters have pointed out that he 0:03:41.240 --> 0:03:43.800 hires lots of non white people to do manual labor, 0:03:43.840 --> 0:03:44.920 so how could he be racist? 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:45.560 Yeah? 0:03:45.600 --> 0:03:46.680 I mean you don't want to get up on those 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:50.960 roofs yourself. That's dangerous. Sorry, Yeah, it's hot out. Yeah, 0:03:51.120 --> 0:03:52.680 this is all pretty Oklahoma so far. 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:57.200 On February fourteenth, twenty twenty three, jud Levins narrowly won 0:03:57.240 --> 0:03:59.760 a seat on the Eden City Council, defeating the incumbent 0:03:59.800 --> 0:04:03.400 by just thirty six votes. His past ties the now 0:04:03.440 --> 0:04:07.760 defunct white supremacist group Identity Europa were no secret. Of course, 0:04:07.800 --> 0:04:10.720 by twenty twenty three, Identity Europa didn't exist anymore. So 0:04:10.720 --> 0:04:12.200 I don't blame you if you don't have a clear 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:14.800 memory of exactly what kind of Nazi group they were. 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:16.680 And I want to make it very clear, I don't 0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:19.440 want time, distance and white polo shirts to soften this 0:04:20.000 --> 0:04:22.680 Identity Europa was a neo Nazi organization. 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:25.960 Oh yeah. They were also just like the most infiltrated 0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:29.320 group of the Trump era. Like of all the Nazi 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:30.960 orgs and the Trump era, I feel like they were 0:04:30.960 --> 0:04:33.839 the one where every week someone else got inside their comms. 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:38.719 Well, I guess Blevin's maybe part to blame for that 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:40.400 as the regional coordinator. 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:42.960 Oh good, so he was doing a great job. 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:46.040 But Identity Europa was modeled after the far right French 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:49.320 Identitarian movement and sought the creation of a white ethno state. 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:52.560 You will not replace us. Chance you remember from Unite 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:55.280 the Right were actually popularized by Identity Europa at their 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:58.680 rallies earlier that year, and, according to testimony from a 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:02.880 former girlfriend, one time Identity Europa leader Elliot Klein considered 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:08.040 himself quote an unironic exterminationist and he had violent fantasies 0:05:08.040 --> 0:05:12.240 about killing Jewish people himself. So it's not just guys 0:05:12.320 --> 0:05:13.080 hanging out right. 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:13.800 No. 0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:18.400 Identity Europa was founded in twenty sixteen by Nathan Dimigo, 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:21.359 a former marine who went to prison after drunkenly pulling 0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:24.760 a gun on a cab driver for quote looking Iraqi. 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:29.960 Well that gets at least he's honest. 0:05:31.080 --> 0:05:33.560 But while he was doing his time, he read David 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:35.000 Duke's autobiography. 0:05:36.240 --> 0:05:38.520 Oh and he had. 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:40.680 An awakening, right, he read My awakening and he had 0:05:40.680 --> 0:05:41.720 an awakening in prison? 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:42.719 Yeah yeah, yeah. 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:44.240 You know, you go to prison for a hay crime, 0:05:44.240 --> 0:05:48.440 you read a little David Duke, you get some ideas. 0:05:48.440 --> 0:05:52.200 Man, it it's not a good book. Like that's my 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:56.320 thing about having David Duke's autobiography be like your life 0:05:56.400 --> 0:05:59.440 changing event is a it's not even a good book, right, 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:02.479 which I guess neither was mindcomp but I feel like 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:04.440 everyone's lying about that one. 0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:07.360 So according to some this is so off the beaten path. Here, 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:09.600 this is, I have to say it. According to some 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:14.240 payments that came out in a divorce proceeding, David Duke 0:06:14.320 --> 0:06:18.440 made payments to Kevin Strome for ghostwriting it. Kevin Strom 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:21.839 is the pedophile who actually said that thing that people 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:23.520 think full Teraar said about the Jews. 0:06:24.480 --> 0:06:27.960 Oh cool, yeah great. 