1 00:00:01,680 --> 00:00:02,880 Speaker 1: Col Zone Media. 2 00:00:07,200 --> 00:00:11,200 Speaker 2: The summer of twenty seventeen was a hot one. The 3 00:00:11,280 --> 00:00:14,680 Speaker 2: weather was hot. I'm sure I can barely remember now. 4 00:00:16,200 --> 00:00:18,520 Speaker 2: In May, the editor of the Nazi website The Daily 5 00:00:18,560 --> 00:00:23,880 Speaker 2: Stormer declared that it would be this summer of hate. 6 00:00:24,040 --> 00:00:26,400 Speaker 2: A month later, another article on the site ended with 7 00:00:26,400 --> 00:00:31,280 Speaker 2: a triumphant prediction, expect a hot summer. And I'm not 8 00:00:31,360 --> 00:00:36,040 Speaker 2: talking about the thermometer. The political temperature was rising rapidly. 9 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:39,240 Speaker 2: It was the first summer of Donald Trump's first term 10 00:00:39,240 --> 00:00:43,240 Speaker 2: as president, and all over the country, right wing extremists 11 00:00:43,280 --> 00:00:48,080 Speaker 2: of all stripes were feeling bold. The summer of hate 12 00:00:48,159 --> 00:00:51,080 Speaker 2: culminated in the murder of Heather higher Here in Charlottesville 13 00:00:51,280 --> 00:00:56,240 Speaker 2: on August twelfth, twenty seventeen. Perhaps because that day ended 14 00:00:56,240 --> 00:00:58,800 Speaker 2: in a hate crime murder, the Unite the Right rally 15 00:00:58,840 --> 00:01:01,440 Speaker 2: is often the only one of the dozens of violent 16 00:01:01,520 --> 00:01:06,240 Speaker 2: hatefield rallies that summer that most people still remember, But 17 00:01:06,280 --> 00:01:08,360 Speaker 2: they were happening all over the country in the months 18 00:01:08,440 --> 00:01:11,800 Speaker 2: leading up to Unite the Right. In Portland and Seattle, 19 00:01:12,360 --> 00:01:17,160 Speaker 2: Patriot Prayer rallied for Trump, for free speech, and against communism. 20 00:01:18,240 --> 00:01:22,840 Speaker 2: In Berkeley, repeated rallies ostensibly for Trump or the concept 21 00:01:22,920 --> 00:01:26,280 Speaker 2: of free speech became a training ground for a Nazi 22 00:01:26,400 --> 00:01:30,959 Speaker 2: street fighting gang. In cities all over the country, protests 23 00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:35,120 Speaker 2: for or against Confederate monuments were just a thin excuse 24 00:01:35,200 --> 00:01:39,720 Speaker 2: for fascists spoiling for a fight. Almost any given weekend 25 00:01:39,760 --> 00:01:42,720 Speaker 2: that summer, somewhere in the country there was a contingent 26 00:01:42,800 --> 00:01:46,960 Speaker 2: of armed militiamen ambling around a public park acting as 27 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:51,640 Speaker 2: self appointed protest security. Some of these rallies drew crowds 28 00:01:51,640 --> 00:01:55,280 Speaker 2: of thousands and made the national news. Some were just 29 00:01:55,320 --> 00:01:58,320 Speaker 2: a few dozen bigots standing on a street corner, drawing 30 00:01:58,360 --> 00:02:00,680 Speaker 2: only the momentary notice of passing motorists. 31 00:02:02,120 --> 00:02:03,400 Speaker 1: And on one morning early. 32 00:02:03,240 --> 00:02:08,480 Speaker 2: That summer, the same protest took place simultaneously in over 33 00:02:08,520 --> 00:02:15,120 Speaker 2: two dozen cities across the country. I'm Molly Conger, and 34 00:02:15,240 --> 00:02:36,160 Speaker 2: this is weird Little Guys. This episode isn't actually about 35 00:02:36,160 --> 00:02:40,920 Speaker 2: a guy, not just one guy anyway. If you're a 36 00:02:40,960 --> 00:02:43,640 Speaker 2: regular listener, you've probably already figured out that it is 37 00:02:43,840 --> 00:02:48,400 Speaker 2: rarely actually even about one guy at all. But typically 38 00:02:48,400 --> 00:02:52,160 Speaker 2: an episode revolves loosely around one weird little guy, using 39 00:02:52,200 --> 00:02:54,640 Speaker 2: him as an entry point to explore the world he 40 00:02:54,720 --> 00:02:59,400 Speaker 2: existed in. But last week's episode left me with some thoughts. 41 00:02:59,440 --> 00:03:03,280 Speaker 2: I was having trouble putting to bed questions about the 42 00:03:03,400 --> 00:03:06,320 Speaker 2: ordinary men who cross paths with our weird little guyes, 43 00:03:07,600 --> 00:03:10,040 Speaker 2: men who may be on their own path toward extremism 44 00:03:10,240 --> 00:03:13,840 Speaker 2: or just their own self destruction. And it also got 45 00:03:13,919 --> 00:03:17,680 Speaker 2: me thinking about the nature of a crowd, the way 46 00:03:17,680 --> 00:03:20,359 Speaker 2: we can lose ourselves within them, the way they can 47 00:03:20,440 --> 00:03:23,200 Speaker 2: give us permission to act in ways we otherwise would not. 48 00:03:24,600 --> 00:03:30,519 Speaker 2: The crowd grants the individual plausible deniability, but the individuals 49 00:03:30,520 --> 00:03:34,040 Speaker 2: within it give the crowd more power than it would 50 00:03:34,080 --> 00:03:38,720 Speaker 2: have had without them. And I've been thinking too about 51 00:03:38,760 --> 00:03:41,600 Speaker 2: the current state of affairs, the ways in which our 52 00:03:41,640 --> 00:03:45,600 Speaker 2: political discourse has changed over the last decade. How these 53 00:03:45,680 --> 00:03:49,880 Speaker 2: once fringe ideas have been mainstreamed. Things that were once 54 00:03:50,360 --> 00:03:55,880 Speaker 2: unthinkable are happening every day now. How did we get 55 00:03:55,960 --> 00:03:59,640 Speaker 2: to the place we are now where people who seem 56 00:03:59,800 --> 00:04:03,560 Speaker 2: so normal have the same kinds of ideas that just 57 00:04:03,600 --> 00:04:06,440 Speaker 2: a few years ago were relegated to the pages of 58 00:04:06,480 --> 00:04:11,240 Speaker 2: Stormfront and four chan. And as I was ruminating on 59 00:04:11,280 --> 00:04:15,920 Speaker 2: all of this, I thought of a picture, one in particular, 60 00:04:16,480 --> 00:04:19,360 Speaker 2: saved years ago in one of my hundreds of folders 61 00:04:19,360 --> 00:04:23,200 Speaker 2: of half finished ideas about a guy. It's a picture 62 00:04:23,200 --> 00:04:26,200 Speaker 2: that was taken on the morning of June tenth, twenty seventeen, 63 00:04:26,839 --> 00:04:31,359 Speaker 2: in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The photo shows a handful of members 64 00:04:31,360 --> 00:04:34,599 Speaker 2: of the neo Nazi group Vanguard America on their way 65 00:04:34,640 --> 00:04:37,160 Speaker 2: to the steps of the Pennsylvania Capitol Building for an 66 00:04:37,160 --> 00:04:42,240 Speaker 2: event billed as the March against Sharia, a protest against 67 00:04:42,240 --> 00:04:47,480 Speaker 2: the imaginary threat of a Muslim theocracy in America. These 68 00:04:47,520 --> 00:04:50,920 Speaker 2: members of Vanguard America all have their faces covered, either 69 00:04:50,920 --> 00:04:54,120 Speaker 2: with black bandanas or the half faced skull mask that 70 00:04:54,240 --> 00:04:58,240 Speaker 2: was favored by a certain flavor of neo Nazi. But 71 00:04:58,320 --> 00:05:00,680 Speaker 2: the men at the head of their tiny mark is 72 00:05:00,720 --> 00:05:04,320 Speaker 2: bear faced, proudly leading this little band of Nazis down 73 00:05:04,360 --> 00:05:09,440 Speaker 2: the street. Vanguard America would later evolve into Patriot Front, 74 00:05:09,680 --> 00:05:14,320 Speaker 2: a white supremacist organization led by Thomas Rousseau, and today, 75 00:05:14,440 --> 00:05:17,960 Speaker 2: when Patriot Front takes to the streets, its members too, 76 00:05:18,360 --> 00:05:23,839 Speaker 2: all cover their faces, except the leader as their public face. 77 00:05:24,040 --> 00:05:28,480 Speaker 2: Rousseau marches unmasked. So, looking at this photo of these 78 00:05:28,560 --> 00:05:32,320 Speaker 2: Vanguard America members, perhaps this bear faced man is their leader. 79 00:05:33,480 --> 00:05:34,320 Speaker 1: But I know he isn't. 80 00:05:35,720 --> 00:05:38,359 Speaker 2: Maybe he's so proud of being a Nazi, that he 81 00:05:38,440 --> 00:05:42,600 Speaker 2: made the choice to show his face, But the truth 82 00:05:43,720 --> 00:05:49,040 Speaker 2: is the exact opposite. By today's standards, thatt Man, Benjamin 83 00:05:49,040 --> 00:05:54,680 Speaker 2: Hornberger is just a pretty typical Maga Republican. He wasn't 84 00:05:54,760 --> 00:05:58,159 Speaker 2: and isn't, as far as I can tell, a Nazi 85 00:05:58,200 --> 00:06:02,880 Speaker 2: at all. Later that same evening, one of the men 86 00:06:02,920 --> 00:06:06,120 Speaker 2: who had marched behind him posted in a discord server 87 00:06:06,160 --> 00:06:09,720 Speaker 2: where the Unite the Right rally was being planned, writing. 88 00:06:12,200 --> 00:06:14,280 Speaker 3: We got a Normy to lead our march away from 89 00:06:14,279 --> 00:06:16,960 Speaker 3: the Sharia event. I don't think he fully knows what 90 00:06:17,040 --> 00:06:21,080 Speaker 3: he got himself into. I told him after, you know, 91 00:06:21,160 --> 00:06:26,000 Speaker 3: you just let a march of a bunch of Nazis. 92 00:06:27,400 --> 00:06:29,479 Speaker 2: And the poster notes that the man they'd talked into 93 00:06:29,560 --> 00:06:32,400 Speaker 2: joining them hadn't showed up with any group and he 94 00:06:32,440 --> 00:06:36,560 Speaker 2: didn't even seem to hate Jewish people. Another user chimed in, 95 00:06:36,680 --> 00:06:40,160 Speaker 2: saying when the Jews call him a Nazi anyway, it'll 96 00:06:40,160 --> 00:06:43,760 Speaker 2: red pell him a little, to which the original poster agreed, 97 00:06:43,880 --> 00:06:47,640 Speaker 2: writing that's exactly what we were saying. You're on our 98 00:06:47,760 --> 00:06:51,760 Speaker 2: side now, goy. Whether you like it or not. They 99 00:06:51,760 --> 00:06:53,839 Speaker 2: are in the Nazi discord. They were all in agreement. 100 00:06:54,600 --> 00:06:57,760 Speaker 2: These more mainstream conservative rallies were a great place to 101 00:06:57,839 --> 00:07:02,280 Speaker 2: network and recruit, of course, but also a valuable opportunity 102 00:07:02,320 --> 00:07:06,040 Speaker 2: to shape the discourse and push people they call normies 103 00:07:06,400 --> 00:07:10,040 Speaker 2: further to the right. They believe that the average white 104 00:07:10,120 --> 00:07:14,000 Speaker 2: Republican man would be radicalized by the experience of being 105 00:07:14,040 --> 00:07:17,280 Speaker 2: called a bigot, and instead of engaging in any self 106 00:07:17,280 --> 00:07:20,680 Speaker 2: reflection on why they were shouldered to shoulder with Nazis 107 00:07:20,680 --> 00:07:23,800 Speaker 2: at a rally for bigots, they would instead double down 108 00:07:23,880 --> 00:07:29,280 Speaker 2: and come to love being a bigot. This is, unfortunately 109 00:07:30,040 --> 00:07:34,800 Speaker 2: not an uncommon path to radicalization. But let's back up 110 00:07:34,840 --> 00:07:41,480 Speaker 2: for a second. What on earth was the marsh against Sharia? 