WEBVTT - Recalled, Replaced 0:00:01.680 --> 0:00:08.440 Cool Zone Media. 0:00:09.800 --> 0:00:15.720 Hello listeners, Molly here. This isn't exactly a new new 0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:20.240 episode strictly speaking, but you probably haven't heard it before, 0:00:20.280 --> 0:00:22.840 and it does tie into the story from last week 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:26.800 and the episode you'll hear next week. I had a 0:00:26.840 --> 0:00:30.640 minor family emergency this week. Everything's fine, no need to worry. 0:00:31.640 --> 0:00:33.800 It just meant that the timing didn't quite work out 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:36.440 on the episode that I thought you'd be listening to 0:00:36.520 --> 0:00:41.159 this week. Plus, if you're listening to this the day 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:44.560 it showed up in your feed, it's my birthday today, 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:49.040 so you can't be mad at me. The story you're 0:00:49.040 --> 0:00:51.680 going to hear today was originally an episode of another show. 0:00:52.040 --> 0:00:55.640 It could happen here. I recorded it back in April 0:00:55.680 --> 0:00:58.200 of twenty twenty four, so a year and a half 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:02.080 ago before the first episode of Weird Little Guys even existed, 0:01:03.200 --> 0:01:06.760 although listening back to it now, we must have already 0:01:06.840 --> 0:01:09.600 named the show by that point, because you'll hear Robert 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:15.399 make a joke about it. Time flies, I guess. The 0:01:15.440 --> 0:01:18.600 subject of this story is a man named Judd Blevins, 0:01:19.240 --> 0:01:22.320 a one time regional organizer in the now defunct white 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:27.840 supremacist organization Identity Europa. Blevins won a seat on the Enid, 0:01:27.840 --> 0:01:31.440 Oklahoma City Council in twenty twenty three, and then he 0:01:31.520 --> 0:01:33.800 lost that seat in a recall election in the spring 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:36.760 of twenty twenty four, and you'll hear about that in 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:41.479 the episode. But the tie in here, the reason I'm 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:46.200 replaying this old episode on this show this week is 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:50.440 one brief, tiny mention. About two thirds of the way 0:01:50.480 --> 0:01:54.280 through the episode, when a resolution came before the Enid 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:58.520 City Council to censure Blevins, a group called the American 0:01:58.640 --> 0:02:02.120 Freedom Party encouraged its members to write letters to the 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:07.880 other Enid City commissioners expressing their support for Blevins. But 0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:12.320 what's not there in this episode is just how vocal 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:16.840 the American Freedom Party was and their support. The executive 0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:19.359 director of the party shared information about how to call 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:23.160 into the city's public meetings to speak in support of Blevins. 0:02:24.320 --> 0:02:28.079 The party's board of directors issued an official statement supporting Blevins. 0:02:30.080 --> 0:02:32.959 The last two episodes of this show have been about 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:36.280 Marilyn Miller's twenty twelve run for president as the candidate 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:41.000 for the American Third Position Party. Almost immediately after that election, 0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:45.000 the party rebranded and they've been called the American Freedom 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:48.760 Party ever since. And when I left you last week, 0:02:49.160 --> 0:02:51.920 I said the group was pretty inactive for a few years, 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:57.120 but they've recently been trying to make a comeback. And 0:02:57.160 --> 0:02:59.239 as I was doing the research to tell that part 0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:03.800 of the story, I listened to hours of interviews the 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:08.000 party's current executive director has given on White Nationalists podcasts 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:12.040 over the last few years. Their current quest for relevance 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:15.360 has come with a bit of a strategy shift. The 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:17.720 face of the party is now a young man calling 0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:22.440 himself John Faspender. That's not his real name, but we'll 0:03:22.440 --> 0:03:27.640 get to that. In several podcast appearances Fastpender made in 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:31.240 twenty twenty three, so shortly after jud Blevens was elected, 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:34.880 he's talking a big game about how the party plans 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:38.560 to run candidates for state and