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:31.359 So just something to think about when you're reading David 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:33.160 Duke's autobiography in prison. 0:06:33.279 --> 0:06:36.839 I guess, I mean, I guess I had wondered what 0:06:36.880 --> 0:06:39.760 happens to pedophiles like when they're back out in the world, like, 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:40.240 how do you. 0:06:40.160 --> 0:06:42.279 Get your wife? 0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:42.599 Now? 0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:45.080 No, that was before that was yeah, No, he's got 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:45.840 a kid now, so. 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:48.359 Oh what, No, he shouldn't do that. 0:06:50.440 --> 0:06:53.280 Okay, great, not allowed to live near a school, but 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:54.960 I guess they can't stop you from procreating. 0:06:55.400 --> 0:06:57.159 We should evaluate some of that. I don't know. 0:06:57.800 --> 0:07:01.760 Anyway, back to our friend Nate, Right, So Nathan Amigo 0:07:02.000 --> 0:07:04.320 gets out of prison, makes his own hate group. You 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:06.960 may also remember him as the guy who bravely beat 0:07:06.960 --> 0:07:09.039 the shit out of a ninety five pound woman at 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:12.320 the rally in Berkeley in April of twenty seventeen. Oh yeah, 0:07:12.480 --> 0:07:14.840 and they memed the hell out of that. They squeezed 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:16.480 it for all it was worth that they used that 0:07:16.520 --> 0:07:19.240 image of him beating that woman in the street for 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:23.600 promotion and recruitment. Dimigo himself touted a spike in membership applications, 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:26.880 which he attributed to the popularity of the video. Identity 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:29.720 Europa was heavily involved in the Summer of Hate, that 0:07:29.840 --> 0:07:32.280 rash of violent white supremacist rallies across the country in 0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:35.080 twenty seventeen. They were instrumental in planning as Unite the 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:38.880 Right rally, But when the group's discord server was leaked 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:41.320 in March of twenty nineteen and published in full by 0:07:41.400 --> 0:07:44.600 Unicorn Riot. Their leader at the time, Patrick Casey, quickly 0:07:44.640 --> 0:07:47.720 announced a rebrand, Identity Europa is no more. They were 0:07:47.760 --> 0:07:51.240 the American Identity Movement now, much to the displeasure of 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:54.760 the American Indian Movement, whose acronym they stole. But the 0:07:54.760 --> 0:07:57.280 rebrand was not successful and the group died out completely 0:07:57.320 --> 0:08:00.800 in twenty twenty, and Casey tried to protein the rebrand 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:03.000 wasn't just an attempt to escape the fallout of the leak, 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:05.960 but it really was the leak that killed Identity Europa. 0:08:06.040 --> 0:08:08.640 At least seven active duty military members were identified in 0:08:08.680 --> 0:08:11.119 the leak. A school resource officer at a high school 0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:14.600 in Virginia was suspended, a Minnesota National guardsman was recalled 0:08:14.600 --> 0:08:17.200 from basic training. So jud Levins was just one of 0:08:17.240 --> 0:08:19.560 dozens of members of the group to be identified in 0:08:19.640 --> 0:08:23.240 those chatlogs. The work of anti fascist researchers who identified 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:26.120 Blevins and the leak chats was corroborated and published in 0:08:26.160 --> 0:08:28.960 an article on right Wing Watch by Jared Hult within weeks, 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:31.320 and it's about as solid as an idea as you 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:34.520 could hope for from a chatlog, or, depending on your position, 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:37.800 the kind of idea you really don't want. A user 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:42.360 called Conway was Identity Europa's regional coordinator for Oklahoma. He 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:46.000 recruited and vetted new members, organized outings for banner drops 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:48.839 and social events, and frequently posted pictures of the white 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:51.880 supremacist propaganda he'd been putting up, encouraging others to do 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:54.040 the same, and offering tips on how to create more 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:58.200 effective visuals for the group's online accounts. In over eleven 0:08:58.280 --> 0:09:01.560 hundred posts over a nearly two new year period, he 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:04.440 left a lot of clues. He posted a link to 0:09:04.559 --> 0:09:08.400 an article in his hometown paper, the Enid News and Eagle. 