111 00:07:41,920 --> 00:07:44,800 Speaker 2: The rallies were organized by a non profit organization called 112 00:07:44,960 --> 00:07:49,840 Speaker 2: Act for America. Its founder, Brigitte Gabriel, started a group 113 00:07:49,920 --> 00:07:53,440 Speaker 2: called American Congress for Truth in the months after nine eleven, 114 00:07:54,520 --> 00:07:56,800 Speaker 2: and in two thousand and seven, Act for America was 115 00:07:56,840 --> 00:08:01,280 Speaker 2: spun off as the organization's lobbying and activist arm. The 116 00:08:01,320 --> 00:08:04,240 Speaker 2: policy statement on their website today boasts that they are 117 00:08:05,040 --> 00:08:10,560 Speaker 2: the nation's premiere grassroots movement dedicated to preserving America's culture, sovereignty, 118 00:08:10,840 --> 00:08:15,880 Speaker 2: and security. Groups like the Council on American Islamic Relations, 119 00:08:16,000 --> 00:08:19,440 Speaker 2: the American Arab Anti Discrimination Committee, and the Southern Poverty 120 00:08:19,480 --> 00:08:22,760 Speaker 2: Law Center consider ACT for America one of the nation's 121 00:08:22,840 --> 00:08:28,120 Speaker 2: largest anti Muslim hate groups. In February of twenty sixteen, 122 00:08:28,200 --> 00:08:31,200 Speaker 2: Brigitte Gabriel had dinner at Mara a Lago with presidential 123 00:08:31,240 --> 00:08:35,760 Speaker 2: candidate Donald Trump. ACT for America's Facebook page posted a 124 00:08:35,760 --> 00:08:40,000 Speaker 2: photo of the meeting in a room with entirely too 125 00:08:40,040 --> 00:08:45,719 Speaker 2: much gold painted woodwork. There's Trump wearing a pale pink tie, 126 00:08:45,880 --> 00:08:48,120 Speaker 2: and he has one arm around Gabriel and he's giving 127 00:08:48,120 --> 00:08:51,840 Speaker 2: a thumbs up with his other hand. According to the caption, 128 00:08:52,320 --> 00:08:55,480 Speaker 2: Gabriel was there to give him a national security briefing. 129 00:08:57,320 --> 00:09:00,000 Speaker 2: Not long after their meeting, Trump announced that he'd chose 130 00:09:00,240 --> 00:09:04,240 Speaker 2: Michael Flynn, an ACT for America board member, to be 131 00:09:04,320 --> 00:09:09,880 Speaker 2: his campaign's national security advisor. At act's annual conference that year, 132 00:09:10,480 --> 00:09:13,400 Speaker 2: Flynn gave a speech in which he called Islam a 133 00:09:13,520 --> 00:09:19,240 Speaker 2: malignant cancer. Over the years, Brigitte Gabriel has said that 134 00:09:19,320 --> 00:09:23,120 Speaker 2: Muslims are infiltrating the government to destroy America, that people 135 00:09:23,120 --> 00:09:26,080 Speaker 2: should call the FBI to report the construction of mosques, 136 00:09:26,800 --> 00:09:30,679 Speaker 2: that Islam is a cancer infecting the world, and that 137 00:09:30,800 --> 00:09:34,079 Speaker 2: Islam is a radical ideology, not a religion at all, 138 00:09:34,640 --> 00:09:36,720 Speaker 2: and thus should not be afforded the protection of the 139 00:09:36,720 --> 00:09:40,960 Speaker 2: First Amendment. In the wave of Islamophobia that followed nine 140 00:09:40,960 --> 00:09:44,160 Speaker 2: to eleven, she somehow managed to situate herself as some 141 00:09:44,240 --> 00:09:49,240 Speaker 2: kind of expert on Islamic extremism. In two thousand and six, 142 00:09:49,360 --> 00:09:54,400 Speaker 2: she published her first book, Because They Hate. The book 143 00:09:54,520 --> 00:09:57,840 Speaker 2: is a propagandistic memoir of sorts about her childhood as 144 00:09:57,880 --> 00:10:01,360 Speaker 2: a Christian in Lebanon. The book has been described by 145 00:10:01,440 --> 00:10:07,040 Speaker 2: Georgetown University history professor Ivon Hadad as not historically accurate 146 00:10:07,679 --> 00:10:11,240 Speaker 2: as an account of the Lebanese Civil War. In his 147 00:10:11,320 --> 00:10:15,960 Speaker 2: book The Islamophobia Industry, Nathan Lean describes Gabriel's origin story 148 00:10:16,040 --> 00:10:22,800 Speaker 2: as quote tendentious, if not outright deceitful. But somehow in 149 00:10:22,800 --> 00:10:25,480 Speaker 2: two thousand and seven, she was invited to give a 150 00:10:25,520 --> 00:10:28,520 Speaker 2: talk about the book at the US Military's Joint Forces 151 00:10:28,559 --> 00:10:32,920 Speaker 2: Staff College. During the q and A portion, a man 152 00:10:32,920 --> 00:10:35,920 Speaker 2: in an Air Force uniform stood and read several passages 153 00:10:35,920 --> 00:10:38,520 Speaker 2: from the book in which Gabriel describes Islam as an 154 00:10:38,559 --> 00:10:43,840 Speaker 2: inherently violent and fanatical religion, and then he asked a question. 155 00:10:46,040 --> 00:10:50,200 Speaker 4: Should we resist Muslims who want to seek political office 156 00:10:50,200 --> 00:10:50,720 Speaker 4: in this nation? 157 00:10:52,200 --> 00:10:56,120 Speaker 1: What a great question? Uh. 158 00:10:56,160 --> 00:11:00,880 Speaker 5: Absolutely, If a Muslim who has who is a practicing 159 00:11:00,960 --> 00:11:03,640 Speaker 5: Muslim who believes the word of the Koran to be 160 00:11:03,679 --> 00:11:06,679 Speaker 5: the word of Allah, who abides by Islam, who goes 161 00:11:06,720 --> 00:11:09,320 Speaker 5: to musque and praise every Friday, who praise five times 162 00:11:09,360 --> 00:11:12,520 Speaker 5: a day, this practicing Muslim who believes in the teachings 163 00:11:12,520 --> 00:11:15,319 Speaker 5: of the Koran, cannot be a loyal citizen to the 164 00:11:15,440 --> 00:11:20,280 Speaker 5: United States of America. 165 00:11:20,400 --> 00:11:25,280 Speaker 2: Her answer went on for nearly five minutes, and she's gish, 166 00:11:25,320 --> 00:11:29,800 Speaker 2: galloping through unrelated points and misinterpretations of the Quran. She 167 00:11:29,840 --> 00:11:32,920 Speaker 2: says Muslims are all liars, they're all killers, that they 168 00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:35,600 Speaker 2: can't be trusted to tell the truth, let alone uphold 169 00:11:35,600 --> 00:11:38,880 Speaker 2: an oath of office. And she rounds out the answer 170 00:11:38,880 --> 00:11:42,800 Speaker 2: by reiterating that no Muslim can be trusted to be 171 00:11:42,840 --> 00:11:46,800 Speaker 2: loyal to the United States. And then she calls on 172 00:11:46,840 --> 00:11:50,680 Speaker 2: the next audience member with a question. A man stands. 173 00:11:51,720 --> 00:11:54,680 Speaker 2: He's a United States Army officer with nineteen years of service, 174 00:11:55,440 --> 00:12:00,880 Speaker 2: and he's also a practicing Muslim. He's calm, his face 175 00:12:00,960 --> 00:12:03,640 Speaker 2: is neutral, as if he had not just sat through 176 00:12:03,679 --> 00:12:07,960 Speaker 2: a torrent of lies attacking his very existence, but he 177 00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:11,400 Speaker 2: probably knew that he had to be lest he be 178 00:12:11,480 --> 00:12:15,720 Speaker 2: seen as the untrustworthy, volatile, violent extremist she already believes 179 00:12:15,760 --> 00:12:19,760 Speaker 2: all Muslims are, and he asks if she is a 180 00:12:19,800 --> 00:12:24,199 Speaker 2: member of the Husbara Fellowship. Gabriel interrupts him, asking what 181 00:12:24,280 --> 00:12:27,280 Speaker 2: Hasbara Fellowship is, as if she's never heard of it, 182 00:12:28,080 --> 00:12:31,880 Speaker 2: and then denies having any connection to the organization. The 183 00:12:32,000 --> 00:12:35,400 Speaker 2: Husboro Fellowship is an organization co founded by Israel's Ministry 184 00:12:35,400 --> 00:12:38,440 Speaker 2: of Foreign Affairs, and they train American college students to 185 00:12:38,480 --> 00:12:42,880 Speaker 2: be pro Israel activists, and contrary to her sharp denial, 186 00:12:43,480 --> 00:12:46,400 Speaker 2: she had in fact been listed on the organization's website 187 00:12:46,440 --> 00:12:50,199 Speaker 2: as a member of their Speakers Bureau for several years. 188 00:12:51,160 --> 00:12:55,520 Speaker 2: All that to say, Brigitte Gabriel is a bigot and 189 00:12:55,559 --> 00:12:59,679 Speaker 2: a liar, but she is one who has successfully talked 190 00:12:59,679 --> 00:13:02,000 Speaker 2: her way into a lot of rooms with a lot 191 00:13:02,040 --> 00:13:05,280 Speaker 2: of powerful people, and managed, for the most part to 192 00:13:05,360 --> 00:13:09,520 Speaker 2: maintain eveneer of legitimacy and respectability while earning a comfortable 193 00:13:09,520 --> 00:13:14,240 Speaker 2: living peddling hate, and by twenty seventeen, Act for America 194 00:13:14,360 --> 00:13:16,880 Speaker 2: was a decade old, she had the ear of the 195 00:13:16,920 --> 00:13:19,920 Speaker 2: sitting president securing a meeting with Trump at the White 196 00:13:19,920 --> 00:13:24,600 Speaker 2: House in March of twenty seventeen. ACT for America's March 197 00:13:24,640 --> 00:13:29,440 Speaker 2: against Sharia rallies don't show up on their website anymore. Unsurprisingly, 198 00:13:30,679 --> 00:13:32,800 Speaker 2: the earliest reference to the rallies I could find was 199 00:13:32,840 --> 00:13:36,200 Speaker 2: around mid April, when Facebook event pages started popping up 200 00:13:36,240 --> 00:13:37,920 Speaker 2: for events in nearly thirty cities. 201 00:13:39,679 --> 00:13:40,559 Speaker 1: In her thesis for. 202 00:13:40,520 --> 00:13:44,000 Speaker 2: A master's at Oxford, Isabel Canan studied the way ACT. 203 00:13:43,840 --> 00:13:45,200 Speaker 1: For America organizes. 204 00:13:46,559 --> 00:13:49,800 Speaker 2: Regrettably, that thesis appears to be unpublished, so I couldn't 205 00:13:49,800 --> 00:13:53,240 Speaker 2: read it, But in a twenty eighteen interview about her research, 206 00:13:53,840 --> 00:13:56,679 Speaker 2: Canaan says those March against Sharia events were part of 207 00:13:56,720 --> 00:13:59,480 Speaker 2: an attempt to maintain the facade of being a true 208 00:13:59,520 --> 00:14:03,880 Speaker 2: grassrooms its organization, rather than what they truly are, which 209 00:14:03,920 --> 00:14:07,360 Speaker 2: is a lobbying group. The rallies were an effort to 210 00:14:07,440 --> 00:14:11,920 Speaker 2: quote create the perception that the majority shares its warped opinion, 211 00:14:12,360 --> 00:14:16,840 Speaker 2: Canaan wrote. Both Canaan and the Southern Poverty Law Center 212 00:14:16,880 --> 00:14:19,800 Speaker 2: have speculated that ACT for America is not being honest 213 00:14:19,840 --> 00:14:24,240 Speaker 2: about the size of the organization, providing artificially inflated numbers 214 00:14:24,280 --> 00:14:29,640 Speaker 2: of active chapters and the grassroots organizers in them. In 215 00:14:29,680 --> 00:14:32,560 Speaker 2: twenty seventeen, Act for America was claiming to have over 216 00:14:32,600 --> 00:14:37,360 Speaker 2: one thousand chapters nationwide, and the website displayed a map 217 00:14:37,400 --> 00:14:40,920 Speaker 2: showing pins with locations for five hundred chapters. 