local offices all over 0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:42.800 the country. They didn't. That was two years ago. I 0:03:42.840 --> 0:03:45.760 can tell you now that didn't happen. And in those 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:50.680 interviews he never gives any names. He never says what 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:54.000 cities or states this is going to happen in. He 0:03:54.080 --> 0:03:57.120 never even names a particular office a party member plans 0:03:57.160 --> 0:04:02.160 to run for. The only name he ever uses is 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:07.360 jud Blevins. Although Blevins was elected as a Republican, and 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:11.560 Fassbender occasionally remembers to mention that Blevins is not a 0:04:11.600 --> 0:04:16.039 member of the American Freedom Party, but he is a 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:20.400 personal friend. The pair had known each other for years, 0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:27.480 and they met when they were both members of Identity Europa. 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:29.280 That sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:34.159 looking at the surprisingly close relationship between the American Freedom 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:40.480 Party and Identity Europa. But again, we'll get to that 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:46.240 for now. This week. Here's a little side story I 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:49.440 would otherwise have tried to shoehorn into an episode that 0:04:50.200 --> 0:04:55.840 undoubtedly will already have too many tangents. See you next week. 0:04:58.720 --> 0:05:03.520 Welcome back to It Could Happen Here a podcast about 0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:06.800 things falling apart. And when things fall apart, one of 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:08.560 the things that happens is you get a bunch of 0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:11.359 a lot of opportunities for a lot of weird little guys, 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:13.600 a lot of a lot of Nazis and other kinds 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:16.440 of scums start, you know, sliding up to the surface 0:05:16.640 --> 0:05:19.720 in the hopes that they can get some of the sweet, 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:23.760 sweet oxygen of collapse. And that's why we've brought onto 0:05:23.760 --> 0:05:26.640 the program and are bringing into the network our good 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:31.279 friend Molly Conger for a little recurrence series. I like 0:05:31.360 --> 0:05:34.880 to call look who's stalking? That was the That was 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:37.240 the stocking joke. I'm wanted to open the episode with 0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:38.080 my own journey. 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:41.159 I'm not stalking anyone. I would never do that. That 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:43.200 is a crime. This is reporting. 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:47.480 It is reporting, and the line between reporting and stalking 0:05:47.640 --> 0:05:50.080 always clear, you know. 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:55.920 I think it's it's on the publication. Yeah, yeah, so, Robert, 0:05:56.000 --> 0:05:59.440 Today's topic is such a perfect mashup of so many 0:05:59.440 --> 0:06:02.360 of my favorite things. It couldn't be more my speed 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:05.480 unless this whole story took place on a Wiener dog ranch. Right. 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:06.800 Yeah. 0:06:06.839 --> 0:06:09.599 This story has city council meetings that got rowdy. It 0:06:09.640 --> 0:06:11.800 has unite the right attendee getting docks. It has the 0:06:11.839 --> 0:06:14.280 internal calms of a hate group getting leaked. It has 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:16.760 regular ass people putting their foot down about hate in 0:06:16.800 --> 0:06:19.839 their town. It is a year's long arc of one 0:06:19.839 --> 0:06:24.040 man's journey from fucking around to finding out his evolution, 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:28.200 from chanting you will not replace us to getting replaced 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:32.080 at the ballot box. This is the story of Enid, Oklahoma, 0:06:32.400 --> 0:06:36.320 Ward one City Commissioner Judson Gannon Blevins. 0:06:36.920 --> 0:06:40.039 Oh my god, Ah we're going back to my old home. 0:06:41.320 --> 0:06:44.000 That's why you spent some time in Oklahoma as a kid. 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:46.599 So so, jud Levins was raised in the town of 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:50.080 en in Oklahoma, and the listener, you'd be forgiven for 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:52.400 thinking this is the story of a small town. And 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:54.680 I'll be honest, I did. I'd never heard of Enid, 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:56.680 but you grew up in the area. Do you have 0:06:56.680 --> 0:07:00.480 any sort of pre existing notions of Garfield County? Uh? 