0:09:08.600 --> 0:09:11.560 He posted a photo of a relative's baby, details about 0:09:11.600 --> 0:09:13.719 his parents' lineage, his plans to move home to work 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:15.839 for his father's business, and in the lead up to 0:09:15.840 --> 0:09:18.280 the Unite the Right rally, he excitedly shared the discord 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:20.360 that he would be carrying the original flag of the 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:23.800 state of Oklahoma, a red rectangle with the number forty 0:09:23.840 --> 0:09:26.880 six inside of a white star, and photos from the 0:09:26.960 --> 0:09:30.760 rallies show just one man carrying that distinctive flag that 0:09:30.920 --> 0:09:32.719 was designed by a member of the Daughters of the 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:36.600 Confederacy jud Levins. As he grew into his role as 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:40.959 regional coordinator for Identity Europa, he coordinated member meetups, getting 0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:43.280 several guys from Oklahoma to drive down to Texas for 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:47.160 a get together. Conway posted about the meetup, and photos 0:09:47.160 --> 0:09:50.440 posted by other attendees show Blevins standing shoulder to shoulder 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:55.319 with other members holding a large Identity Europa banner. Conway 0:09:55.360 --> 0:09:57.720 even posted about his appearance on a twenty eighteen episode 0:09:57.720 --> 0:10:01.080 of Identity Europa's podcast, where he emphas the importance of 0:10:01.160 --> 0:10:04.840 staying in the you will not replace us mindset. So 0:10:04.880 --> 0:10:06.400 by the time he announced his run for office in 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:09.200 twenty twenty two, it had been over three years since 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:11.360 he'd been out at his Conway the Hate Group member 0:10:11.400 --> 0:10:13.720 who attended the Unite the Right rally, and. 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:16.640 You could see why he would think it would work, right, 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:21.840 because that you will not replace us thing. It's become 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:27.480 like the mainstream Republican politics, right like this, this ideology 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:30.760 has at least one in the Republican Party, but it's 0:10:30.800 --> 0:10:34.400 also one divorced from these guys because even they are 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:37.960 like they're too toxic for even the modern Republicans, like 0:10:38.000 --> 0:10:41.480 it's it's remarkable, but I also get why he thought 0:10:41.559 --> 0:10:44.040 this would work, and I think. 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:47.680 I mean, I don't know what his connection remain to 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:51.000 other members of IE after it dissolved, but towards the 0:10:51.200 --> 0:10:53.559 end of it, as it was dying, right, So under 0:10:54.040 --> 0:10:57.120 Elliott Klein, you know, Klein wanted to make a militia 0:10:57.160 --> 0:10:59.520 for Richard Spencer. He wanted to you know, build IE 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:02.200 into a fighting force. But under Patrick Casey, they sort 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:05.760 of moved back towards we should be trying to influence 0:11:05.840 --> 0:11:10.040 inside of politics. We should be going to colleges and 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:14.160 getting you know, conservative students to become more base right. 0:11:14.200 --> 0:11:17.880 So this is a rational course of conduct, I think 0:11:17.960 --> 0:11:21.520 for where he was in twenty nineteen when Identity Europa died. 0:11:22.080 --> 0:11:24.800 But in any case, by twenty twenty two, anybody in 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:28.240 Enid you could read his posts praising Hitler and celebrating 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:30.960 Identity Europa for striking fear into the heart of the 0:11:31.040 --> 0:11:33.960 jew his words. You know, you could see pictures of 0:11:34.040 --> 0:11:36.400 him at Unite the Right, both on the morning of 0:11:36.400 --> 0:11:38.320 the twelfth in the park and the evening of the 0:11:38.320 --> 0:11:40.360 eleventh with a torch. You could see pictures of him 0:11:40.400 --> 0:11:43.040 going to Texas for ie meetups. You could see the 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:45.760 dozens and dozens of photos he posted in the discord 0:11:45.840 --> 0:11:48.440 of Nazi posters and stickers he had put up on 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:52.280 telephone polls and college bulletin boards across Oklahoma, and the 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:54.240 posts where he reveled in the media coverage of the 0:11:54.240 --> 0:11:59.760 recruitment materials he left inside library books. His hometown newspaper, 0:11:59.800 --> 0:12:02.959 the News and Eagle, ran an article about the allegations, 0:12:03.040 --> 0:12:07.120 which he never denied. A month before the election, and 0:12:07.160 --> 0:12:10.160 without ever having to give a straight answer on the issue, 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:12.800 he won, and that could have been the end of 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:13.280 the story. 