218 00:14:42,320 --> 00:14:44,560 Speaker 1: In twenty eighteen, the SPLC. 219 00:14:44,080 --> 00:14:48,800 Speaker 2: Was only able to confirm the existence of forty seven chapters. 220 00:14:50,280 --> 00:14:53,640 Speaker 2: In her research, Canaan attempted to contact twenty five chapters 221 00:14:53,680 --> 00:14:56,200 Speaker 2: and was only able to confirm the existence of six. 222 00:14:58,200 --> 00:15:00,800 Speaker 2: An Ohio based member of the Council on American Islamic 223 00:15:00,840 --> 00:15:04,040 Speaker 2: Relations told Canaan that at least one of the alleged 224 00:15:04,080 --> 00:15:09,600 Speaker 2: ACT chapters in Ohio was just two very active individuals. 225 00:15:10,480 --> 00:15:14,120 Speaker 2: And it's not just progressive watchdogs and academics calling ACTS 226 00:15:14,200 --> 00:15:18,840 Speaker 2: numbers into question. Anti Islam activist Dave Galbots had worked 227 00:15:18,840 --> 00:15:21,600 Speaker 2: for Brigitte Gabriel for three years. When the two had 228 00:15:21,600 --> 00:15:24,880 Speaker 2: a falling out in twenty seventeen. He wrote in a 229 00:15:24,880 --> 00:15:27,680 Speaker 2: blog post that March that there had only been fifty 230 00:15:27,720 --> 00:15:32,800 Speaker 2: participants in that month's Chapter Leader's Call, and that might 231 00:15:32,880 --> 00:15:36,400 Speaker 2: explain why the rallies went the way that they did. 232 00:15:37,680 --> 00:15:42,320 Speaker 2: You see it's very hard to organize grassroots rallies without 233 00:15:42,360 --> 00:15:44,840 Speaker 2: actual grassroots activists. 234 00:15:45,520 --> 00:15:46,800 Speaker 1: They wanted to put on a. 235 00:15:46,680 --> 00:15:50,880 Speaker 2: Big show, but the average ACT member is, according to Canaan, 236 00:15:51,880 --> 00:15:55,840 Speaker 2: a white evangelical retiree whose activism is mainly confined to 237 00:15:56,480 --> 00:15:59,320 Speaker 2: signing up for the emails and occasionally making a donation. 238 00:16:00,880 --> 00:16:05,160 Speaker 2: That demographic is not actually very likely to attend a protest. 239 00:16:05,040 --> 00:16:06,320 Speaker 1: Let alone organize one. 240 00:16:08,080 --> 00:16:11,400 Speaker 2: ACT members donate money, which is used for lobbying efforts, 241 00:16:12,080 --> 00:16:16,200 Speaker 2: but most members aren't engaged in any way with the organization. 242 00:16:17,360 --> 00:16:20,359 Speaker 2: In order to maintain their brand and keep those donations 243 00:16:20,400 --> 00:16:23,560 Speaker 2: coming and capitalize on the momentum of those early months 244 00:16:23,560 --> 00:16:27,320 Speaker 2: of the Trump presidency, they needed to project the image 245 00:16:27,360 --> 00:16:31,120 Speaker 2: of being a true grassroots organization, one with active and 246 00:16:31,280 --> 00:16:38,280 Speaker 2: engaged members, so they faked it. In late spring twenty seventeen, 247 00:16:38,480 --> 00:16:42,800 Speaker 2: Act for America hired Scott Presler to coordinate the events. 248 00:16:43,560 --> 00:16:47,040 Speaker 2: Presler was a rising star in conservative activism, having founded 249 00:16:47,080 --> 00:16:50,480 Speaker 2: Gays for Trump in twenty sixteen, and now he had 250 00:16:50,560 --> 00:16:52,320 Speaker 2: less than two months to figure out how to put 251 00:16:52,360 --> 00:16:57,240 Speaker 2: on twenty eight simultaneous rallies all over the country. He 252 00:16:57,280 --> 00:17:00,760 Speaker 2: couldn't exactly just reach out to local ACT chapterly because 253 00:17:01,400 --> 00:17:05,440 Speaker 2: those didn't really exist. In most cases, the organization had 254 00:17:05,480 --> 00:17:09,480 Speaker 2: never bothered to cultivate a group of motivated, engaged local organizers. 255 00:17:11,560 --> 00:17:13,399 Speaker 1: So it appears that what he did. 256 00:17:14,280 --> 00:17:18,560 Speaker 2: Was just tweet out that they needed interested volunteers to 257 00:17:18,600 --> 00:17:22,680 Speaker 2: put on rallies in their own towns. And you'll never 258 00:17:22,840 --> 00:17:41,440 Speaker 2: guess who stepped up. I suspect you all guessed correctly 259 00:17:41,520 --> 00:17:46,720 Speaker 2: during the break it was white supremacists. When Acted for 260 00:17:46,760 --> 00:17:49,439 Speaker 2: America needed volunteers to handle the work of putting on 261 00:17:49,520 --> 00:17:52,800 Speaker 2: their local march against Sharia. A lot of the active, 262 00:17:52,920 --> 00:17:56,440 Speaker 2: engaged bigots who knew how to handle that work were 263 00:17:56,480 --> 00:18:00,000 Speaker 2: not members of Act for America, but they were members 264 00:18:00,240 --> 00:18:04,440 Speaker 2: of other groups, groups like the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, 265 00:18:04,960 --> 00:18:11,280 Speaker 2: and Identity Europa. Nazis didn't just attend these events. They 266 00:18:11,320 --> 00:18:15,760 Speaker 2: didn't happen upon them. They organized them, and they served 267 00:18:15,800 --> 00:18:20,080 Speaker 2: as the headline speakers. But there is another story to 268 00:18:20,160 --> 00:18:24,359 Speaker 2: tell before we get there, because no one was really 269 00:18:24,480 --> 00:18:29,000 Speaker 2: talking about these events at all until something terrible happened. 270 00:18:30,920 --> 00:18:33,920 Speaker 2: Scott Presler had dutifully created Facebook event pages for the 271 00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:36,919 Speaker 2: rallies in at least twenty six cities, with the earliest 272 00:18:36,960 --> 00:18:39,879 Speaker 2: posts I can find on pages that still exist showing 273 00:18:39,880 --> 00:18:41,919 Speaker 2: that he probably started working on that at the end 274 00:18:41,920 --> 00:18:46,040 Speaker 2: of April. But there wasn't a lot of traction in 275 00:18:46,080 --> 00:18:49,080 Speaker 2: April and most of May. There's hardly any news coverage 276 00:18:49,119 --> 00:18:53,000 Speaker 2: in any of those cities about these upcoming events. It's 277 00:18:53,040 --> 00:18:55,480 Speaker 2: possible people were posting about it on social media, but 278 00:18:55,520 --> 00:19:02,040 Speaker 2: those posts or accounts just don't exist anymore. Big nationwide event, 279 00:19:03,160 --> 00:19:06,040 Speaker 2: there just isn't a lot of evidence that people were 280 00:19:06,080 --> 00:19:06,840 Speaker 2: talking about it. 281 00:19:08,680 --> 00:19:10,040 Speaker 1: No, no one. 282 00:19:09,960 --> 00:19:12,920 Speaker 2: Was talking about the March against Saria, and till the 283 00:19:13,000 --> 00:19:17,120 Speaker 2: last few days of May twenty seventeen, when Portland Mayor 284 00:19:17,200 --> 00:19:19,600 Speaker 2: Ted Wheeler made a public plea for the March against 285 00:19:19,600 --> 00:19:24,399 Speaker 2: Syria in Portland to be canceled. On May twenty sixth, 286 00:19:24,440 --> 00:19:28,240 Speaker 2: twenty seventeen, two black teenagers were riding the max light 287 00:19:28,320 --> 00:19:32,280 Speaker 2: rail train in Portland, Oregon. It was a Friday afternoon 288 00:19:32,640 --> 00:19:33,280 Speaker 2: and the pair were. 289 00:19:33,240 --> 00:19:34,639 Speaker 1: Headed to the mall after school. 290 00:19:36,200 --> 00:19:40,840 Speaker 2: They were normal, happy teenagers having a normal fun afternoon. 291 00:19:42,560 --> 00:19:45,879 Speaker 2: One of the girls, a Muslim immigrant from Somalia, was 292 00:19:45,920 --> 00:19:46,760 Speaker 2: wearing her hijab. 293 00:19:48,200 --> 00:19:49,000 Speaker 1: She would later. 294 00:19:48,840 --> 00:19:53,840 Speaker 2: Say it was like our faces were a trigger, because 295 00:19:53,840 --> 00:19:56,920 Speaker 2: when they got on the train, and Jeremy Christian saw 296 00:19:56,960 --> 00:20:01,920 Speaker 2: those two girls. He immediately locked on to them, shouting 297 00:20:01,960 --> 00:20:05,200 Speaker 2: things like fuck Muslims and go back to Saudi Arabia. 298 00:20:06,680 --> 00:20:11,640 Speaker 2: People were staring he was making a scene, and when 299 00:20:11,640 --> 00:20:14,920 Speaker 2: he stood up and started to move toward the girls, 300 00:20:15,359 --> 00:20:19,359 Speaker 2: Talisian nam Kaimich was the first to intervene, moving towards 301 00:20:19,440 --> 00:20:21,800 Speaker 2: Christian and getting out his phone to record what was happening. 302 00:20:23,359 --> 00:20:26,200 Speaker 2: When Christian turned his attention toward this first Good Samaritan, 303 00:20:26,600 --> 00:20:28,439 Speaker 2: another man on the train could see that things were 304 00:20:28,440 --> 00:20:32,359 Speaker 2: about to get violent. Michah Fletcher would later testify that 305 00:20:32,400 --> 00:20:34,639 Speaker 2: he could tell Tullisian had never been in a fight before, 306 00:20:35,760 --> 00:20:38,200 Speaker 2: and while Fletcher is far smaller in stature than either 307 00:20:38,240 --> 00:20:41,439 Speaker 2: of those men, he'd grown up getting bullied, and he 308 00:20:41,440 --> 00:20:43,919 Speaker 2: said he knew all too well what it looks like 309 00:20:44,560 --> 00:20:49,359 Speaker 2: right before a situation gets violent. I'm not sure if 310 00:20:49,400 --> 00:20:53,879 Speaker 2: Michah Fletcher recognized Jeremy Christian in that moment, or if 311 00:20:53,880 --> 00:20:56,280 Speaker 2: he didn't realize until later that this wasn't the first 312 00:20:56,320 --> 00:20:59,000 Speaker 2: time he had tried to de escalate a situation caused 313 00:20:59,040 --> 00:21:04,280 Speaker 2: by this particular man shouting racial slurs in public. Just 314 00:21:04,320 --> 00:21:06,000 Speaker 2: a month earlier at a rally put on by the 315 00:21:06,040 --> 00:21:09,720 Speaker 2: far right group Patriot Prayer, Jeremy Christian arrived wrapped in 316 00:21:09,720 --> 00:21:14,960 Speaker 2: a Revolutionary War era flag carrying a baseball bat in 317 00:21:14,960 --> 00:21:18,000 Speaker 2: a Wendy's parking lot. A crowd had formed around Christian 318 00:21:18,040 --> 00:21:20,960 Speaker 2: as he attempted to provoke counter protesters into a physical fight. 