WEBVTT - An Accidental Nazi Rally 0:00:01.680 --> 0:00:02.880 Col Zone Media. 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:11.200 The summer of twenty seventeen was a hot one. The 0:00:11.280 --> 0:00:14.680 weather was hot. I'm sure I can barely remember now. 0:00:16.200 --> 0:00:18.520 In May, the editor of the Nazi website The Daily 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:23.880 Stormer declared that it would be this summer of hate. 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:26.400 A month later, another article on the site ended with 0:00:26.400 --> 0:00:31.280 a triumphant prediction, expect a hot summer. And I'm not 0:00:31.360 --> 0:00:36.040 talking about the thermometer. The political temperature was rising rapidly. 0:00:37.000 --> 0:00:39.240 It was the first summer of Donald Trump's first term 0:00:39.240 --> 0:00:43.240 as president, and all over the country, right wing extremists 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:48.080 of all stripes were feeling bold. The summer of hate 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:51.080 culminated in the murder of Heather higher Here in Charlottesville 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:56.240 on August twelfth, twenty seventeen. Perhaps because that day ended 0:00:56.240 --> 0:00:58.800 in a hate crime murder, the Unite the Right rally 0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:01.440 is often the only one of the dozens of violent 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:06.240 hatefield rallies that summer that most people still remember, But 0:01:06.280 --> 0:01:08.360 they were happening all over the country in the months 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:11.800 leading up to Unite the Right. In Portland and Seattle, 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:17.160 Patriot Prayer rallied for Trump, for free speech, and against communism. 0:01:18.240 --> 0:01:22.840 In Berkeley, repeated rallies ostensibly for Trump or the concept 0:01:22.920 --> 0:01:26.280 of free speech became a training ground for a Nazi 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:30.959 street fighting gang. In cities all over the country, protests 0:01:31.000 --> 0:01:35.120 for or against Confederate monuments were just a thin excuse 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:39.720 for fascists spoiling for a fight. Almost any given weekend 0:01:39.760 --> 0:01:42.720 that summer, somewhere in the country there was a contingent 0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:46.960 of armed militiamen ambling around a public park acting as 0:01:47.000 --> 0:01:51.640 self appointed protest security. Some of these rallies drew crowds 0:01:51.640 --> 0:01:55.280 of thousands and made the national news. Some were just 0:01:55.320 --> 0:01:58.320 a few dozen bigots standing on a street corner, drawing 0:01:58.360 --> 0:02:00.680 only the momentary notice of passing motorists. 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:03.400 And on one morning early. 0:02:03.240 --> 0:02:08.480 That summer, the same protest took place simultaneously in over 0:02:08.520 --> 0:02:15.120 two dozen cities across the country. I'm Molly Conger, and 0:02:15.240 --> 0:02:36.160 this is weird Little Guys. This episode isn't actually about 0:02:36.160 --> 0:02:40.920 a guy, not just one guy anyway. If you're a 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:43.640 regular listener, you've probably already figured out that it is 0:02:43.840 --> 0:02:48.400 rarely actually even about one guy at all. But typically 0:02:48.400 --> 0:02:52.160 an episode revolves loosely around one weird little guy, using 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:54.640 him as an entry point to explore the world he 0:02:54.720 --> 0:02:59.400 existed in. But last week's episode left me with some thoughts. 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:03.280 I was having trouble putting to bed questions about the 0:03:03.400 --> 0:03:06.320 ordinary men who cross paths with our weird little guyes, 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:10.040 men who may be on their own path toward extremism 0:03:10.240 --> 0:03:13.840 or just their own self destruction. And it also got 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:17.680 me thinking about the nature of a crowd, the way 0:03:17.680 --> 0:03:20.359 we can lose ourselves within them, the way they can 0:03:20.440 --> 0:03:23.200 give us permission to act in ways we otherwise would not. 