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:04.599 Yeah, I mean Enid was like a bigger play. I 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:06.680 grew up in Ida Bell, which was really out in 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:10.680 the sticks, so kind of everywhere was more civilization than 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:14.160 Ida Bell, but Enid certainly was, although not much. No 0:07:14.200 --> 0:07:16.760 one would no one would accuse it of much civilization. 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:21.040 It is apparently the ninth largest city in Oklahoma, which 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:22.800 was surprising to me. It's an hour and a half 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:27.360 outside of Oklahoma City, seventy six percent white, sixty percent Republican, 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:30.440 and according to a twenty twenty one article on Yahoo 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:33.640 News that reads like it was written by an intoxicated chatbot, 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:36.360 it is ranked one of the most conservative cities in 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:36.880 the country. 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:41.400 Yeah, that all scans for Enid, Jared, Now that scans 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:44.120 for a lot of cities in Oklahoma, mind you. 0:07:44.480 --> 0:07:47.640 Right, they could have named any of them. Yeah, but 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:49.800 it has a population of about fifty thousand, which is 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:53.800 actually the same size as Charlottesville, my hometown and a 0:07:53.840 --> 0:07:57.040 city that Johnson Blevins happened to visit in the summer 0:07:57.080 --> 0:08:00.000 of twenty seventeen. In twenty eighteen, the former US Marine 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:01.960 moved back to his hometown to work at his father's 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:05.840 roofing business. In twenty nineteen, he was publicly identified as 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:09.520 a regional leader in a white supremacist organization, and in 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:13.200 twenty twenty two he announced he was running for office. 0:08:13.880 --> 0:08:18.280 I mean that all that's a very Oklahoma politician route. 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:20.920 It's also like a not a white like from from 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:25.120 roofing to white supremacy, not a wildly uncommon route for 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:26.480 people to take in Oklahoma. 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:27.680 Now he's still doing both. 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:29.960 Oh good. I mean, you never want to give up 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:32.679 on your passion for roofing. That would have made me sad. 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:34.800 Although some of his supporters have pointed out that he 0:08:34.880 --> 0:08:37.480 hires lots of non white people to do manual labor, 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:38.640 so how could he be racist? 0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:40.199 Yeah, I mean, you don't want to get up on 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:44.640 those roofs yourself. That's dangerous. It's Harry. Yeah, it's hot out. Yeah, 0:08:44.760 --> 0:08:46.360 this is all pretty Oklahoma so far. 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:50.880 On February fourteenth, twenty twenty three, jud Levins narrowly won 0:08:50.920 --> 0:08:53.480 a seat on the Eden City Council, defeating the incumbent 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:57.079 by just thirty six votes. His past ties the now 0:08:57.120 --> 0:09:01.440 defunct white supremacist group Identity Europa were no secret. Of course, 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:04.400 by twenty twenty three, Identity Eurooba didn't exist anymore. So 0:09:04.400 --> 0:09:05.880 I don't blame you if you don't have a clear 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:08.480 memory of exactly what kind of Nazi group they were. 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:10.360 And I want to make it very clear. I don't 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:13.120 want time distance and white polo shirts to soften this. 0:09:13.679 --> 0:09:16.320 Identity Europa was a neo Nazi organization. 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:19.640 Oh yeah. They were also just like the most infiltrated 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:23.000 group of the Trump era. Like of all the Nazi 0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:24.640 orgs and the Trump era, I feel like they were 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:27.560 the one where every week someone else got inside their coms. 0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:32.400 Well, I guess Bluvin's maybe part to blame for that 0:09:32.480 --> 0:09:34.040 as the regional coordinator. 0:09:34.520 --> 0:09:36.680 Oh good, so he was doing a great job. 