319 00:21:22,440 --> 00:21:26,000 Speaker 2: Michah Fletcher was there, dressed as a gesture, trying to 320 00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:29,120 Speaker 2: diffuse the tense situation by distracting the crowd with a 321 00:21:29,600 --> 00:21:34,760 Speaker 2: pretty competent juggling routine. He would later testify about that day, saying, 322 00:21:35,800 --> 00:21:38,800 Speaker 2: It's just less scary for other people. If I'm able 323 00:21:38,800 --> 00:21:40,280 Speaker 2: to show up in a way people would laugh at 324 00:21:40,520 --> 00:21:42,760 Speaker 2: instead of looking intimidating, I. 325 00:21:42,760 --> 00:21:43,399 Speaker 1: Would prefer it. 326 00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:48,560 Speaker 2: But on May twenty sixth, on the train, there was 327 00:21:48,600 --> 00:21:53,000 Speaker 2: no chance that whimsy would win the day. Michah Fletcher 328 00:21:53,040 --> 00:21:56,159 Speaker 2: moved towards this brewing confrontation, and he shouted at Jeremy 329 00:21:56,240 --> 00:21:59,639 Speaker 2: Christian that you can't talk to kids like that, and 330 00:21:59,680 --> 00:22:03,520 Speaker 2: you need to he could off this train. Christian already 331 00:22:03,520 --> 00:22:04,879 Speaker 2: had his knife in his hand. 332 00:22:04,680 --> 00:22:06,720 Speaker 1: But no one saw it. 333 00:22:08,160 --> 00:22:11,359 Speaker 2: Suddenly, both Micah and Tualisian had been stabbed in the neck. 334 00:22:12,560 --> 00:22:15,480 Speaker 2: A third man Ricky Best, a retired army veteran and 335 00:22:15,520 --> 00:22:17,560 Speaker 2: father of four who was on his way home from work, 336 00:22:18,440 --> 00:22:21,680 Speaker 2: moved to intervene, and he too was stabbed in the neck. 337 00:22:23,520 --> 00:22:26,280 Speaker 2: The girls fled the train, terrified that he would kill 338 00:22:26,320 --> 00:22:28,520 Speaker 2: them now that the men who tried to protect them 339 00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:34,320 Speaker 2: were bleeding out before their eyes. Ricky John Best and 340 00:22:34,400 --> 00:22:43,480 Speaker 2: Talisian Nankaimche were murdered. Micah Fletcher survived. As Tulisian collapsed 341 00:22:43,480 --> 00:22:46,560 Speaker 2: on the floor of the train, a woman knelt next 342 00:22:46,600 --> 00:22:51,080 Speaker 2: to him. She took off her own shirt, depressed to 343 00:22:51,119 --> 00:22:56,600 Speaker 2: his wound, telling him you're not alone. 344 00:22:55,600 --> 00:22:56,160 Speaker 1: We're here. 345 00:22:58,080 --> 00:23:03,639 Speaker 6: What you did was total kindness. You're such a beautiful man. 346 00:23:04,560 --> 00:23:06,560 Speaker 1: I'm sorry. The world is so cruel. 347 00:23:09,720 --> 00:23:12,000 Speaker 6: She held her shirt to his neck there on the 348 00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:15,320 Speaker 6: floor of the train, praying over him and trying to 349 00:23:15,359 --> 00:23:20,000 Speaker 6: keep him calm. He said his last words to that 350 00:23:20,119 --> 00:23:28,040 Speaker 6: gentle stranger, Tell everyone on this train, I love them. 351 00:23:28,640 --> 00:23:31,120 Speaker 6: Micah Fletcher stumbled out of the train at the next stop, 352 00:23:31,640 --> 00:23:33,720 Speaker 6: collapsing on the platform in front of a man waiting 353 00:23:33,720 --> 00:23:37,920 Speaker 6: for the train with his family. Fatman, an army veteran. 354 00:23:38,160 --> 00:23:39,920 Speaker 2: Used what he had at his disposal to try to 355 00:23:39,920 --> 00:23:44,240 Speaker 2: stop the bleeding a child's jacket and the pink baby 356 00:23:44,280 --> 00:23:50,159 Speaker 2: blanket from his daughter's stroller. On a Friday afternoon, just 357 00:23:50,200 --> 00:23:54,040 Speaker 2: before Ramadan, an entire train full of people watched a 358 00:23:54,119 --> 00:23:58,240 Speaker 2: self proclaimed Nazi stab three men who were brave enough 359 00:23:58,280 --> 00:24:05,240 Speaker 2: to defend two children from a racist, Islamophobic tirade, and 360 00:24:06,119 --> 00:24:09,480 Speaker 2: in just two weeks, the March Against Sharia promised to 361 00:24:09,520 --> 00:24:16,160 Speaker 2: bring anti Muslim activists to Portland. On Monday, May twenty ninth, 362 00:24:16,200 --> 00:24:19,320 Speaker 2: it was national news that Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler did 363 00:24:19,359 --> 00:24:24,280 Speaker 2: not want the March against Sharia in Portland. Permits for 364 00:24:24,320 --> 00:24:26,040 Speaker 2: events in the area where the rally was set to 365 00:24:26,080 --> 00:24:29,200 Speaker 2: be held, are not actually issued by the City of Portland, 366 00:24:29,480 --> 00:24:32,439 Speaker 2: but by the federal government through the General Services Administration, 367 00:24:33,960 --> 00:24:36,800 Speaker 2: and they declined to pull the permit, but ACT for 368 00:24:36,800 --> 00:24:40,520 Speaker 2: America voluntarily canceled the Portland event anyway, moving it to 369 00:24:40,600 --> 00:24:47,000 Speaker 2: Seattle instead, and then all of a sudden, people were 370 00:24:47,040 --> 00:24:50,920 Speaker 2: talking about the March against Sharia. The very next day, 371 00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:53,720 Speaker 2: on May thirtieth, in a discord server for members of 372 00:24:53,760 --> 00:24:58,720 Speaker 2: the neo Nazi group Vanguard America, Thomas Rousseau posted a 373 00:24:58,760 --> 00:25:01,840 Speaker 2: link to ACT for a Mayor because website for the rallies, writing, 374 00:25:02,600 --> 00:25:04,880 Speaker 2: we keep saying we need to stand up against Islam. 375 00:25:05,840 --> 00:25:06,840 Speaker 2: Well here's your chance. 376 00:25:06,760 --> 00:25:07,439 Speaker 1: To get started. 377 00:25:08,840 --> 00:25:11,679 Speaker 2: Barely a minute later, another user had copied and pasted 378 00:25:11,720 --> 00:25:14,600 Speaker 2: that exact message into a discord server for the neo 379 00:25:14,640 --> 00:25:20,400 Speaker 2: Nazi group the Traditionalist Worker Party. That same day, May thirtieth, 380 00:25:20,880 --> 00:25:24,560 Speaker 2: act for America's rally coordinator, Scott Presler, heard from an 381 00:25:24,600 --> 00:25:30,359 Speaker 2: excited pair of new volunteers, Billy and Tina Roper. On 382 00:25:30,480 --> 00:25:33,520 Speaker 2: June first, Presler created a Facebook event for a march 383 00:25:33,520 --> 00:25:37,520 Speaker 2: against Sharia in Batesville, Arkansas, which would be organized and 384 00:25:37,560 --> 00:25:45,639 Speaker 2: hosted by Billy Roper. Billy Roper is a Nazi. I 385 00:25:45,680 --> 00:25:49,560 Speaker 2: don't mean that in like a colloquial, casual, careless sort 386 00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:52,880 Speaker 2: of sense. He is a Nazi, out and out died 387 00:25:52,920 --> 00:25:57,479 Speaker 2: in the wool Hater. His name might sound familiar if 388 00:25:57,520 --> 00:26:00,480 Speaker 2: you listen to every episode of the show. He gave 389 00:26:00,520 --> 00:26:03,240 Speaker 2: a speech at Ariyan Fest two thousand four in Phoenix, 390 00:26:03,480 --> 00:26:06,000 Speaker 2: a few weeks before Denis Mahon built that bomb and 391 00:26:06,040 --> 00:26:10,240 Speaker 2: sent it to the Diversity office in Scottsdale. Billy Roper 392 00:26:10,320 --> 00:26:13,240 Speaker 2: was raised by a second generation clansman, and he turned 393 00:26:13,280 --> 00:26:16,119 Speaker 2: to neo Nazi organizing as a young man, joining the 394 00:26:16,119 --> 00:26:19,520 Speaker 2: Council of Conservative Citizens in his twenties and quickly rising 395 00:26:19,520 --> 00:26:21,920 Speaker 2: through the ranks as a regional leader in National Alliance. 396 00:26:23,320 --> 00:26:26,439 Speaker 2: Shortly before the death of National Alliance founder William Luther Pierce, 397 00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:29,320 Speaker 2: Rober had moved to the Nazi group's compound in West 398 00:26:29,400 --> 00:26:33,800 Speaker 2: Virginia to serve as deputy membership coordinator. He was pushed 399 00:26:33,800 --> 00:26:36,719 Speaker 2: out of National Alliance after Pierce died, and he's been 400 00:26:36,760 --> 00:26:38,880 Speaker 2: trying to lead his own wing of the movement for 401 00:26:39,040 --> 00:26:43,200 Speaker 2: the last twenty years. He led a group called White Revolution. 402 00:26:43,400 --> 00:26:46,040 Speaker 2: For a while he had the Shield Wall Network, and 403 00:26:47,040 --> 00:26:49,359 Speaker 2: these days he's trying to start his own ethno state 404 00:26:49,480 --> 00:26:55,320 Speaker 2: called Ozarkia. Billy will get his own episodes eventually. But 405 00:26:55,400 --> 00:27:02,720 Speaker 2: the point is Scott Presler obviously did not google Billy Roper. 406 00:27:03,960 --> 00:27:06,680 Speaker 2: This wasn't some obscure figure or a man who did 407 00:27:06,720 --> 00:27:10,400 Speaker 2: his not see organizing under a pseudonym. This was page 408 00:27:10,480 --> 00:27:15,480 Speaker 2: one Google results territory. I'm pretty sure that one of 409 00:27:15,560 --> 00:27:18,439 Speaker 2: the first things he would have found had he looked, 410 00:27:19,080 --> 00:27:21,760 Speaker 2: were news stories about the time Billy Roper emailed the 411 00:27:21,920 --> 00:27:25,439 Speaker 2: entire membership list at National Alliance about how much he 412 00:27:25,480 --> 00:27:29,639 Speaker 2: was enjoying nine to eleven. On nine to eleven, like 413 00:27:29,720 --> 00:27:34,960 Speaker 2: before noon, he wrote, the enemy of our enemy is 414 00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:38,360 Speaker 2: for now at least our friends. We may not want 415 00:27:38,359 --> 00:27:40,600 Speaker 2: them marrying our daughters, just as they would not want 416 00:27:40,680 --> 00:27:43,919 Speaker 2: us marrying theirs. We may not want them in our society, 417 00:27:44,280 --> 00:27:46,919 Speaker 2: just as they would not want us in theirs. But 418 00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:48,959 Speaker 2: anyone who is willing to drive a plane into a 419 00:27:48,960 --> 00:27:50,640 Speaker 2: building to kill Jews is. 420 00:27:50,640 --> 00:27:51,399 Speaker 1: All right with me. 421 00:27:52,600 --> 00:27:57,800 Speaker 2: I wish our members had half as much testicular fortitude, and. 422 00:27:57,720 --> 00:28:01,160 Speaker 6: That was widely reported that would have come up. 423 00:28:03,040 --> 00:28:04,280 Speaker 1: There's no indication that. 424 00:28:04,920 --> 00:28:10,000 Speaker 2: Any vetting of any kind was done here. Scott Pressler 425 00:28:10,119 --> 00:28:13,439 Speaker 2: was just taking all comers, setting up Facebook event pages 426 00:28:13,480 --> 00:28:16,640 Speaker 2: with ACT for America's official endorsement on them in any 427 00:28:16,640 --> 00:28:20,520 Speaker 2: city where someone offered to put on an event. On 428 00:28:20,640 --> 00:28:23,280 Speaker 2: June fourth, Billy Roper posted on the Stormfront that he 429 00:28:23,320 --> 00:28:25,479 Speaker 2: was organizing the event and would be giving a speech. 