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:30.519 The crowd grants the individual plausible deniability, but the individuals 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:34.040 within it give the crowd more power than it would 0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:38.720 have had without them. And I've been thinking too about 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:41.600 the current state of affairs, the ways in which our 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:45.600 political discourse has changed over the last decade. How these 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:49.880 once fringe ideas have been mainstreamed. Things that were once 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:55.880 unthinkable are happening every day now. How did we get 0:03:55.960 --> 0:03:59.640 to the place we are now where people who seem 0:03:59.800 --> 0:04:03.560 so normal have the same kinds of ideas that just 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:06.440 a few years ago were relegated to the pages of 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:11.240 Stormfront and four chan. And as I was ruminating on 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:15.920 all of this, I thought of a picture, one in particular, 0:04:16.480 --> 0:04:19.360 saved years ago in one of my hundreds of folders 0:04:19.360 --> 0:04:23.200 of half finished ideas about a guy. It's a picture 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:26.200 that was taken on the morning of June tenth, twenty seventeen, 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:31.359 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The photo shows a handful of members 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:34.599 of the neo Nazi group Vanguard America on their way 0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:37.160 to the steps of the Pennsylvania Capitol Building for an 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:42.240 event billed as the March against Sharia, a protest against 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:47.480 the imaginary threat of a Muslim theocracy in America. These 0:04:47.520 --> 0:04:50.920 members of Vanguard America all have their faces covered, either 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:54.120 with black bandanas or the half faced skull mask that 0:04:54.240 --> 0:04:58.240 was favored by a certain flavor of neo Nazi. But 0:04:58.320 --> 0:05:00.680 the men at the head of their tiny mark is 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:04.320 bear faced, proudly leading this little band of Nazis down 0:05:04.360 --> 0:05:09.440 the street. Vanguard America would later evolve into Patriot Front, 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:14.320 a white supremacist organization led by Thomas Rousseau, and today, 0:05:14.440 --> 0:05:17.960 when Patriot Front takes to the streets, its members too, 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:23.839 all cover their faces, except the leader as their public face. 0:05:24.040 --> 0:05:28.480 Rousseau marches unmasked. So, looking at this photo of these 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:32.320 Vanguard America members, perhaps this bear faced man is their leader. 0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:34.320 But I know he isn't. 0:05:35.720 --> 0:05:38.359 Maybe he's so proud of being a Nazi, that he 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:42.600 made the choice to show his face, But the truth 0:05:43.720 --> 0:05:49.040 is the exact opposite. By today's standards, thatt Man, Benjamin 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:54.680 Hornberger is just a pretty typical Maga Republican. He wasn't 0:05:54.760 --> 0:05:58.159 and isn't, as far as I can tell, a Nazi 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:02.880 at all. Later that same evening, one of the men 0:06:02.920 --> 0:06:06.120 who had marched behind him posted in a discord server 0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:09.720 where the Unite the Right rally was being planned, writing. 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:14.280 We got a Normy to lead our march away from 0:06:14.279 --> 0:06:16.960 the Sharia event. I don't think he fully knows what 0:06:17.040 --> 0:06:21.080 he got himself into. I told him after, you know, 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:26.000 you just let a march of a bunch of Nazis. 0:06:27.400 --> 0:06:29.479 And the poster notes that the man they'd talked into 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:32.400 joining them hadn't showed up with any group and he 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:36.560 didn't even seem to hate Jewish people. Another user chimed in, 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:40.160 saying when the Jews call him a Nazi anyway, it'll 0:06:40.160 --> 0:06:43.760 red pell him a little, to which the original poster agreed, 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:47.640 writing that's exactly what we were saying. You're on our 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:51.760 side now, goy. Whether you like it or not. They 0:06:51.760 --> 0:06:53.839 are in the Nazi discord. They were all in agreement. 