0:12:13.760 --> 0:12:13.920 Right. 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:15.600 You know, we've seen this trend in the last few 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:18.440 years of these radical right wing elements trying to melt 0:12:18.520 --> 0:12:21.080 into the mainstream Republican party. You know, we've got these 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:24.840 horrible little gropers working in congressional staff positions, and you 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:28.120 know Nazis going to cepack and not getting ejected. They're 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:31.080 getting out of the streets and into the meeting rooms. 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:31.600 Yeah. 0:12:31.920 --> 0:12:34.600 An account tied to Blevins that he recently for the 0:12:34.640 --> 0:12:37.520 first time denied this was him. It's him. This has 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:40.560 been widely reported. It was a Twitter account called at 0:12:40.720 --> 0:12:47.240 Abolish Journalism posted in twenty nineteen quote fists. I agree 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:51.559 with the argument GOP cannot be changed from the bottom up. However, 0:12:51.840 --> 0:12:54.920 I do not believe in discouraging our guys from getting 0:12:54.920 --> 0:12:58.319 elected into smaller offices such as city council, county commissioner, 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:02.360 or even state legislators, basically positions where one can fly 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:07.520 under the radar yet still be effective. And that's what 0:13:07.559 --> 0:13:09.880 this is, right. This isn't a guy who got out 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:14.760 of white nationalist organizing and in an unrelated fashion, became 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:17.400 a local politician. No, he said years before he did 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:19.440 this that this was a good idea that he had. 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:22.080 You know, he never said I renounced my previous actions 0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:24.120 and beliefs. I regret bring an active recruiter for a 0:13:24.160 --> 0:13:27.319 hate group. He just changed the way he was doing it. 0:13:28.320 --> 0:13:30.560 And he said countless opportunities to be clear about what 0:13:30.600 --> 0:13:33.120 he believes today and whether that's different from the beliefs 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:36.880 he espoused between twenty seventeen and twenty nineteen, and he won't. 0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:39.880 He won't say I no longer identify with the posts 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:42.720 I made when I was enthusiastically posting the fourteen words. 0:13:43.360 --> 0:13:45.719 And that's probably because he just found a better way 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:48.359 to do it. But there were people in Enid, Oklahoma 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:50.000 who saw right through that. 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:53.160 Yeah, this is where the story takes a turn that like, 0:13:54.240 --> 0:13:57.400 I don't know. It made me hopeful because the first 0:13:57.400 --> 0:14:02.440 time I ever met a klansman was in Oklahoma. It 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:04.280 was the dad of a friend of mine, like he 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:07.559 like that. This kid bragged about it, and I didn't 0:14:07.600 --> 0:14:09.040 know what a clansman was. And I had to go 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:12.240 to my parents and like be like, hey, so you 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:14.720 know so and so said this about his dad. What 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:16.920 does that mean? And my mom was just like, well, 0:14:16.920 --> 0:14:19.240 you're not allowed to go to his house anymore. That's 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:26.160 what that means. Juxes Jesus Christ. If this like, if 0:14:26.160 --> 0:14:28.400 this guy had like if shit had gone well for him, 0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:30.840 I guess that would have been my assumption. But that's 0:14:30.960 --> 0:14:33.160 that was my assumption based on me not giving a 0:14:33.160 --> 0:14:36.120 fair shake to Enid, Oklahoma, Right. 