430 00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:28,800 Speaker 1: It wasn't until June sixth. 431 00:28:28,480 --> 00:28:31,359 Speaker 2: Though, when he published an episode of his podcast advertising 432 00:28:31,400 --> 00:28:34,760 Speaker 2: the event, that it was made perfectly clear that he 433 00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:37,560 Speaker 2: wasn't just attaching his name to this event for attention. 434 00:28:37,760 --> 00:28:42,560 Speaker 2: He wasn't riding act's coattails. He was working with and 435 00:28:42,640 --> 00:28:48,040 Speaker 2: had the approval of, ACT for America, and on the podcast, 436 00:28:48,160 --> 00:28:52,160 Speaker 2: Roper described participating in a conference call with other event organizers, 437 00:28:52,680 --> 00:28:56,480 Speaker 2: a call that was hosted by Act for America, and 438 00:28:56,560 --> 00:29:01,040 Speaker 2: Roper doesn't name names, but he does hint that he 439 00:29:01,160 --> 00:29:06,120 Speaker 2: wasn't the only extremist on the call. Within hours of 440 00:29:06,120 --> 00:29:09,200 Speaker 2: that episode appearing online, the Southern Poverty Law Center was 441 00:29:09,240 --> 00:29:13,080 Speaker 2: reporting that Act for America had given Billy Roper their blessing. 442 00:29:14,600 --> 00:29:18,360 Speaker 2: Email exchanges later published by Roper showed that Pressler must 443 00:29:18,400 --> 00:29:22,080 Speaker 2: have seen this news pretty quickly, because by late afternoon 444 00:29:22,120 --> 00:29:24,920 Speaker 2: that very day, he wrote the Roper's an email with 445 00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:30,400 Speaker 2: the subject line Act for America marches urgent and the 446 00:29:30,400 --> 00:29:36,400 Speaker 2: body reads only Billy, please give me a call. Act 447 00:29:36,480 --> 00:29:40,080 Speaker 2: for America quietly removed the listing for the Batesville rally 448 00:29:40,160 --> 00:29:45,040 Speaker 2: from their website that night. Now it kind of sounds 449 00:29:45,080 --> 00:29:46,080 Speaker 2: like this is a point. 450 00:29:45,840 --> 00:29:46,880 Speaker 1: In their favor, right. 451 00:29:48,040 --> 00:29:50,520 Speaker 2: Sure, they dropped the ball when it came to vetting, 452 00:29:50,600 --> 00:29:52,960 Speaker 2: but when they found out they were working with. 453 00:29:52,920 --> 00:29:55,040 Speaker 1: A Nazi, they dropped him. 454 00:29:55,440 --> 00:29:59,320 Speaker 2: That's got to account for something, right, But far from 455 00:29:59,400 --> 00:30:03,520 Speaker 2: being exact honerative, I think it only underscores what's going 456 00:30:03,520 --> 00:30:09,760 Speaker 2: on here. They don't mind working with extremists, they just 457 00:30:09,760 --> 00:30:13,240 Speaker 2: don't want to be publicly humiliated, especially not by the 458 00:30:13,280 --> 00:30:18,320 Speaker 2: Southern Poverty Law Center. Earlier in twenty seventeen, Act for 459 00:30:18,400 --> 00:30:21,840 Speaker 2: America joined forces with a few dozen other SPLC designated 460 00:30:21,880 --> 00:30:27,240 Speaker 2: hate groups to launch a site called SPLC Exposed, dedicated 461 00:30:27,240 --> 00:30:29,720 Speaker 2: to attacking the credibility of the people who were drawing 462 00:30:29,720 --> 00:30:34,320 Speaker 2: attention to their hateful organizations. So they couldn't give the 463 00:30:34,440 --> 00:30:37,680 Speaker 2: SPLC an easy win here by refusing to back down 464 00:30:37,760 --> 00:30:42,080 Speaker 2: from working with a man whose literal occupation was white 465 00:30:42,160 --> 00:30:47,800 Speaker 2: nationalist organizer. There was no plausible deniability there, and the 466 00:30:47,840 --> 00:30:50,920 Speaker 2: timeline of that day makes it very clear that someone 467 00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:54,160 Speaker 2: had Act for America was just sitting at a computer 468 00:30:54,280 --> 00:30:57,000 Speaker 2: refreshing the SPLC's website all day to see if they 469 00:30:57,000 --> 00:31:00,320 Speaker 2: were talking about them, because they saw that article about 470 00:31:00,320 --> 00:31:06,040 Speaker 2: Billy Roper instantly. But the SBLC was only able to 471 00:31:06,120 --> 00:31:09,280 Speaker 2: report that there was a Nazi organizing one of these 472 00:31:09,320 --> 00:31:13,200 Speaker 2: Act for America events because Billy Roper ran his mouth. 473 00:31:14,440 --> 00:31:16,040 Speaker 1: It's impossible to say which of. 474 00:31:16,040 --> 00:31:19,240 Speaker 2: The slew of white supremacist speakers and organizers that ACT 475 00:31:19,680 --> 00:31:22,600 Speaker 2: might have been willing to cut ties with if it. 476 00:31:22,520 --> 00:31:24,200 Speaker 1: Had been reported ahead of time. 477 00:31:25,920 --> 00:31:29,120 Speaker 2: But I can tell you that they never disavowed any 478 00:31:29,160 --> 00:31:33,240 Speaker 2: of them afterwards. Some of the white supremacists who spoke 479 00:31:33,280 --> 00:31:37,320 Speaker 2: at those events were lesser known figures, ones who may 480 00:31:37,360 --> 00:31:39,720 Speaker 2: have been able to slip through a vetting process had 481 00:31:39,760 --> 00:31:44,360 Speaker 2: there been one. But some of these people, some of 482 00:31:44,360 --> 00:31:45,640 Speaker 2: these guys, they could have googled. 483 00:31:47,920 --> 00:31:51,920 Speaker 7: Fucking fantastic man. Yeah, so there was these these sharia 484 00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:54,760 Speaker 7: law protests. I'm surprised, like, I don't know what happened 485 00:31:54,760 --> 00:31:56,720 Speaker 7: that I didn't catch onto these things earlier. Like I 486 00:31:56,760 --> 00:31:58,560 Speaker 7: read about this on Saturday, and I was like, Oh, 487 00:31:58,600 --> 00:31:59,800 Speaker 7: I should have gone to one of these things. 488 00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:01,200 Speaker 3: What's what's the story. 489 00:32:01,240 --> 00:32:05,640 Speaker 4: Yeah, Yeah, ACT for America. It's Bridget Garriel's thing. They 490 00:32:05,680 --> 00:32:10,040 Speaker 4: put on a nationwide anti Sharia protest called March against Sharia. 491 00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:12,120 Speaker 4: So it happened in twenty three different cities all over 492 00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:14,560 Speaker 4: the country. I was one of the organizers for the 493 00:32:14,680 --> 00:32:16,760 Speaker 4: Orlando event because Orlando is my hometown. 494 00:32:17,480 --> 00:32:18,440 Speaker 3: All right, fantastic. 495 00:32:18,560 --> 00:32:20,320 Speaker 7: So you got together on Saturday. 496 00:32:19,880 --> 00:32:21,520 Speaker 4: And everybody did it across the country. 497 00:32:21,600 --> 00:32:23,480 Speaker 7: Yeah, you got together with what I think you said 498 00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:24,800 Speaker 7: you were with Identity Europa. 499 00:32:25,920 --> 00:32:28,120 Speaker 4: Yeah, a lot of groups came out. Identity Europa was 500 00:32:28,120 --> 00:32:32,280 Speaker 4: one of them. They unfurled their banner for my speech specifically. 501 00:32:35,640 --> 00:32:39,200 Speaker 2: Now there's a chance you might recognize those voices. They 502 00:32:39,240 --> 00:32:44,240 Speaker 2: are two of the more uniquely annoying accents of the 503 00:32:44,360 --> 00:32:48,760 Speaker 2: twenty seventeen era white nationalist figures. And that is crying 504 00:32:48,840 --> 00:32:52,479 Speaker 2: Nazi Chris Cantwell with the long Island accent, and the 505 00:32:52,480 --> 00:32:55,720 Speaker 2: one faking a Southern accent is white nationalist attorney Augustus 506 00:32:55,760 --> 00:32:59,280 Speaker 2: Sole and Victis. And that's from an episode of Christopher 507 00:32:59,280 --> 00:33:04,920 Speaker 2: Cantwell's pod cast. Two days after those rallies, Invictus organized 508 00:33:04,920 --> 00:33:08,760 Speaker 2: and headlined the Orlando March against Sharia, and he posed 509 00:33:08,760 --> 00:33:11,560 Speaker 2: for photos with an Identity Europa banner held by members 510 00:33:11,560 --> 00:33:16,200 Speaker 2: of that now defunct white nationalist organization. Augustus and Victus 511 00:33:16,200 --> 00:33:20,920 Speaker 2: had a very busy summer in twenty seventeen. He spoke 512 00:33:20,920 --> 00:33:27,080 Speaker 2: at altwright rallies all over the country for months. In May, 513 00:33:27,360 --> 00:33:29,880 Speaker 2: he told a crowd in Boston that a new civil. 514 00:33:29,640 --> 00:33:31,320 Speaker 1: War was upon them. 515 00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:34,600 Speaker 2: Two weeks later, at a pro Confederate Statue rally he 516 00:33:34,720 --> 00:33:38,360 Speaker 2: organized in Orlando, he blamed Islam for mass shootings and 517 00:33:38,480 --> 00:33:42,920 Speaker 2: Ranston about white genocide. He gave speeches in Chapel Hill, Washington, 518 00:33:43,000 --> 00:33:47,760 Speaker 2: d C. Austin, and Huntington Beach. He criss crossed the 519 00:33:47,760 --> 00:33:51,920 Speaker 2: country that summer, but wherever he went the message was 520 00:33:51,960 --> 00:33:56,640 Speaker 2: the same. Now is the time for violence. 521 00:33:59,360 --> 00:34:00,800 Speaker 4: No one's going to fix this for you. 522 00:34:02,520 --> 00:34:05,360 Speaker 8: That's why it doesn't matter if we are armed, or. 523 00:34:05,320 --> 00:34:07,160 Speaker 4: Even if our security details are armed. 524 00:34:07,960 --> 00:34:09,080 Speaker 5: What matters is that you. 525 00:34:09,400 --> 00:34:12,400 Speaker 9: Are armed, and you are prepared for war, and you 526 00:34:12,680 --> 00:34:15,520 Speaker 9: are prepared to carry on the heritage of your forefathers. 527 00:34:18,480 --> 00:34:21,360 Speaker 2: And by June he was on board as an organizer 528 00:34:21,440 --> 00:34:23,879 Speaker 2: for the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. 