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:57.760 These more mainstream conservative rallies were a great place to 0:06:57.839 --> 0:07:02.280 network and recruit, of course, but also a valuable opportunity 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:06.040 to shape the discourse and push people they call normies 0:07:06.400 --> 0:07:10.040 further to the right. They believe that the average white 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:14.000 Republican man would be radicalized by the experience of being 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:17.280 called a bigot, and instead of engaging in any self 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:20.680 reflection on why they were shouldered to shoulder with Nazis 0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:23.800 at a rally for bigots, they would instead double down 0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:29.280 and come to love being a bigot. This is, unfortunately 0:07:30.040 --> 0:07:34.800 not an uncommon path to radicalization. But let's back up 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:41.480 for a second. What on earth was the marsh against Sharia? 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:44.800 The rallies were organized by a non profit organization called 0:07:44.960 --> 0:07:49.840 Act for America. Its founder, Brigitte Gabriel, started a group 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:53.440 called American Congress for Truth in the months after nine eleven, 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:56.800 and in two thousand and seven, Act for America was 0:07:56.840 --> 0:08:01.280 spun off as the organization's lobbying and activist arm. The 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:04.240 policy statement on their website today boasts that they are 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:10.560 the nation's premiere grassroots movement dedicated to preserving America's culture, sovereignty, 0:08:10.840 --> 0:08:15.880 and security. Groups like the Council on American Islamic Relations, 0:08:16.000 --> 0:08:19.440 the American Arab Anti Discrimination Committee, and the Southern Poverty 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:22.760 Law Center consider ACT for America one of the nation's 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:28.120 largest anti Muslim hate groups. In February of twenty sixteen, 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:31.200 Brigitte Gabriel had dinner at Mara a Lago with presidential 0:08:31.240 --> 0:08:35.760 candidate Donald Trump. ACT for America's Facebook page posted a 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:40.000 photo of the meeting in a room with entirely too 0:08:40.040 --> 0:08:45.719 much gold painted woodwork. There's Trump wearing a pale pink tie, 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:48.120 and he has one arm around Gabriel and he's giving 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:51.840 a thumbs up with his other hand. According to the caption, 0:08:52.320 --> 0:08:55.480 Gabriel was there to give him a national security briefing. 0:08:57.320 --> 0:09:00.000 Not long after their meeting, Trump announced that he'd chose 0:09:00.240 --> 0:09:04.240 Michael Flynn, an ACT for America board member, to be 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:09.880 his campaign's national security advisor. At act's annual conference that year, 0:09:10.480 --> 0:09:13.400 Flynn gave a speech in which he called Islam a 0:09:13.520 --> 0:09:19.240 malignant cancer. Over the years, Brigitte Gabriel has said that 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:23.120 Muslims are infiltrating the government to destroy America, that people 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:26.080 should call the FBI to report the construction of mosques, 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:30.679 that Islam is a cancer infecting the world, and that 0:09:30.800 --> 0:09:34.079 Islam is a radical ideology, not a religion at all, 0:09:34.640 --> 0:09:36.720 and thus should not be afforded the protection of the 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:40.960 First Amendment. In the wave of Islamophobia that followed nine 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:44.160 to eleven, she somehow managed to situate herself as some 