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:38.840 I think that's you know what's so remarkable about this 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:42.480 story is people didn't think Oklahoma could do it, But 0:14:42.560 --> 0:14:46.720 you know who can accomplish everything they set out to do? 0:14:47.360 --> 0:14:51.200 Uh huh, that's right. These sponsors, all of whom are 0:14:51.240 --> 0:15:07.720 available in Enid, Oklahoma, and we're back. Okay, alrighty, So 0:15:08.000 --> 0:15:09.960 I'm happy to hear. Yeah. The next part of this. 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:13.800 Levins took office in May of twenty twenty three. Local 0:15:13.880 --> 0:15:18.040 election law requires a six month wait between being sworn 0:15:18.080 --> 0:15:22.200 in and when a recall attempt can be initiated, but 0:15:22.240 --> 0:15:25.360 the residents who opposed Levins didn't wait quietly. A group 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:28.240 called the ENID Social Justice Committee protested his swearing in, 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:32.280 with some protesters holding posters bearing a photo of Levins 0:15:32.640 --> 0:15:36.160 holding a torch at the August eleven, twenty seventeen Nazi 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:40.440 march at the University of Virginia. And now this I 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:42.440 didn't even think about it until I was writing this. 0:15:42.600 --> 0:15:45.760 That what an incredible coincidence of timing. Right, So May 0:15:45.840 --> 0:15:49.640 twenty twenty three, he's being sworn into office. It was just, 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:52.520 I think maybe two weeks before he was sworn in 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:56.400 that the first indictment was unsealed against the guys who 0:15:56.400 --> 0:15:59.960 are now facing felony charges for participating in that torch mark. 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:02.560 So it was we did an episode on this a 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:05.880 little bit ago. But if you're not familiar that the 0:16:05.920 --> 0:16:08.160 guys who marched in that torch march at EVA in 0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:10.920 twenty seventeen, some of them are now being charged with 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:13.840 a felony under Virginia law for burning an object with 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:16.800 intent to intimidate. It's obviously a sort of a law 0:16:16.880 --> 0:16:19.600 aimed at the Klan right, sort of a crossburning type law. 0:16:19.600 --> 0:16:22.320 But they were burning, They had these burning objects, and 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:25.040 they were menacing people. It was racially motivated. So they're 0:16:25.080 --> 0:16:28.040 being charged with this felony for burning an object. 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:31.880 It does feel like that's, yeah, a pretty good fit. 0:16:32.480 --> 0:16:34.360 But so right as he's being sworn in, you know, 0:16:34.400 --> 0:16:36.760 these people are protesting his swearing in with this photo 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:40.360 of him with the torch, and a couple guys just 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:44.480 showed up in jail here in Charlottesville on that charge. 0:16:44.520 --> 0:16:47.320 So it's it's just a remarkable cognitive dissonance, right to 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:50.200 see these people. Some of his supporters in Enid downplaying 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:54.400 the seriousness or even outright denying that Levin's attended this rally, 0:16:55.320 --> 0:16:57.480 but the guys he was standing next to that day 0:16:57.600 --> 0:17:00.680 are pleading guilty to felonies. You know, he's up there 0:17:00.720 --> 0:17:03.800 voting on resolutions and passing ordinances about you know, storm 0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:07.280 water management or whatever. I think one of his accomplishments 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:09.639 in office was getting a Texas roadhouse in Enid. 0:17:10.280 --> 0:17:13.000 First off, you shouldn't be proud of having a Texas 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:16.040 roadhouse anywhere as a my job. 0:17:15.960 --> 0:17:18.360 Used to it might have been a sizzler, I can't 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:19.760 remember something like that. 0:17:20.040 --> 0:17:22.399 I would be much more excited for a sizzler than 0:17:22.400 --> 0:17:24.920 a Texas fucking roadhouse, I'll say that much. 0:17:25.160 --> 0:17:28.159 But you know, he's up there getting a you know, 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:31.920 affordable chain steak restaurant in edid But there's a non 0:17:32.040 --> 0:17:34.480 zero chance that he could be arrested at any time 0:17:34.600 --> 0:17:36.920 and extradited on a felony charge. 