529 00:34:24,360 --> 00:34:27,120 Speaker 1: In August, after his. 530 00:34:27,080 --> 00:34:29,600 Speaker 2: Speech at the March against Sharia, he led a dozen 531 00:34:29,640 --> 00:34:34,359 Speaker 2: members of Identity Europa in chance of one people, one 532 00:34:34,440 --> 00:34:39,560 Speaker 2: nation and immigration, and that's a chance they would use 533 00:34:39,600 --> 00:34:42,719 Speaker 2: again in August as they marched through the grounds of 534 00:34:42,719 --> 00:35:01,360 Speaker 2: the University of Virginia with their torches. And around the 535 00:35:01,400 --> 00:35:04,400 Speaker 2: same time that morning that Augustus and Victus was straining 536 00:35:04,400 --> 00:35:07,680 Speaker 2: to be heard over the passing cars in Orlando. The 537 00:35:07,719 --> 00:35:10,399 Speaker 2: March against Sharia in New York was in full swing too. 538 00:35:11,840 --> 00:35:14,399 Speaker 2: The hosts of Fox and Friends scoffed at the way 539 00:35:14,440 --> 00:35:18,160 Speaker 2: the mainstream media had characterized the event as anti Muslim, 540 00:35:18,440 --> 00:35:21,759 Speaker 2: something they thought was very unfair, so they'd send a 541 00:35:21,760 --> 00:35:25,080 Speaker 2: correspondent out into the streets to get the real story. 542 00:35:26,640 --> 00:35:30,399 Speaker 9: It's not about being against Muslims. It's just being against 543 00:35:30,040 --> 00:35:35,720 Speaker 9: the ideology of I guess, murdering homosexuals and treating women 544 00:35:35,760 --> 00:35:38,279 Speaker 9: as a second class maybe under a second class set, 545 00:35:38,320 --> 00:35:40,080 Speaker 9: as they're just the humanizing. 546 00:35:39,560 --> 00:35:40,240 Speaker 10: Over in Britain. 547 00:35:40,280 --> 00:35:43,439 Speaker 8: They were just frogs boiling in water and now they're dead. 548 00:35:43,520 --> 00:35:46,360 Speaker 3: Critics will say that you're anti Muslim? Are you anti Muslim? 549 00:35:46,440 --> 00:35:47,880 Speaker 7: Absolutely not, absolutely not. 550 00:35:51,360 --> 00:35:53,560 Speaker 2: This one really messed me up. I had to take 551 00:35:53,560 --> 00:35:57,320 Speaker 2: a break after I found this video. I see a 552 00:35:57,360 --> 00:36:00,400 Speaker 2: lot of really upsetting stuff in my research, you know, 553 00:36:00,520 --> 00:36:01,560 Speaker 2: sometimes you have to take a. 554 00:36:01,480 --> 00:36:06,160 Speaker 1: Break to cry, take a walk, close the computer. But 555 00:36:06,239 --> 00:36:11,400 Speaker 1: this one was just surreal. It's hard to wrap your 556 00:36:11,440 --> 00:36:17,640 Speaker 1: head around who's in this video. Fox and Friends didn't ask. 557 00:36:17,480 --> 00:36:20,759 Speaker 2: Any of those rally attendees their names, at least not 558 00:36:20,800 --> 00:36:24,360 Speaker 2: that they showed on air, so as presented, this clip 559 00:36:24,520 --> 00:36:28,160 Speaker 2: just shows random man on the street, candid interviews with 560 00:36:28,280 --> 00:36:33,560 Speaker 2: average people, and you probably don't recognize their voices, but 561 00:36:33,640 --> 00:36:37,720 Speaker 2: I think you'd know their faces, because that's former Fox 562 00:36:37,719 --> 00:36:41,480 Speaker 2: and Friend's co host and current Secretary of Defense Pete 563 00:36:41,480 --> 00:36:46,920 Speaker 2: Hegseth asking Proud Boys founder Gavin McGinness and neo Nazi 564 00:36:46,960 --> 00:36:53,799 Speaker 2: troll Jovi Val what they think about Islam. And I 565 00:36:53,840 --> 00:36:56,040 Speaker 2: didn't watch the confirmation hearing, so I don't know if 566 00:36:56,040 --> 00:36:58,719 Speaker 2: they ever got to the bottom of this allegation from 567 00:36:58,719 --> 00:37:02,320 Speaker 2: a former employee that Pete Hegseth once got blackout drunk 568 00:37:02,320 --> 00:37:07,359 Speaker 2: and started yelling, keel all Muslims at some bar in Ohio. 569 00:37:07,719 --> 00:37:11,240 Speaker 2: But either way, I'm not sure we're getting a straight 570 00:37:11,280 --> 00:37:16,440 Speaker 2: answer about Islam for any of these guys. The New 571 00:37:16,480 --> 00:37:18,839 Speaker 2: York City March against Sharia was organized by a man 572 00:37:18,960 --> 00:37:22,480 Speaker 2: named Pax Hart, a staff writer at the Proud Boys magazine. 573 00:37:23,600 --> 00:37:25,800 Speaker 2: Speeches were given by Heart, as well as Proud Boy's 574 00:37:25,800 --> 00:37:29,920 Speaker 2: founder Kevin McGinnis and Proud Boys Magazine creative director Paul Basil. 575 00:37:31,040 --> 00:37:33,600 Speaker 2: Frank Morgenthaler, the vice president of the New York chapter 576 00:37:33,680 --> 00:37:36,960 Speaker 2: of the Oathkeepers, had only barely finished his speech when 577 00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:41,200 Speaker 2: he collapsed, apparently having a massive heart attack. The oath 578 00:37:41,280 --> 00:37:44,200 Speaker 2: Keeper's New York chapter would later tell reporters that Morgenthaler 579 00:37:44,320 --> 00:37:48,440 Speaker 2: was in the hospital in stable condition. I tried to 580 00:37:48,440 --> 00:37:51,920 Speaker 2: cut a clip of Laura Loomer's speech, but it's just 581 00:37:51,960 --> 00:37:56,719 Speaker 2: not worth it. She has no charisma and she never has. 582 00:37:57,160 --> 00:38:00,279 Speaker 2: It's just kind of sad and just a position you 583 00:38:00,360 --> 00:38:04,160 Speaker 2: in the timeline of embarrassing Laura lumer stunts. This was 584 00:38:04,719 --> 00:38:07,960 Speaker 2: after she tried to do voter fraud as a prank, 585 00:38:08,560 --> 00:38:11,200 Speaker 2: showing up at a polling location in a burka and 586 00:38:11,239 --> 00:38:16,560 Speaker 2: pretending to be Huma Aberdeen, but before she handcuffed herself 587 00:38:16,560 --> 00:38:19,879 Speaker 2: to the front door at Twitter, but only to one 588 00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:22,600 Speaker 2: side of a double door, so people were just coming 589 00:38:22,640 --> 00:38:27,760 Speaker 2: and going through the other side of the doors. Oddly, 590 00:38:28,400 --> 00:38:31,160 Speaker 2: I think it was Gavin McGinnis who gave the most 591 00:38:31,200 --> 00:38:35,000 Speaker 2: honest speech that day, because a lot of speakers at 592 00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:39,799 Speaker 2: these rallies in various cities pretended that their concern was 593 00:38:39,840 --> 00:38:44,120 Speaker 2: for women's rights, for gay rights, for freedom and liberty, 594 00:38:45,360 --> 00:38:46,280 Speaker 2: despite the fact. 595 00:38:46,120 --> 00:38:48,320 Speaker 1: That these people absolutely. 596 00:38:48,200 --> 00:38:52,920 Speaker 2: Do not believe in women's rights or gay rights. And 597 00:38:52,920 --> 00:38:55,399 Speaker 2: when Gavin McGinnis took the mic after being introduced by 598 00:38:55,440 --> 00:38:59,759 Speaker 2: Pax Hart, an openly gay brown boy, he started with 599 00:38:59,800 --> 00:39:03,560 Speaker 2: what I assume we're supposed to be jokes. 600 00:39:07,280 --> 00:39:07,960 Speaker 3: I like that guy. 601 00:39:07,960 --> 00:39:12,239 Speaker 8: I like Paxton, but uh, let's cut the shit. 602 00:39:12,320 --> 00:39:12,880 Speaker 1: He's a homo. 603 00:39:15,360 --> 00:39:16,759 Speaker 8: And I was talking to this guy. 604 00:39:16,760 --> 00:39:17,600 Speaker 1: I don't know if you went to. 605 00:39:17,520 --> 00:39:21,640 Speaker 8: Columbia, but this guy aka Medina Jahd, he was saying 606 00:39:21,680 --> 00:39:28,279 Speaker 8: that in Iran there's no homos, and that sounds like 607 00:39:28,320 --> 00:39:29,200 Speaker 8: my kind of place, you know. 608 00:39:29,920 --> 00:39:31,719 Speaker 1: So I'm not gonna be. 609 00:39:31,719 --> 00:39:34,920 Speaker 8: Your average speaker up here today because I've been kind 610 00:39:34,920 --> 00:39:37,759 Speaker 8: of looking Indushuriyah and I kind of liked a lot 611 00:39:37,800 --> 00:39:38,000 Speaker 8: of it. 612 00:39:42,200 --> 00:39:44,040 Speaker 2: Of all the speeches I was able to dig up 613 00:39:44,040 --> 00:39:47,520 Speaker 2: from that day from rallies all over the country, these 614 00:39:47,640 --> 00:39:51,280 Speaker 2: jokes are the closest anyone came to telling the truth. 615 00:39:52,360 --> 00:39:57,200 Speaker 2: They don't care about women, they hate gay people, they 616 00:39:57,320 --> 00:40:00,640 Speaker 2: just don't like Muslims, and they don't think that any 617 00:40:00,680 --> 00:40:06,640 Speaker 2: immigrant can never really be American. Over in Denver at 618 00:40:06,640 --> 00:40:09,960 Speaker 2: the March against Sharia, neo Nazi Will Planer was briefly 619 00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:13,759 Speaker 2: detained by police after brandishing a knife. He had not 620 00:40:13,920 --> 00:40:16,680 Speaker 2: yet at that time been convicted for beating a woman 621 00:40:16,800 --> 00:40:19,920 Speaker 2: unconscious with a flagpole at a Nazi rally in California 622 00:40:19,960 --> 00:40:25,160 Speaker 2: a year earlier. In Richardson, Texas, just outside of Dallas. 623 00:40:25,680 --> 00:40:29,839 Speaker 2: Both Keeper's leader Stuart Rhodes was in attendance. Jason Lee 624 00:40:29,920 --> 00:40:32,760 Speaker 2: van Dyke, who now works as an attorney for Patriot Front, 625 00:40:33,320 --> 00:40:35,839 Speaker 2: was there hanging out with the Proud Boys, a group 626 00:40:35,840 --> 00:40:38,560 Speaker 2: he claims he was never a member of, but did 627 00:40:38,600 --> 00:40:42,600 Speaker 2: work for and hang out with all the time. And 628 00:40:42,680 --> 00:40:47,120 Speaker 2: unlike rallies in state capitol plazas or near random intersections, 629 00:40:48,120 --> 00:40:51,040 Speaker 2: that rally in Richardson, Texas was held right outside of 630 00:40:51,040 --> 00:40:51,839 Speaker 2: a mosque. 631 00:40:52,960 --> 00:40:54,120 Speaker 1: So as children were. 632 00:40:54,040 --> 00:40:57,680 Speaker 2: Arriving for their weekend classes in Arabic Muslim heritage and 633 00:40:57,800 --> 00:41:02,560 Speaker 2: Quran recitation, there were armed men standing across the street 634 00:41:03,280 --> 00:41:06,600 Speaker 2: shouting at them to go back to their own country. 635 00:41:07,239 --> 00:41:11,040 Speaker 2: In Indianapolis, the Indiana Director for Identity Europa gave a speech. 