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:49.240 kind of expert on Islamic extremism. In two thousand and six, 0:09:49.360 --> 0:09:54.400 she published her first book, Because They Hate. The book 0:09:54.520 --> 0:09:57.840 is a propagandistic memoir of sorts about her childhood as 0:09:57.880 --> 0:10:01.360 a Christian in Lebanon. The book has been described by 0:10:01.440 --> 0:10:07.040 Georgetown University history professor Ivon Hadad as not historically accurate 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:11.240 as an account of the Lebanese Civil War. In his 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:15.960 book The Islamophobia Industry, Nathan Lean describes Gabriel's origin story 0:10:16.040 --> 0:10:22.800 as quote tendentious, if not outright deceitful. But somehow in 0:10:22.800 --> 0:10:25.480 two thousand and seven, she was invited to give a 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:28.520 talk about the book at the US Military's Joint Forces 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:32.920 Staff College. During the q and A portion, a man 0:10:32.920 --> 0:10:35.920 in an Air Force uniform stood and read several passages 0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:38.520 from the book in which Gabriel describes Islam as an 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:43.840 inherently violent and fanatical religion, and then he asked a question. 0:10:46.040 --> 0:10:50.200 Should we resist Muslims who want to seek political office 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:50.720 in this nation? 0:10:52.200 --> 0:10:53.400 What a great question? 0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:56.120 Uh. 0:10:56.160 --> 0:11:00.880 Absolutely, If a Muslim who has who is a practicing 0:11:00.960 --> 0:11:03.640 Muslim who believes the word of the Koran to be 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:06.679 the word of Allah, who abides by Islam, who goes 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:09.320 to musque and praise every Friday, who praise five times 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:12.520 a day, this practicing Muslim who believes in the teachings 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:15.319 of the Koran, cannot be a loyal citizen to the 0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:20.280 United States of America. 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:25.280 Her answer went on for nearly five minutes, and she's gish, 0:11:25.320 --> 0:11:29.800 galloping through unrelated points and misinterpretations of the Quran. She 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:32.920 says Muslims are all liars, they're all killers, that they 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:35.600 can't be trusted to tell the truth, let alone uphold 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:38.880 an oath of office. And she rounds out the answer 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:42.800 by reiterating that no Muslim can be trusted to be 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:46.800 loyal to the United States. And then she calls on 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:50.680 the next audience member with a question. A man stands. 0:11:51.720 --> 0:11:54.680 He's a United States Army officer with nineteen years of service, 0:11:55.440 --> 0:12:00.880 and he's also a practicing Muslim. He's calm, his face 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:03.640 is neutral, as if he had not just sat through 0:12:03.679 --> 0:12:07.960 a torrent of lies attacking his very existence, but he 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:11.400 probably knew that he had to be lest he be 0:12:11.480 --> 0:12:15.720 seen as the untrustworthy, volatile, violent extremist she already believes 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:19.760 all Muslims are, and he asks if she is a 0:12:19.800 --> 0:12:24.199 member of the Husbara Fellowship. Gabriel interrupts him, asking what 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:27.280 Hasbara Fellowship is, as if she's never heard of it, 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:31.880 and then denies having any connection to the organization. The 0:12:32.000 --> 0:12:35.400 Husboro Fellowship is an organization co founded by Israel's Ministry 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:38.440 of Foreign Affairs, and they train American college students to 0:12:38.480 --> 0:12:42.880 be pro Israel activists, and contrary to her sharp denial, 0:12:43.480 --> 0:12:46.400 she had in fact been listed on the organization's website 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:50.199 as a member of their Speakers Bureau for several years. 