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:39.679 But Identity Europa was modeled after the far right French 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:42.960 identitarian movement and sought the creation of a white ethno state. 0:09:43.800 --> 0:09:46.240 You will not replace us. Chance you remember from Unite 0:09:46.240 --> 0:09:48.920 the Right were actually popularized by Identity Europa at their 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:52.400 rallies earlier that year, and, according to testimony from a 0:09:52.400 --> 0:09:56.520 former girlfriend, one time Identity Europa leader Elliot Klein considered 0:09:56.600 --> 0:10:02.000 himself quote an unironic exterminationist. He had violent fantasies about 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:06.200 killing Jewish people himself. So it's not just guys hanging 0:10:06.240 --> 0:10:06.760 out right. 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:07.480 No. 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:12.080 Identity Europa was founded in twenty sixteen by Nathan Dimigo, 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:15.000 a former marine who went to prison after drunkenly pulling 0:10:15.040 --> 0:10:18.440 a gun on a cab driver for quote looking iraqi. 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:23.640 Well that gets at least he's honest. 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:27.240 But while he was doing his time, he read David 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:28.680 Duke's autobiography. 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:32.280 Oh and he had an. 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:34.480 Awakening, right, he read My Awakening and he had an 0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:35.440 awakening in prison? 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:36.600 Yeah, yeah, yeah, you. 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:38.000 Know, you go to prison for a hay crime, you 0:10:38.040 --> 0:10:40.040 read a little David Duke, you get some ideas. 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:45.880 Man, it it's not a good book. Like, that's my 0:10:45.960 --> 0:10:50.000 thing about having David Duke's autobiography be like your life 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:53.160 changing event is a It's not even a good book. Right, 0:10:53.200 --> 0:10:56.040 which I guess neither was mind comp but I feel 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:58.079 like everyone's lying about that one. 0:10:58.440 --> 0:11:00.839 So according to some this is so off the beaten path. 0:11:00.880 --> 0:11:03.120 Here this is, I have to say it. According to 0:11:03.160 --> 0:11:07.679 some payments that came out in a divorce proceeding, David 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:11.720 Duke made payments to Kevin Strome for ghostwriting it. Kevin 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:15.200 Strome is the pedophile who actually said that thing that 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:17.200 people think full terror said about the Jews. 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:22.000 Oh cool, yeah great. 0:11:22.920 --> 0:11:25.040 So just something to think about when you're reading David 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:26.840 Duke's autobiography in prison. 0:11:26.960 --> 0:11:30.400 I guess, I mean, I guess I had wondered what 0:11:30.559 --> 0:11:33.319 happens to pedophiles, like when they're back out in the world, 0:11:33.360 --> 0:11:34.160 like how do you get. 0:11:35.520 --> 0:11:35.960 Wife? 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:36.280 Now? 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:38.760 No that was before that was yeah, no he's got 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:39.520 a kid now, so. 0:11:40.120 --> 0:11:45.960 Oh what, No, he shouldn't do that. Okay, great, not a. 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:47.320 Loved to live near a school. But I guess they 0:11:47.320 --> 0:11:48.640 can't stop you from procreating. 0:11:49.080 --> 0:11:50.840 We should evaluate some of that. I don't know. 0:11:51.480 --> 0:11:55.440 Anyway, back to our friend Nate. Right, So, Nathan Amigo 0:11:55.679 --> 0:11:58.000 gets out of prison, makes his own hate group. You 0:11:58.040 --> 0:12:00.640 may also remember him as the guy who bravely beat 0:12:00.640 --> 0:12:02.679 the shit out of a ninety five pound woman at 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:04.960 the rally in Berkeley in April of twenty seventeen. 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:07.439 Oh yeah, and they memed. 0:12:07.160 --> 0:12:08.880 The hell out of that. They squeezed it for all 0:12:08.920 --> 0:12:10.880 it was worth that they used that image of him 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:14.199 beating that woman in the street for promotion and recruitment. 0:12:14.400 --> 0:12:17.520 Dimigo himself touted a spike in membership applications, which he 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:21.120 attributed to the popularity of the video. Identity Europa was 0:12:21.200 --> 0:12:23.800 heavily involved in the Summer of Hate, that rash of 0:12:23.840 --> 0:12:26.760 violent white supremacist rallies across the country in twenty seventeen. 0:12:26.960 --> 0:12:29.360 They were instrumental in planning as Unite the Right rally. 