636 00:41:12,600 --> 00:41:15,920 Speaker 2: I can't find any video of his speech, but a 637 00:41:15,960 --> 00:41:19,239 Speaker 2: reporter for the Indie Star quoted him saying, we're here 638 00:41:19,239 --> 00:41:22,319 Speaker 2: to support the march against Sharia, but we're here to 639 00:41:22,360 --> 00:41:26,680 Speaker 2: take it a bit further. Apparently, this man gave his 640 00:41:26,760 --> 00:41:31,120 Speaker 2: name to the reporter as John Richardson, and I suppose 641 00:41:31,160 --> 00:41:33,000 Speaker 2: the reporter from the Indie Star had no way of 642 00:41:33,080 --> 00:41:36,360 Speaker 2: knowing that was a lie, because there's a picture in 643 00:41:36,400 --> 00:41:40,400 Speaker 2: that article, and I recognized that man who said his 644 00:41:40,480 --> 00:41:45,120 Speaker 2: name was John Richardson. That's Allison Richard Pierce, the fourth 645 00:41:46,239 --> 00:41:49,760 Speaker 2: Jack to his friends, a Jax to his fellow Nazis. 646 00:41:51,040 --> 00:41:54,040 Speaker 2: He was Richard Spencer's head of security for the weekend 647 00:41:54,080 --> 00:41:56,680 Speaker 2: of the Unite the Right rally, and he served as 648 00:41:56,680 --> 00:41:59,560 Speaker 2: the point of contact for the rallies organizers with the 649 00:41:59,640 --> 00:42:01,000 Speaker 2: Charles Police Department. 650 00:42:02,680 --> 00:42:05,120 Speaker 1: Like Augustus and Victus, he too. 651 00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:07,920 Speaker 2: Had spent most of that summer in the car, driving 652 00:42:07,960 --> 00:42:11,800 Speaker 2: halfway across the country multiple times just to stand behind 653 00:42:11,880 --> 00:42:16,880 Speaker 2: Richard Spencer at Nazi rallies on the East Coast. At 654 00:42:16,920 --> 00:42:21,040 Speaker 2: the March against Sharia in Roseville, California, Identity Europa founder 655 00:42:21,120 --> 00:42:25,359 Speaker 2: Nathan Dimigo gave a speech. I really wish I could 656 00:42:25,400 --> 00:42:29,120 Speaker 2: have dug up video of this speech. In particular, I 657 00:42:29,120 --> 00:42:32,760 Speaker 2: would have liked to know how Nathan Dimigo presented himself 658 00:42:32,760 --> 00:42:36,600 Speaker 2: to that crowd. In a live stream the day after 659 00:42:36,640 --> 00:42:40,480 Speaker 2: the event, he admitted to his own followers that he 660 00:42:40,600 --> 00:42:43,520 Speaker 2: knows there's no actual threat of Sharia law in America, 661 00:42:44,680 --> 00:42:47,840 Speaker 2: but he felt it had been worthwhile to dispatch members 662 00:42:47,880 --> 00:42:51,040 Speaker 2: of Identity Europa to those events across the country. 663 00:42:52,640 --> 00:42:56,759 Speaker 10: We had IE as a nationwide network Identity Europa. We 664 00:42:56,840 --> 00:42:59,000 Speaker 10: had members go to this thing across the country just 665 00:42:59,120 --> 00:43:01,200 Speaker 10: kind of support a little bit, but also to get 666 00:43:01,200 --> 00:43:04,960 Speaker 10: a chance to talk to people who were there and 667 00:43:05,840 --> 00:43:09,040 Speaker 10: normalize ourselves in their eyes. 668 00:43:12,719 --> 00:43:17,279 Speaker 2: Dimigo's Nazis didn't wear swastika armbands. They wore khaki. 669 00:43:17,000 --> 00:43:19,160 Speaker 1: Pants and white polos. 670 00:43:19,880 --> 00:43:23,400 Speaker 2: They were clean cut, with fresh haircuts and professionally printed 671 00:43:23,400 --> 00:43:27,560 Speaker 2: banners and signs. And he recognized the value in showing 672 00:43:27,640 --> 00:43:31,160 Speaker 2: up to things like this to shift the conversation in 673 00:43:31,200 --> 00:43:34,120 Speaker 2: their direction, which is why I'm. 674 00:43:34,080 --> 00:43:37,040 Speaker 1: Curious how he chose to address that crowd. 675 00:43:38,239 --> 00:43:40,799 Speaker 2: I'm sure they didn't know that he'd been discharged from 676 00:43:40,800 --> 00:43:43,360 Speaker 2: the Marine Corps in two thousand and seven after he 677 00:43:43,440 --> 00:43:46,520 Speaker 2: drunkenly pulled a gun on an Arab American taxi driver 678 00:43:46,680 --> 00:43:52,160 Speaker 2: because he quote looked Iraqi. Dimigo has claimed that he 679 00:43:52,200 --> 00:43:56,120 Speaker 2: had his political awakening after reading David Duke's autobiography in prison. 680 00:43:57,800 --> 00:44:01,320 Speaker 2: I wonder if he knows that David paid a pedophile. 681 00:44:01,400 --> 00:44:05,640 Speaker 2: The ghostwrite that probably not, but that's neither here nor there. 682 00:44:07,560 --> 00:44:10,640 Speaker 2: Photos of the March against Sharia and San Bernardino, California 683 00:44:10,760 --> 00:44:14,400 Speaker 2: show physical confrontations between the rallies attendees, and anti fascist 684 00:44:14,400 --> 00:44:19,279 Speaker 2: counter protesters. And again I don't even need to look 685 00:44:19,320 --> 00:44:22,959 Speaker 2: at the captions. I recognize the men at the center 686 00:44:23,000 --> 00:44:27,400 Speaker 2: of the violence. One of them captured by the photographer 687 00:44:27,480 --> 00:44:30,600 Speaker 2: in the moment where his fist is drawn back readying 688 00:44:30,680 --> 00:44:34,439 Speaker 2: himself to punch a woman is a man I've spent 689 00:44:35,040 --> 00:44:39,680 Speaker 2: hours picking out of crowd shots at Nazi rallies. That's 690 00:44:39,719 --> 00:44:43,319 Speaker 2: Benjamin Daley from the Nazi fight Club the Rise Above movement. 691 00:44:44,560 --> 00:44:45,160 Speaker 1: In Atlanta. 692 00:44:45,360 --> 00:44:48,839 Speaker 2: Georgia's three percent Security Force militia claimed that they had 693 00:44:48,880 --> 00:44:51,960 Speaker 2: been asked by Act for America to provide security for 694 00:44:52,000 --> 00:44:56,440 Speaker 2: the event. A year earlier, that march had held armed 695 00:44:56,480 --> 00:44:59,880 Speaker 2: demonstrations at a construction site for a mosque outside of Atlanta. 696 00:45:01,560 --> 00:45:05,239 Speaker 2: Georgia State Senator and gubernatorial candidate Michael Williams gave a 697 00:45:05,280 --> 00:45:08,200 Speaker 2: speech at the march against Sharia and then posed for 698 00:45:08,239 --> 00:45:12,239 Speaker 2: photos with the militia. One photo of Williams with that 699 00:45:12,360 --> 00:45:17,120 Speaker 2: militia shows yet another man that I can't help but recognize. 700 00:45:18,680 --> 00:45:22,200 Speaker 2: Militia member Alex Ramos attended the Unite the Right rally 701 00:45:22,280 --> 00:45:26,800 Speaker 2: later that summer, and after that rally, he proudly posted 702 00:45:26,800 --> 00:45:29,800 Speaker 2: a video on Facebook of his participation in a brutal 703 00:45:30,040 --> 00:45:33,200 Speaker 2: beating of a young black man, and. 704 00:45:33,200 --> 00:45:35,880 Speaker 1: He wrote, we stomped ass. 705 00:45:36,360 --> 00:45:39,600 Speaker 2: I didn't really want CNN showing this, but getting some 706 00:45:39,880 --> 00:45:44,520 Speaker 2: was fucking fun. I've spent a lot of time in 707 00:45:44,560 --> 00:45:47,839 Speaker 2: a courtroom listening to that judge, in particular, the one 708 00:45:47,840 --> 00:45:50,319 Speaker 2: who sentenced Alex Ramos to six years in prison for 709 00:45:50,360 --> 00:45:53,520 Speaker 2: that assault. And I don't even have to check my 710 00:45:53,600 --> 00:45:57,360 Speaker 2: notes to pull this quote from that hearing. It was 711 00:45:57,400 --> 00:45:59,799 Speaker 2: six and a half years ago, but it was such 712 00:45:59,800 --> 00:46:02,279 Speaker 2: a jarring thing to hear him say that. I'll never 713 00:46:02,280 --> 00:46:06,920 Speaker 2: forget it. As he pronounced Ramos's sentence for that beating, 714 00:46:08,239 --> 00:46:11,680 Speaker 2: Judge Moore told him, you could spend the rest of 715 00:46:11,719 --> 00:46:17,799 Speaker 2: your life thinking about this. It's just evil. It's beyond me. 716 00:46:21,160 --> 00:46:26,680 Speaker 2: So that's who benefited from the March against Sharia Identity Europa. 717 00:46:27,160 --> 00:46:32,360 Speaker 2: The Proud Boys, the Oathkeepers, Vanguard America, the Traditionalist Worker Party, 718 00:46:32,640 --> 00:46:37,680 Speaker 2: the Georgia three Percent Security Force. Those events provided ideological 719 00:46:37,719 --> 00:46:41,840 Speaker 2: cover for these groups to seek violent confrontations with counterprotesters 720 00:46:42,560 --> 00:46:45,960 Speaker 2: and to spread their ideas to conservatives who hated Muslims 721 00:46:46,040 --> 00:46:47,000 Speaker 2: enough to show up. 722 00:46:47,640 --> 00:46:48,840 Speaker 1: But weren't quite red pilled. 723 00:46:51,160 --> 00:46:56,120 Speaker 2: Act for America did not disavow these organizers, speakers, attendees, 724 00:46:56,360 --> 00:47:00,399 Speaker 2: or security teams. In a column from Breitbart shortly after 725 00:47:00,440 --> 00:47:05,400 Speaker 2: the Rallies Act, founder Burgique Gabriel wrote, America. 726 00:47:04,960 --> 00:47:05,879 Speaker 1: Is a divided nation. 727 00:47:06,960 --> 00:47:10,960 Speaker 2: Countless political issues fragment our nation, while race, gender, and 728 00:47:11,040 --> 00:47:15,640 Speaker 2: religious identification enhanced division even further. But there is one 729 00:47:15,680 --> 00:47:18,400 Speaker 2: issue that has brought Americans of all backgrounds together in 730 00:47:18,440 --> 00:47:23,719 Speaker 2: opposition to it, the barbarism of sharia law. Issues such 731 00:47:23,719 --> 00:47:27,719 Speaker 2: as gay marriage, affirmative action, medicinal marijuana, and others may 732 00:47:27,760 --> 00:47:31,400 Speaker 2: bring out our differences, but sharia law is an enemy 733 00:47:31,440 --> 00:47:34,400 Speaker 2: that all rational citizens unify against. 734 00:47:36,040 --> 00:47:36,440 Speaker 1: And in the. 735 00:47:36,400 --> 00:47:39,240 Speaker 2: Column, she lists off some of these speakers at the rallies. 736 00:47:40,400 --> 00:47:43,400 Speaker 2: Some of them were gay, some of them were Jewish, 737 00:47:44,440 --> 00:47:48,560 Speaker 2: some of them used to be Muslim. So many kinds 738 00:47:48,600 --> 00:47:51,200 Speaker 2: of people, and they all agree with her about Islam. 739 00:47:51,800 --> 00:47:52,680 Speaker 1: Isn't that beautiful? 740 00:47:54,520 --> 00:47:57,920 Speaker 2: She fails to mention the involvement of any neo Nazi groups, 741 00:47:59,239 --> 00:48:01,760 Speaker 2: and she says group like the Council on American Islamic 742 00:48:01,840 --> 00:48:08,319 Speaker 2: Relations and Antifa thugs staged repulsive counter protests, and she 743 00:48:08,400 --> 00:48:11,320 Speaker 2: repeats the claim that someone had been splashed with urine 744 00:48:11,520 --> 00:48:16,400 Speaker 2: at the rally in New York. She does mention that 745 00:48:16,480 --> 00:48:20,520 Speaker 2: the rally attendee in question who was maybe splashed with 746 00:48:20,640 --> 00:48:24,640 Speaker 2: piss was Lauren Southern, but she doesn't mention that Lauren 747 00:48:24,719 --> 00:48:29,759 Speaker 2: Southern had very recently been detained by the Italian Coastguard. 