0:12:51.160 --> 0:12:55.520 All that to say, Brigitte Gabriel is a bigot and 0:12:55.559 --> 0:12:59.679 a liar, but she is one who has successfully talked 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:02.000 her way into a lot of rooms with a lot 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:05.280 of powerful people, and managed, for the most part to 0:13:05.360 --> 0:13:09.520 maintain eveneer of legitimacy and respectability while earning a comfortable 0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:14.240 living peddling hate, and by twenty seventeen, Act for America 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:16.880 was a decade old, she had the ear of the 0:13:16.920 --> 0:13:19.920 sitting president securing a meeting with Trump at the White 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:24.600 House in March of twenty seventeen. ACT for America's March 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:29.440 against Sharia rallies don't show up on their website anymore. Unsurprisingly, 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:32.800 the earliest reference to the rallies I could find was 0:13:32.840 --> 0:13:36.200 around mid April, when Facebook event pages started popping up 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:37.920 for events in nearly thirty cities. 0:13:39.679 --> 0:13:40.559 In her thesis for. 0:13:40.520 --> 0:13:44.000 A master's at Oxford, Isabel Canan studied the way ACT. 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:45.200 For America organizes. 0:13:46.559 --> 0:13:49.800 Regrettably, that thesis appears to be unpublished, so I couldn't 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:53.240 read it, But in a twenty eighteen interview about her research, 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:56.679 Canaan says those March against Sharia events were part of 0:13:56.720 --> 0:13:59.480 an attempt to maintain the facade of being a true 0:13:59.520 --> 0:14:03.880 grassrooms its organization, rather than what they truly are, which 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:07.360 is a lobbying group. The rallies were an effort to 0:14:07.440 --> 0:14:11.920 quote create the perception that the majority shares its warped opinion, 0:14:12.360 --> 0:14:16.840 Canaan wrote. Both Canaan and the Southern Poverty Law Center 0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:19.800 have speculated that ACT for America is not being honest 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:24.240 about the size of the organization, providing artificially inflated numbers 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:29.640 of active chapters and the grassroots organizers in them. In 0:14:29.680 --> 0:14:32.560 twenty seventeen, Act for America was claiming to have over 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:37.360 one thousand chapters nationwide, and the website displayed a map 0:14:37.400 --> 0:14:40.920 showing pins with locations for five hundred chapters. 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:44.560 In twenty eighteen, the SPLC. 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:48.800 Was only able to confirm the existence of forty seven chapters. 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:53.640 In her research, Canaan attempted to contact twenty five chapters 0:14:53.680 --> 0:14:56.200 and was only able to confirm the existence of six. 0:14:58.200 --> 0:15:00.800 An Ohio based member of the Council on American Islamic 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:04.040 Relations told Canaan that at least one of the alleged 0:15:04.080 --> 0:15:09.600 ACT chapters in Ohio was just two very active individuals. 0:15:10.480 --> 0:15:14.120 And it's not just progressive watchdogs and academics calling ACTS 0:15:14.200 --> 0:15:18.840 numbers into question. Anti Islam activist Dave Galbots had worked 0:15:18.840 --> 0:15:21.600 for Brigitte Gabriel for three years. When the two had 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:24.880 a falling out in twenty seventeen. He wrote in a 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:27.680 blog post that March that there had only been fifty 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:32.800 participants in that month's Chapter Leader's Call, and that might 0:15:32.880 --> 0:15:36.400 explain why the rallies went the way that they did. 0:15:37.680 --> 0:15:42.320 You see it's very hard to organize grassroots rallies without 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:44.840 actual grassroots activists. 0:15:45.520 --> 0:15:46.800 They wanted to put on a. 