0:12:30.200 --> 0:12:32.960 But when the group's discord server was leaked in March 0:12:32.960 --> 0:12:35.880 of twenty nineteen and published in full by Unicorn Riot, 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:39.320 their leader at the time, Patrick Casey, quickly announced a rebrand, 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:42.440 Identity Europa is no more. They were the American Identity 0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:46.160 Movement now, much to the displeasure of the American Indian Movement, 0:12:46.200 --> 0:12:49.679 whose acronym they stole. But the rebrand was not successful 0:12:49.760 --> 0:12:52.760 and the group died out completely in twenty twenty, and 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:55.400 Casey tried to pretend the rebrand wasn't just an attempt 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:57.760 to escape the fallout of the leak, but it really 0:12:57.800 --> 0:13:00.360 was the leak that killed Identity Europa. At least seven 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:03.000 active duty military members were identified in the league. A 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:06.000 school resource officer at a high school in Virginia was suspended, 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:09.560 a Minnesota National Guardsman was recalled from basic training. So 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:11.880 jud Levins was just one of dozens of members of 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:15.120 the group to be identified in those chatlogs. The work 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:17.600 of anti fascist researchers who identified Blevins and the leak 0:13:17.720 --> 0:13:20.560 chats was corroborated and published in an article on right 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:23.880 Wing Watch by Jared Hult within weeks, and it's about 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:25.600 as solid as an idea as you could hope for 0:13:25.640 --> 0:13:28.640 from a chatlog, or, depending on your position, the kind 0:13:28.679 --> 0:13:32.479 of idea you really don't want. A user called Conway 0:13:32.679 --> 0:13:36.679 was Identity Europa's regional coordinator for Oklahoma. He recruited and 0:13:36.760 --> 0:13:40.640 vetted new members, organized outings for banner drops and social events, 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:43.760 and frequently posted pictures of the white supremacist propaganda he'd 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:46.080 been putting up, encouraging others to do the same, and 0:13:46.200 --> 0:13:48.760 offering tips on how to create more effective visuals for 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:52.959 the group's online accounts in over eleven hundred posts over 0:13:53.000 --> 0:13:56.400 a nearly two year period, he left a lot of clues. 0:13:57.120 --> 0:14:00.560 He posted a link to an article in his hometown paper, 0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:03.319 the Enid News and Eagle. He posted a photo of 0:14:03.360 --> 0:14:06.640 a relative's baby, details about his parents' lineage, his plans 0:14:06.640 --> 0:14:08.880 to move home to work for his father's business, and 0:14:08.920 --> 0:14:10.440 in the lead up to the Unite the Right rally, 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:12.760 he excitedly shared the discord that he would be carrying 0:14:12.800 --> 0:14:16.000 the original flag of the state of Oklahoma, a red 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:19.000 rectangle with the number forty six inside of a white star, 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:23.200 and photos from the rally show just one man carrying 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:25.840 that distinctive flag that was designed by a member of 0:14:25.880 --> 0:14:29.600 the Daughters of the Confederacy, jud Levins. As he grew 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:32.680 into his role as regional coordinator for Identity Europa, he 0:14:32.760 --> 0:14:36.200 coordinated member meetups, getting several guys from Oklahoma to drive 0:14:36.240 --> 0:14:39.440 down to Texas for a get together. Conway posted about 0:14:39.440 --> 0:14:42.800 the meetup, and photos posted by other attendees show Blevins 0:14:42.920 --> 0:14:45.800 standing shoulder to shoulder with other members holding a large 0:14:45.800 --> 0:14:50.320 Identity Europa banner. Conway even posted about his appearance on 0:14:50.320 --> 0:14:53.320 a twenty eighteen episode of Identity Europa's podcast, where he 0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:56.560 emphasized the importance of staying in the you will not 0:14:56.640 --> 0:14:59.400 replace us mindset. So by the time he announced his 0:14:59.480 --> 0:15:02.080 run for office twenty two, it had been over three 0:15:02.200 --> 0:15:04.560 years since he'd been out at as Conway, the Hate 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:06.600 Group member who attended the Unite the Right rally. 