748 00:48:30,040 --> 00:48:32,000 Speaker 2: Just a month before she arrived in New York for 749 00:48:32,080 --> 00:48:35,000 Speaker 2: the March against Sharia. Lauren Southern was with the French 750 00:48:35,040 --> 00:48:39,279 Speaker 2: neo fascist organization Generation Identity as they attempted to block 751 00:48:39,320 --> 00:48:42,200 Speaker 2: a search and rescue mission for shipwrecked refugees in the 752 00:48:42,200 --> 00:48:47,680 Speaker 2: Mediterranean Sea. I don't know if Lauren Southern really did 753 00:48:47,680 --> 00:48:51,040 Speaker 2: get piss thrown on her in New York City. That's 754 00:48:51,040 --> 00:48:53,880 Speaker 2: one of those things that I think is probably an 755 00:48:53,960 --> 00:49:00,240 Speaker 2: urban legend. Fascists are constantly talking about this ongoing threat 756 00:49:00,239 --> 00:49:04,640 Speaker 2: of Antifa throwing piss on them, but I've never actually 757 00:49:04,680 --> 00:49:08,840 Speaker 2: heard anybody talking about preparing for a protest by storing 758 00:49:08,880 --> 00:49:13,920 Speaker 2: their urine in gatorade bottles. I'm just not convinced that happens. 759 00:49:15,840 --> 00:49:18,840 Speaker 2: But if this was the one time it really did happen, 760 00:49:20,080 --> 00:49:23,040 Speaker 2: I can't say the woman who tried to drown refugees 761 00:49:24,080 --> 00:49:29,879 Speaker 2: didn't deserve to get splashed. Gabriel ends her column about 762 00:49:29,880 --> 00:49:33,000 Speaker 2: the march against Sharia by addressing the lies that the 763 00:49:33,040 --> 00:49:39,840 Speaker 2: events had been anti Muslim or even white supremacist, common 764 00:49:39,880 --> 00:49:43,560 Speaker 2: sense Americans see these allegations for how fantastically stupid they are. 765 00:49:43,880 --> 00:49:45,239 Speaker 1: She wrote. 766 00:49:45,840 --> 00:49:48,600 Speaker 2: The people at her rallies weren't white supremacists. 767 00:49:49,280 --> 00:49:51,600 Speaker 1: They were just quote fed up with the. 768 00:49:51,560 --> 00:49:55,400 Speaker 2: PC propagandists trying to bully and intimidate everyone into silence 769 00:49:55,400 --> 00:49:59,879 Speaker 2: who doesn't go along with their suicidal open borders philosophy. 770 00:50:00,840 --> 00:50:03,640 Speaker 2: Later that summer, Act for America announced they'd be putting 771 00:50:03,680 --> 00:50:08,200 Speaker 2: on another nationwide series of rallies in September, but after 772 00:50:08,200 --> 00:50:10,080 Speaker 2: the events of the Unite the Right rally, they called 773 00:50:10,120 --> 00:50:10,560 Speaker 2: them off. 774 00:50:11,960 --> 00:50:15,000 Speaker 1: In a press release, Gabriel wrote, Act for. 775 00:50:14,960 --> 00:50:18,400 Speaker 2: America is deeply saddened that in today's divisive climate, citizens 776 00:50:18,440 --> 00:50:21,320 Speaker 2: cannot peacefully express their opinions without risk of physical harm 777 00:50:21,320 --> 00:50:25,719 Speaker 2: from terror groups domestic and international. In recent weeks, extremist 778 00:50:25,760 --> 00:50:28,640 Speaker 2: and radical organizations in the United States and abroad have 779 00:50:28,760 --> 00:50:32,000 Speaker 2: overrun peaceful events in order to advance their own agendas, 780 00:50:32,400 --> 00:50:37,360 Speaker 2: and in many cases, violence has been the result. And 781 00:50:37,440 --> 00:50:42,880 Speaker 2: this is just a staggering lack of self awareness. The 782 00:50:42,960 --> 00:50:49,120 Speaker 2: picture accompanying the press release is of anti fascist counter protesters, 783 00:50:50,200 --> 00:50:53,880 Speaker 2: implying that she means that the people who have overrun 784 00:50:53,960 --> 00:50:57,359 Speaker 2: peaceful events causing violence have. 785 00:50:57,400 --> 00:50:58,719 Speaker 1: Been the anti fascists. 786 00:51:00,160 --> 00:51:03,239 Speaker 2: But this announcement came in the aftermath of Unite the Right, 787 00:51:03,960 --> 00:51:09,600 Speaker 2: where Nazis caused violence, the Nazis that had attended her 788 00:51:09,719 --> 00:51:11,600 Speaker 2: rallies two months earlier. 789 00:51:12,440 --> 00:51:13,120 Speaker 1: And I don't just. 790 00:51:13,080 --> 00:51:17,400 Speaker 2: Mean the same kinds of people, I mean literally the 791 00:51:17,480 --> 00:51:21,759 Speaker 2: same exact people. As I was going through photos of 792 00:51:21,800 --> 00:51:25,279 Speaker 2: these march against Sharia rallies all over the country, I 793 00:51:25,440 --> 00:51:32,600 Speaker 2: was shocked to see so many familiar faces. Scott Presler, 794 00:51:32,680 --> 00:51:36,560 Speaker 2: the conservative influencer who failed so spectacularly at organizing those 795 00:51:36,600 --> 00:51:39,799 Speaker 2: anti Muslim rallies in twenty seventeen, went on to be 796 00:51:39,800 --> 00:51:42,960 Speaker 2: an early promoter of the QAnon conspiracy theory and was 797 00:51:43,000 --> 00:51:45,399 Speaker 2: a major figure in the Stop the Steel movement leading 798 00:51:45,440 --> 00:51:49,120 Speaker 2: up to the January sixth riot. In the hours after 799 00:51:49,160 --> 00:51:51,440 Speaker 2: the riot of the Capitol, Presler posted a video of 800 00:51:51,520 --> 00:51:56,480 Speaker 2: himself outside the Capitol, calling it quote the largest civil 801 00:51:56,520 --> 00:52:01,600 Speaker 2: rights protest in American history, and to really bring things 802 00:52:01,600 --> 00:52:05,239 Speaker 2: full circle. In twenty twenty three, Scott Presler started a 803 00:52:05,280 --> 00:52:10,439 Speaker 2: political action committee called Early Vote Action in twenty twenty four, 804 00:52:10,560 --> 00:52:14,480 Speaker 2: Laura Trump praised his efforts, calling him quote an amazing 805 00:52:14,840 --> 00:52:19,759 Speaker 2: vote register. In the final months of the twenty twenty 806 00:52:19,760 --> 00:52:23,759 Speaker 2: four presidential campaign, backed by a million dollar donation from 807 00:52:23,800 --> 00:52:28,000 Speaker 2: Elon Musk, Scott Presler and his Early Vote Action Pack 808 00:52:28,719 --> 00:52:31,880 Speaker 2: hired a team of field organizers to register Republican voters 809 00:52:31,880 --> 00:52:36,280 Speaker 2: in Pennsylvania. There are those who credit Pressler for securing 810 00:52:36,320 --> 00:52:41,320 Speaker 2: a Trump win in that swing state, and that brings 811 00:52:41,400 --> 00:52:44,160 Speaker 2: us all the way back around to the photo We 812 00:52:44,200 --> 00:52:49,680 Speaker 2: started with that regular maga Republican, a guy who just 813 00:52:49,719 --> 00:52:53,560 Speaker 2: hated Muslims, the normal Republican amount who accidentally led a 814 00:52:53,640 --> 00:52:56,520 Speaker 2: Nazi march to the Pennsylvania State Capitol in twenty seventeen. 815 00:52:58,160 --> 00:53:00,480 Speaker 2: One of the field organizers on the page role at 816 00:53:00,520 --> 00:53:04,279 Speaker 2: Pressler's political Action committee in twenty twenty four was the 817 00:53:04,480 --> 00:53:09,839 Speaker 2: very same man, Benjamin Hornburger. And as for the rest 818 00:53:09,840 --> 00:53:13,160 Speaker 2: of this cast of characters, Oh, I don't know. The 819 00:53:13,239 --> 00:53:15,480 Speaker 2: Nazi who stabbed three men on the train is serving 820 00:53:15,520 --> 00:53:19,040 Speaker 2: two life sentences for his conduct at the Nazi Torch 821 00:53:19,080 --> 00:53:22,080 Speaker 2: march in twenty seventeen. Augustus and Victus was recently convicted 822 00:53:22,120 --> 00:53:25,080 Speaker 2: of felony which at the time of this recording, he 823 00:53:25,160 --> 00:53:27,480 Speaker 2: does not appear to have reported to the Florida State 824 00:53:27,520 --> 00:53:32,120 Speaker 2: Bar Association. Nathan Dimigo declared bankruptcy to try to get 825 00:53:32,120 --> 00:53:34,400 Speaker 2: out of a lawsuit filed by the victims harmed at 826 00:53:34,400 --> 00:53:36,799 Speaker 2: the Unite the Right rally, and it remains to be 827 00:53:36,840 --> 00:53:39,960 Speaker 2: seen whether a bankruptcy judge will discharge the millions of 828 00:53:40,000 --> 00:53:44,160 Speaker 2: dollars he may be on the hook for. And a 829 00:53:44,160 --> 00:53:47,480 Speaker 2: lot of far right extremists are celebrating the successful mainstreaming 830 00:53:47,520 --> 00:53:52,759 Speaker 2: of their belief in the Republican Party platform. I don't 831 00:53:52,760 --> 00:53:56,000 Speaker 2: have a tidy ending for this story, but I think 832 00:53:56,000 --> 00:54:00,239 Speaker 2: there's something to mull over here. Act for America used 833 00:54:00,280 --> 00:54:02,960 Speaker 2: crowds of neo Nazis to bulk up the numbers at 834 00:54:03,000 --> 00:54:09,080 Speaker 2: those rallies. Rallies they staged to fake mass support for 835 00:54:09,280 --> 00:54:14,480 Speaker 2: hateful lies. The way they talked about our Muslim neighbors 836 00:54:14,640 --> 00:54:19,360 Speaker 2: wasn't grounded in reality, and their ideas were not actually popular. 837 00:54:20,760 --> 00:54:25,240 Speaker 2: A small loud minority backed by money from a handful 838 00:54:25,239 --> 00:54:30,719 Speaker 2: of right wing donors doesn't change reality. Muslims were never 839 00:54:30,800 --> 00:54:36,000 Speaker 2: destroying America, and neither are your immigrant neighbors. Neither are 840 00:54:36,120 --> 00:54:41,959 Speaker 2: transgender people diversity, doesn't cause plane crashes. Asylum seekers aren't 841 00:54:41,960 --> 00:54:47,160 Speaker 2: to blame for violent crime. Don't fall for it, don't 842 00:54:47,200 --> 00:54:56,799 Speaker 2: fall in line. Weird Little Guys is a production of 843 00:54:56,840 --> 00:55:00,960 Speaker 2: Cool Zone Media and iHeartRadio. It's researched, written and recorded 844 00:55:00,960 --> 00:55:05,040 Speaker 2: by me, Molly Conger. Our executive producers are Sophie Lettterman 845 00:55:05,160 --> 00:55:08,600 Speaker 2: and Robert Evans. The show is edited by the wildly 846 00:55:08,640 --> 00:55:12,600 Speaker 2: talented Rory Gagan. The theme music was composed by Brad Dickert. 847 00:55:13,200 --> 00:55:15,799 Speaker 2: You can email me at Weird Little Guys podcast at 848 00:55:15,800 --> 00:55:19,239 Speaker 2: gmail dot com. I will definitely read it, but I 849 00:55:19,280 --> 00:55:22,880 Speaker 2: almost certainly will not answer it. It's nothing personal. I 850 00:55:22,880 --> 00:55:26,520 Speaker 2: don't answer any of my emails. You can exchange conspiracy 851 00:55:26,520 --> 00:55:28,759 Speaker 2: theories about the show with other listeners on the Weird 852 00:55:28,760 --> 00:55:32,520 Speaker 2: Little Guys subreddit. Just don't post anything that's going to 853 00:55:32,560 --> 00:55:33,960 Speaker 2: make you one of my Weird Little Guys