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:50.880 Big show, but the average ACT member is, according to Canaan, 0:15:51.880 --> 0:15:55.840 a white evangelical retiree whose activism is mainly confined to 0:15:56.480 --> 0:15:59.320 signing up for the emails and occasionally making a donation. 0:16:00.880 --> 0:16:04.560 That demographic is not actually very likely to attend a protest, 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:10.120 let alone organize one. ACT members donate money, which is 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:14.480 used for lobbying efforts, but most members aren't engaged in 0:16:14.560 --> 0:16:18.440 any way with the organization. In order to maintain their 0:16:18.520 --> 0:16:22.000 brand and keep those donations coming and capitalize on the 0:16:22.000 --> 0:16:25.520 momentum of those early months of the Trump presidency, they 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:29.440 needed to project the image of being a true grassroots organization, 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:34.680 one with active and engaged members, so they faked it. 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:40.240 In late spring twenty seventeen, Act for America hired Scott 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:44.880 Presler to coordinate the events. Presler was a rising star 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:48.880 in conservative activism, having founded Gays for Trump in twenty sixteen, 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:51.800 and now he had less than two months to figure 0:16:51.800 --> 0:16:54.920 out how to put on twenty eight simultaneous rallies all 0:16:54.960 --> 0:16:58.760 over the country. He couldn't exactly just reach out to 0:16:58.800 --> 0:17:03.440 local ACT chapterly because those didn't really exist. In most cases, 0:17:04.560 --> 0:17:07.879 the organization had never bothered to cultivate a group of motivated, 0:17:07.960 --> 0:17:09.480 engaged local organizers. 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:13.399 So it appears that what he did. 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:18.560 Was just tweet out that they needed interested volunteers to 0:17:18.600 --> 0:17:22.680 put on rallies in their own towns. And you'll never 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:41.440 guess who stepped up. I suspect you all guessed correctly 0:17:41.520 --> 0:17:46.720 during the break it was white supremacists. When Acted for 0:17:46.760 --> 0:17:49.439 America needed volunteers to handle the work of putting on 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:52.800 their local march against Sharia. A lot of the active, 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:56.440 engaged bigots who knew how to handle that work were 0:17:56.480 --> 0:18:00.000 not members of Act for America, but they were members 0:18:00.240 --> 0:18:04.440 of other groups, groups like the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, 0:18:04.960 --> 0:18:11.280 and Identity Europa. Nazis didn't just attend these events. They 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:15.760 didn't happen upon them. They organized them, and they served 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:20.080 as the headline speakers. But there is another story to 0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:24.359 tell before we get there, because no one was really 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:29.000 talking about these events at all until something terrible happened. 0:18:30.920 --> 0:18:33.920 Scott Presler had dutifully created Facebook event pages for the 0:18:34.000 --> 0:18:36.919 rallies in at least twenty six cities, with the earliest 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:39.879 posts I can find on pages that still exist showing 0:18:39.880 --> 0:18:41.919 that he probably started working on that at the end 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:46.040 of April. But there wasn't a lot of traction in 0:18:46.080 --> 0:18:49.080 April and most of May. There's hardly any news coverage 0:18:49.119 --> 0:18:53.000 in any of those cities about these upcoming events. It's 0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:55.480 possible people were posting about it on social media, but 0:18:55.520 --> 0:19:02.040 those posts or accounts just don't exist anymore. Big nationwide event, 0:19:03.160 --> 0:19:06.040 there just isn't a lot of evidence that people were 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:06.840 talking about it. 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:10.040 No, no one. 