Proud Boys: the far-right militant group backing the president of the United States, Donald Trump

US President Donald Trump has been labeled a “national shame” for not explicitly denouncing far-right and white supremacist groups.

During the first presidential debate, Trump was specifically asked to denounce groups like the Proud Boys, but he did not.

Now he has said that he does not know who the far-right group is.

It comes as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued an intelligence report on the day of the presidential debate, warning of an imminent “violent extremist threat” posed by a far-right militia, including white supremacists, according to The Nation.

The agency identified the current election period up to the 2021 inauguration as a “potential flash point.”

During Wednesday’s presidential debate, Trump lashed out at the leftist Antifa movement and other participants for their sometimes violent protests against police abuse and racism in recent months.

Antifa groups believe in aggressively confronting far-right groups, arguing that the Nazis would never have come to power if people had fought them on the streets in the 1920s. These include communists and anarchists, and groups that they believe in standing up to the police.

When asked whether Trump would equally condemn right-wing armed groups and white supremacists, specifically the Proud Boys, the president said “sure,” but then seemed reluctant to do so.

“Almost everything I see is from the left wing, not the right wing,” Trump said.

“Proud guys, back off and wait,” he continued.

“I’ll tell you something, someone has to do something with Antifa and the left, because this is not a right-wing problem. It’s a left-wing problem.”

His original comments were widely taken as an endorsement of the Proud Boys and other often heavily armed groups that have clashed with Black Lives Matter and Antifa activists across the country, as well as joining protests against health measures. public for the coronavirus.

The Proud Boys themselves celebrated Trump’s comments.

“Stand up and down, sir,” the group said in a social media post. “President Trump told the Proud Boys to wait because someone has to deal with Antifa … well sir! We are ready !!” Proud Boys organizer Joe Biggs wrote on a social media site that he does not block extremists.

Democrat and presidential rival Joe Biden attacked the failure of Trump to make a clear and forceful denunciation of the white supremacist groups or the far-right Proud Boys.

“The president of the United States behaved the way he did, I think it was a national disgrace,” Biden said.

“My message to the Proud Boys and all other white supremacist groups is: cease and desist.

“This is not who we are. This is not who we are as Americans.”

In an apparent attempt to suppress outrage over his comments, Trump later asked the group to “stand down.”

“I don’t know who the Proud Boys are, but whoever they are, they have to stand down,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “Stand back, let the police do their job,” he said. “Whoever they are, get out.”

WHO ARE THE PROUD GUYS?

The all-men group vows to be a “proud Western chauvinist” and has become known for its violent clashes with anti-fascist groups.

While they are primarily based in the US, they also have a presence in Australia, Great Britain and Canada.

The Anti-Defamation League, which investigates extremist groups, says the Proud Boys are bound by extreme male chauvinism, opposition to immigrants and Muslims, and some members also embrace white supremacy.

For the most part, they have tied themselves to Trump and everything he supports, says the ADL.

“After several years of forging alliances with members of the Republican political establishment, the Proud Boys have carved out a niche for themselves as a right-wing fighting club and as a volunteer security force for the [Republican Party],” He said.

The group was established in the middle of the 2016 presidential election by Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInnes, who told the New York Times: “I love being white and I think it’s something to be very proud of.

“I don’t want our culture to be diluted. We need to close the borders now and allow everyone to assimilate into a Western, white, and English-speaking way of life.”

Members of the group wear red “Make America Great Again” hats associated with Trump’s election campaigns and black Fred Perry polo shirts, which the company stopped selling after it partnered with the far-right group.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated the Proud Boys as a hate group, with their ideology of “widespread hatred.”

According to the site, the group’s name comes from a song from the Disney movie Aladdin, “Proud of Your Boy.”

They oppose the war on drugs, racial guilt, political correctness, border closures and “worshiping the housewife.”

To become a member, someone has to declare, “I am a Western chauvinist and I refuse to apologize for creating the modern world.”

The next level of membership involves a Proud Boy being beaten until he can yell out the names of five breakfast cereals, to demonstrate “adrenaline control.” They should also stop masturbating because the members believe it will leave them more inclined to go out and meet women.

Those who achieve the third degree of membership get a Proud Boys tattoo.

The organization says that any man, regardless of race or sexual orientation, can join the group as long as they “recognize that white men are not the problem.”

In 2018, McInnes told the Get Off My Lawn podcast: “It’s a culture of rape with these immigrants, I don’t even think these women see it as rape. They see it as having teeth. [sic] thrown away. It’s Monday. I don’t really enjoy it, ‘but that’s what you do. I wouldn’t be surprised if she doesn’t have the same trauma as for a middle-class white girl in the suburbs because it’s so ingrained in her culture. “

McInnes, 50, has since left the group, but other Proud Boys have billed it as a drinking club for men who renounce political correctness and enjoy provocative humor and the occasional street fight against radical left groups.

In Portland, Oregon, they have come together to fight Antifa, or anti-fascist protesters.

“We have been the only ones who have faced Antifa,” wrote Biggs. “Yes. We are not law enforcement officers. I am not above the law or anyone else in our group. It’s funny that it took a men’s drinking club to come to Portland to see law and order restored.”

HISTORY OF VIOLENCE

The members regularly participate in street fights and fists with groups like Antifa and Black Lives Matter.

Last year, two members were jailed for four years for beating up anti-fascist activists outside a Republican venue in New York after a McInnes speech.

Most recently, 17-year-old Trump supporter Kyle Rittenhouse shot three protesters at police brutality protests in Wisconsin last month, killing two, claiming he acted in self-defense.

A week after the Wisconsin rally, anti-fascist protester Michael Reinoehl shot and killed a Trump supporter in Portland. He also claimed to be acting in self-defense. Reinoehl was later shot and killed by the police.

The Proud Boys were also linked to the fatal Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017.

Former Proud Boys member Jason Kessler was instrumental in organizing the rally where white supremacist groups shouted anti-Semitic slogans. His assistants included members of the Ku Klux Klan and various neo-Nazi groups.

At this rally, white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters and killed Heather Heyer. He is now serving a life sentence for his murder.

At the time Trump said “there is blame on both sides” and there were “very good people on both sides.”

The president’s response to the rally was seen as the beginning of his gentle rapprochement with the extreme right.

In 2019, Richard Spencer, who organized Unite the Right, told the American magazine The Atlantic that the arrival of Trump to the presidency had made it possible for the far right to emerge from the shadows.

“There is no question that Charlottesville would not have happened without Trump,” he said.

Since then, in public comments and on Twitter, Trump has sided with right-wing extremist groups, gaining their support without direct endorsement.

His retweets amplify a variety of posts by racists, extreme nationalists, and supporters of the incoherent QAnon conspiracy theory.

On the contrary, he has repeatedly attacked social justice groups, including Black Lives Matter, rejecting his claim that racism abounds in American society.

In June, Trump shared on Twitter a video of a supporter chanting “white power” in Florida’s The Villages retirement community.

“Thanks to the great people of The Villages. The radical left Democrats do nothing they will fall in the fall,” said the president.

The retweet was later removed.

And in September, Trump expressed his sympathy and support for Kyle Rittenhouse, who is facing murder charges after shooting two protesters to death in Wisconsin.