0:15:07.120 --> 0:15:10.320 And you could see why he would think it would work, right, 0:15:10.400 --> 0:15:15.520 because that you will not replace us thing. It's become 0:15:15.680 --> 0:15:21.160 like the mainstream Republican politics, right like this this ideology 0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:24.440 has at least one in the Republican Party, but it's 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:28.040 also one divorced from these guys because even they are 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:31.520 like they're they're too toxic for even the modern Republicans, 0:15:31.560 --> 0:15:34.760 like it's it's it's remarkable. But I also get why 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:35.880 he thought this would work. 0:15:36.880 --> 0:15:39.960 And I think, I mean, I don't know what his 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:43.600 connection remained to other members of IE after it dissolved, 0:15:43.640 --> 0:15:46.480 but towards the end of it, as it was dying, right, 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:50.240 So under Elliott Klein, you know, Klein wanted to make 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:52.560 a militia for Richard Spencer. He wanted to you know, 0:15:52.680 --> 0:15:55.440 build IE into a fighting force. But under Patrick Casey, 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:58.640 they sort of moved back towards we should be trying 0:15:58.680 --> 0:16:02.840 to influence inside of politics. We should be going to 0:16:03.120 --> 0:16:07.240 colleges and getting, you know, conservative students to become more 0:16:07.280 --> 0:16:10.800 base right. So this is a rational course of conduct, 0:16:11.160 --> 0:16:14.240 I think for where he was in twenty nineteen when 0:16:14.240 --> 0:16:17.080 Identity Europa died, But in any case, by twenty twenty two, 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:21.280 anybody in Enid you could read his posts praising Hitler 0:16:21.320 --> 0:16:24.400 and celebrating Identity Europa for striking fear into the heart 0:16:24.440 --> 0:16:27.640 of the jew his words. You could see pictures of 0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:30.080 him at Unite the Right, both on the morning of 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:31.960 the twelfth in the park and the evening of the 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:34.040 eleventh with a torch. You could see pictures of him 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:36.720 going to Texas for Ie meetups. You could see the 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:39.440 dozens and dozens of photos he posted in the discord 0:16:39.520 --> 0:16:42.120 of Nazi posters and stickers he had put up on 0:16:42.160 --> 0:16:45.960 telephone polls and college bulletin boards across Oklahoma, and the 0:16:46.000 --> 0:16:47.920 posts where he reveled in the media coverage of the 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:53.440 recruitment materials he left inside library books. His hometown newspaper, 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:56.600 the Enid News and Eagle, ran an article about the allegations, 0:16:56.680 --> 0:17:00.800 which he never denied, a month before the election, and 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:03.840 without ever having to give a straight answer on the issue. 0:17:03.920 --> 0:17:06.480 He won, and that could have been the end of 0:17:06.520 --> 0:17:08.760 the story. Right. You know, we've seen this trend in 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:11.080 the last few years of these radical right wing elements 0:17:11.359 --> 0:17:14.159 trying to melt into the mainstream Republican party. You know, 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:18.000 we've got these horrible little gropers working in congressional staff positions, 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:20.880 and you know nazis going to spack and not getting ejected. 0:17:21.560 --> 0:17:24.720 They're getting out of the streets and into the meeting rooms. 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:25.280 Yeah. 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:28.280 An account tied to Blevins that he recently for the 0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:31.199 first time denied this was him. It's him. This has 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:34.280 been widely reported. It was a Twitter account called at 0:17:34.359 --> 0:17:40.920 Abolish Journalism posted in twenty nineteen quote Stets. I agree 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:45.240 with the argument GOP cannot be changed from the bottom up. However, 0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:48.600 I do not believe in discouraging our guys from getting 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:52.000 elected into smaller offices such as city council, county commissioner, 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:56.000 or even state legislators. Basically positions where one can fly 0:17:56.160 --> 0:18:01.200 under the radar yet still be effective. And that's what 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:03.560 this is. Right, This isn't a guy who got out 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:08.440 of White Nationals organizing and in an unrelated fashion, became 0:18:08.480 --> 0:18:11.120 a local politician. No, he said years before he did 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:13.120 this that this was a good idea that he had. 0:18:13.800 --> 0:18:15.720 You know, he never said I renounced my previous actions 0:18:15.760 --> 0:18:17.800 and beliefs. I regret bringing an active recruiter for a 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:21.000 hate group. He just changed the way he was doing it. 0:18:21.960 --> 0:18:24.240 And he said countless opportunities to be clear about what 0:18:24.280 --> 0:18:26.760 he believes today and whether that's different from the beliefs 0:18:26.800 --> 0:18:30.520 he espoused between twenty seventeen and twenty nineteen, and he won't. 0:18:30.840 --> 0:18:33.560 He won't say I no longer identify with the posts 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:36.399 I made when I was enthusiastically posting the fourteen words. 