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:12.920 Was talking about the March against Saria, and till the 0:19:13.000 --> 0:19:17.120 last few days of May twenty seventeen, when Portland Mayor 0:19:17.200 --> 0:19:19.600 Ted Wheeler made a public plea for the March against 0:19:19.600 --> 0:19:24.399 Syria in Portland to be canceled. On May twenty sixth, 0:19:24.440 --> 0:19:28.240 twenty seventeen, two black teenagers were riding the max light 0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:32.280 rail train in Portland, Oregon. It was a Friday afternoon 0:19:32.640 --> 0:19:33.280 and the pair were. 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:34.639 Headed to the mall after school. 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:40.840 They were normal, happy teenagers having a normal fun afternoon. 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:45.879 One of the girls, a Muslim immigrant from Somalia, was 0:19:45.920 --> 0:19:46.760 wearing her hijab. 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:49.000 She would later. 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:53.840 Say it was like our faces were a trigger, because 0:19:53.840 --> 0:19:56.920 when they got on the train, and Jeremy Christian saw 0:19:56.960 --> 0:20:01.920 those two girls. He immediately locked on to them, shouting 0:20:01.960 --> 0:20:05.200 things like fuck Muslims and go back to Saudi Arabia. 0:20:06.680 --> 0:20:11.640 People were staring he was making a scene, and when 0:20:11.640 --> 0:20:14.920 he stood up and started to move toward the girls, 0:20:15.359 --> 0:20:19.359 Talisian nam Kaimich was the first to intervene, moving towards 0:20:19.440 --> 0:20:21.800 Christian and getting out his phone to record what was happening. 0:20:23.359 --> 0:20:26.200 When Christian turned his attention toward this first Good Samaritan, 0:20:26.600 --> 0:20:28.439 another man on the train could see that things were 0:20:28.440 --> 0:20:32.359 about to get violent. Michah Fletcher would later testify that 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:34.639 he could tell Tullisian had never been in a fight before, 0:20:35.760 --> 0:20:38.200 and while Fletcher is far smaller in stature than either 0:20:38.240 --> 0:20:41.439 of those men, he'd grown up getting bullied, and he 0:20:41.440 --> 0:20:43.919 said he knew all too well what it looks like 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:49.359 right before a situation gets violent. I'm not sure if 0:20:49.400 --> 0:20:53.879 Michah Fletcher recognized Jeremy Christian in that moment, or if 0:20:53.880 --> 0:20:56.280 he didn't realize until later that this wasn't the first 0:20:56.320 --> 0:20:59.000 time he had tried to de escalate a situation caused 0:20:59.040 --> 0:21:04.280 by this particular man shouting racial slurs in public. Just 0:21:04.320 --> 0:21:06.000 a month earlier at a rally put on by the 0:21:06.040 --> 0:21:09.720 far right group Patriot Prayer, Jeremy Christian arrived wrapped in 0:21:09.720 --> 0:21:14.960 a Revolutionary War era flag carrying a baseball bat in 0:21:14.960 --> 0:21:18.000 a Wendy's parking lot. A crowd had formed around Christian 0:21:18.040 --> 0:21:20.960 as he attempted to provoke counter protesters into a physical fight. 0:21:22.440 --> 0:21:26.000 Michah Fletcher was there, dressed as a gesture, trying to 0:21:26.000 --> 0:21:29.120 diffuse the tense situation by distracting the crowd with a 0:21:29.600 --> 0:21:34.760 pretty competent juggling routine. He would later testify about that day, saying, 0:21:35.800 --> 0:21:38.800 It's just less scary for other people. If I'm able 0:21:38.800 --> 0:21:40.280 to show up in a way people would laugh at 0:21:40.520 --> 0:21:42.760 instead of looking intimidating, I. 0:21:42.760 --> 0:21:43.399 Would prefer it. 0:21:45.000 --> 0:21:48.560 But on May twenty sixth, on the train, there was 0:21:48.600 --> 0:21:53.000 no chance that whimsy would win the day. Michah Fletcher 0:21:53.040 --> 0:21:56.159 moved towards this brewing confrontation, and he shouted at Jeremy 0:21:56.240 --> 0:21:59.639 Christian that you can't talk to kids like that, and 0:21:59.680 --> 0:22:03.520 you need to he could off this train. Christian already 0:22:03.520 --> 0:22:04.879 had his knife in his hand. 0:22:04.680 --> 0:22:06.720 But no one saw it. 0:22:08.160 --> 0:22:11.359 Suddenly, both Micah and Tualisian had been stabbed in the neck. 0:22:12.560 --> 0:22:15.480 A third man Ricky Best, a retired army veteran and 0:22:15.520 --> 0:22:17.560 father of four who was on his way home from work, 0:22:18.440 --> 0:22:21.680 moved to intervene, and he too was stabbed in the neck. 0:22:23.520 --> 0:22:26.280 The girls fled the train, terrified that he would kill 0:22:26.320 --> 0:22:28.520 them now that the men who tried to protect them 0:22:29.000 --> 0:22:34.320 were bleeding out before their eyes. Ricky John Best and 0:22:34.400 --> 0:22:43.480 Talisian Nankaimche were murdered. Micah Fletcher survived. As Tulisian collapsed 0:22:43.480 --> 0:22:46.560 on the floor of the train, a woman knelt next 0:22:46.600 --> 0:22:51.080 to him. She took off her own shirt, depressed to 0:22:51.119 --> 0:22:56.600 his wound, telling him you're not alone. 