0:17:37.280 --> 0:17:40.960 I mean, look, if if there's one thing that's appropriate 0:17:41.040 --> 0:17:43.359 for the sizzler, it's knowing that the guy who put 0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:46.120 that sizzler there could be arrested on a felony charge 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:46.879 at any moment. 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:49.840 And you know, we don't know what the strategy is 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:52.080 at the prosecutor's office. Obviously they're not going to charge 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:54.640 everybody who is there. But it's on the table right 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:57.240 Like he's on video at that march with the torch 0:17:57.240 --> 0:17:59.800 in his hand. He fits the criteria for the ten 0:17:59.840 --> 0:18:02.200 of guys that have already gone to jail for this. 0:18:03.080 --> 0:18:05.800 But in November of twenty twenty three, those six months 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:09.439 had passed. Recalls on the table now and before the 0:18:09.480 --> 0:18:12.240 group made the final push to actually file for the recall, 0:18:12.640 --> 0:18:15.960 they made an offer of reconciliation. All Blevin's has to 0:18:15.960 --> 0:18:20.399 do is acknowledge the truth, denounce his past actions, just 0:18:20.480 --> 0:18:23.640 own up to it, start making amends. Just say yes 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:26.919 I did that. No, I don't do it anymore. And 0:18:27.000 --> 0:18:30.280 he can't do it. Throughout this entire ordeal, he's never 0:18:30.359 --> 0:18:32.800 owned up to it. There are pictures and video and 0:18:32.840 --> 0:18:36.800 his own words across multiple online accounts. There's no plausible 0:18:36.800 --> 0:18:39.600 deniability here. There's no saying, well, maybe that's not him. 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:42.160 You know it's him, so just admit it and say 0:18:42.160 --> 0:18:45.760 you're not that guy anymore. But he has consistently refused 0:18:45.760 --> 0:18:49.719 to even acknowledge it right on several occasions, you know, 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:54.000 when really pressed. He dismisses that twenty nineteen article by 0:18:54.080 --> 0:18:57.320 Jared Holt as quote a hit piece posted four years 0:18:57.359 --> 0:19:01.000 ago by a George Soros funded leftist outline, it, calling 0:19:01.040 --> 0:19:02.920 it smears and slander. 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:06.400 Nothing smears somebody like their own words and actions. 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:09.199 I'm being defamed by this photograph of me. 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:12.840 I'm being judged simply for the things I chose to do. 0:19:14.000 --> 0:19:17.760 I thought this was America. But he won't actually deny 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:20.560 specific facts. You know, he won't say that isn't me 0:19:20.640 --> 0:19:23.119 in the photo, or I did not participate in that, 0:19:23.440 --> 0:19:25.840 or I did not post those nice things about Hitler. 0:19:26.240 --> 0:19:30.439 He just attacks the people saying it. And while Buvens 0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:32.760 has never denied the truth of the allegations, some of 0:19:32.800 --> 0:19:37.040 his supporters do. At one of those council meetings in 0:19:37.080 --> 0:19:39.320 November of last year, a woman speaking in support of 0:19:39.400 --> 0:19:42.440 Levin's said the allegations weren't credible as they came from 0:19:42.520 --> 0:19:46.800 organizations like the SPLC that quote only exist to smear 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:48.480 conservative Christians. 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:49.720 There we go. 0:19:51.560 --> 0:19:54.320 First of all, the SPLC didn't publish it. It was 0:19:54.400 --> 0:20:00.280 Wright Wing Watch, Yeah, Huffington Post. But whenever Susan that 0:20:00.359 --> 0:20:02.639 same meeting that the council declined to even vote on 0:20:02.680 --> 0:20:05.960 a resolution to censure Blevins, the council was putting forth 0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:08.760 a resolution to say we don't agree with what that 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:11.199 guy did. You know, it wasn't like punishing him. It 0:20:11.200 --> 0:20:14.000 didn't actually strip him of any powers. He didn't do 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:17.679 anything except say the rest of us we don't like that. 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:20.080 And they could, they wouldn't even vote on it. It got tabled, 0:20:21.359 --> 0:20:25.120 and at that meeting Commissioner Derwin Norwood, the only black 0:20:25.119 --> 0:20:29.359 member of Enid City Council, offered Blevins his forgiveness and 0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:31.120 gave him a big hug and told him he loved 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:35.600 him great. Lens never apologized, right, you can't forgive someone 0:20:35.600 --> 0:20:40.800 who hasn't apologized. He had never and still has never apologized, 0:20:41.640 --> 0:20:44.720 and he was pretty clear on where he stands on apology, saying, 0:20:44.800 --> 0:20:48.680