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:39.400 And that's probably because he just found a better way 0:18:39.440 --> 0:18:42.040 to do it. But there were people in Enid, Oklahoma 0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:43.840 who saw right through that. 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:46.840 Yeah, this is where the story takes a turn that like, 0:18:47.920 --> 0:18:51.040 I don't know, it made me hopeful because the first 0:18:51.080 --> 0:18:55.720 time I ever met a klansman was you know, in Oklahoma. 0:18:56.040 --> 0:18:57.840 It was the dad of a friend of mine, Like 0:18:57.920 --> 0:19:00.919 he liked that this kid aged about it, and I 0:19:00.960 --> 0:19:02.600 didn't know what a klansman was. And I had to 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:05.480 go to my parents and like be like, hey, so 0:19:05.840 --> 0:19:08.240 you know, so and so said this about his dad, 0:19:08.320 --> 0:19:10.600 what does that mean? And my mom was just like, well, 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:12.920 you're not allowed to go to his house anymore. That's 0:19:12.960 --> 0:19:14.680 what that means. 0:19:14.800 --> 0:19:18.160 Uses Jesus Christ. 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:20.920 If this like, if this guy had like if shit 0:19:21.000 --> 0:19:23.119 had gone well for him, I guess that would have 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:25.920 been my assumption. But that's that was my assumption based 0:19:25.960 --> 0:19:28.920 on me not giving a fair shake to Enid, Oklahoma. 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:31.639 Right, And I think that's you know, what's what's so 0:19:31.760 --> 0:19:34.960 remarkable about this story is people didn't think Oklahoma could 0:19:35.000 --> 0:19:39.199 do it, But you know who can accomplish everything they 0:19:39.280 --> 0:19:40.400 set out to do? 0:19:41.040 --> 0:19:44.840 Uh huh. That's right, these sponsors, all of whom are 0:19:44.880 --> 0:20:01.439 available in Enid, Oklahoma, and we're back. Okay, alrighty, so 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:03.639 I'm happy to hear. Yeah. The next part of this. 0:20:04.440 --> 0:20:07.520 Levins took office in May of twenty twenty three. Local 0:20:07.560 --> 0:20:11.720 election law requires a six month wait between being sworn 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:15.879 in and when a recall attempt can be initiated, but 0:20:15.880 --> 0:20:19.040 the residents who opposed Levins didn't wait quietly. A group 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:21.879 called the Enid Social Justice Committee protested his swearing in, 0:20:22.359 --> 0:20:25.960 with some protesters holding posters bearing a photo of Blevins 0:20:26.320 --> 0:20:29.800 holding a torch. At the August eleven, twenty seventeen Nazi 0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:34.119 march at the University of Virginia. And now this I 0:20:34.480 --> 0:20:36.080 didn't even think about it until I was writing this. 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:39.440 That what an incredible coincidence of timing. Right, So May 0:20:39.480 --> 0:20:43.040 twenty twenty three, he's being sworn into office. It was 0:20:43.240 --> 0:20:45.960 just I think maybe two weeks before he was sworn 0:20:46.000 --> 0:20:49.880 in that the first indictment was unsealed against the guys 0:20:49.880 --> 0:20:53.119 who are now facing felony charges for participating in that 0:20:53.160 --> 0:20:55.639 torch march. Right, so it was we did an episode 0:20:55.680 --> 0:20:58.159 on this a little bit ago. But if you're not 0:20:58.160 --> 0:21:01.160 familiar that the guys who marched in that torch march 0:21:01.200 --> 0:21:03.800 at EVA in twenty seventeen, some of them are now 0:21:03.840 --> 0:21:06.920 being charged with a felony under Virginia law for burning 0:21:06.960 --> 0:21:09.320 an object with intent to intimidate. It's obviously a sort 0:21:09.320 --> 0:21:12.000 of a law aimed at the Klan right, sort of 0:21:12.000 --> 0:21:14.639 a crossburning type law. But they were burning, they have 0:21:14.720 --> 0:21:17.359 these burning objects, and they were menacing people. It was 0:21:17.440 --> 0:21:20.879 racially motivated. So they're being charged with this felony for 0:21:20.920 --> 0:21:21.720 burning an object. 0:21:22.440 --> 0:21:25.560 It does feel like that's yeah, a pretty good fit. 0:21:26.160 --> 0:21:28.040 But so right as he's being sworn in you know, 0:21:28.040 --> 0:21:30.440 these people are protesting his swearing in with this photo 0:21:30.520 --> 0:21:34.040 of him with the torch, and a couple guys just 0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:38.159 showed up in jail here in Charlottesville on that charge. 0:21:38.200 --> 0:21:41.000 So it's it's just a remarkable cognitive dissonance, right to 0:21:41.080 --> 0:21:43.880 see these people. Some of his supporters in Enid downplaying 0:21:43.880 --> 0:21:48.080 the seriousness or even outright denying that Levin's attended this rally, 0:21:49.000 --> 0:21:51.160 But the guys he was standing next to that day 0:21:51.280 --> 0:21:54.320 are pleading guilty to felonies. You know, he's up there 0:21:54.400 --> 0:21:57.480