0:22:55.600 --> 0:22:56.160 We're here. 0:22:58.080 --> 0:23:03.639 What you did was total kindness. You're such a beautiful man. 0:23:04.560 --> 0:23:06.560 I'm sorry. The world is so cruel. 0:23:09.720 --> 0:23:12.000 She held her shirt to his neck there on the 0:23:12.000 --> 0:23:15.320 floor of the train, praying over him and trying to 0:23:15.359 --> 0:23:20.000 keep him calm. He said his last words to that 0:23:20.119 --> 0:23:28.040 gentle stranger, Tell everyone on this train, I love them. 0:23:28.640 --> 0:23:31.120 Micah Fletcher stumbled out of the train at the next stop, 0:23:31.640 --> 0:23:33.720 collapsing on the platform in front of a man waiting 0:23:33.720 --> 0:23:37.920 for the train with his family. Fatman, an army veteran. 0:23:38.160 --> 0:23:39.920 Used what he had at his disposal to try to 0:23:39.920 --> 0:23:44.240 stop the bleeding a child's jacket and the pink baby 0:23:44.280 --> 0:23:50.159 blanket from his daughter's stroller. On a Friday afternoon, just 0:23:50.200 --> 0:23:54.040 before Ramadan, an entire train full of people watched a 0:23:54.119 --> 0:23:58.240 self proclaimed Nazi stab three men who were brave enough 0:23:58.280 --> 0:24:05.240 to defend two children from a racist, Islamophobic tirade, and 0:24:06.119 --> 0:24:09.480 in just two weeks, the March Against Sharia promised to 0:24:09.520 --> 0:24:16.160 bring anti Muslim activists to Portland. On Monday, May twenty ninth, 0:24:16.200 --> 0:24:19.320 it was national news that Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler did 0:24:19.359 --> 0:24:24.280 not want the March against Sharia in Portland. Permits for 0:24:24.320 --> 0:24:26.040 events in the area where the rally was set to 0:24:26.080 --> 0:24:29.200 be held, are not actually issued by the City of Portland, 0:24:29.480 --> 0:24:32.439 but by the federal government through the General Services Administration, 0:24:33.960 --> 0:24:36.800 and they declined to pull the permit, but ACT for 0:24:36.800 --> 0:24:40.520 America voluntarily canceled the Portland event anyway, moving it to 0:24:40.600 --> 0:24:47.000 Seattle instead, and then all of a sudden, people were 0:24:47.040 --> 0:24:50.920 talking about the March against Sharia. The very next day, 0:24:51.000 --> 0:24:53.720 on May thirtieth, in a discord server for members of 0:24:53.760 --> 0:24:58.720 the neo Nazi group Vanguard America, Thomas Rousseau posted a 0:24:58.760 --> 0:25:01.840 link to ACT for a Mayor because website for the rallies, writing, 0:25:02.600 --> 0:25:04.880 we keep saying we need to stand up against Islam. 0:25:05.840 --> 0:25:06.840 Well here's your chance. 0:25:06.760 --> 0:25:07.439 To get started. 0:25:08.840 --> 0:25:11.679 Barely a minute later, another user had copied and pasted 0:25:11.720 --> 0:25:14.600 that exact message into a discord server for the neo 0:25:14.640 --> 0:25:20.400 Nazi group the Traditionalist Worker Party. That same day, May thirtieth, 0:25:20.880 --> 0:25:24.560 act for America's rally coordinator, Scott Presler, heard from an 0:25:24.600 --> 0:25:30.359 excited pair of new volunteers, Billy and Tina Roper. On 0:25:30.480 --> 0:25:33.520 June first, Presler created a Facebook event for a march 0:25:33.520 --> 0:25:37.520 against Sharia in Batesville, Arkansas, which would be organized and 0:25:37.560 --> 0:25:45.639 hosted by Billy Roper. Billy Roper is a Nazi. I 0:25:45.680 --> 0:25:49.560 don't mean that in like a colloquial, casual, careless sort 0:25:49.560 --> 0:25:52.880 of sense. He is a Nazi, out and out died 0:25:52.920 --> 0:25:57.479 in the wool Hater. His name might sound familiar if 0:25:57.520 --> 0:26:00.480 you listen to every episode of the show. He gave 0:26:00.520 --> 0:26:03.240 a speech at Ariyan Fest two thousand four in Phoenix, 0:26:03.480 --> 0:26:06.000 a few weeks before Denis Mahon built that bomb and 0:26:06.040 --> 0:26:08.040 sent it to the Diversity office in Scottsdale. 0:26:09.640 --> 0:26:11.000 Billy Roper was raised. 0:26:10.720 --> 0:26:13.560 By a second generation clansman, and he turned to neo 0:26:13.640 --> 0:26:16.520 Nazi organizing as a young man, joining the Council of 0:26:16.520 --> 0:26:19.720 Conservative Citizens in his twenties and quickly rising through the 0:26:19.760 --> 0:26:23.960 ranks as a regional leader in National Alliance. Shortly before 0:26:24.040 --> 0:26:27.480 the death of National Alliance founder William Luther Pierce, Rober 0:26:27.480 --> 0:26:29.960 had moved to the Nazi group's compound in West Virginia 0:26:30.000 --> 0:26:33.960 to serve as deputy membership coordinator. He was pushed out 0:26:33.960 --> 0:26:36.960