April 19, 2024

Idavox

The Media Outlet of One People's Project

America’s Worst: The DC MAGA Rally & The Hate That Came With It

Idavox 3 years ago 7 min read

Dec. 12, 2020: White Nationalist podcaster Nick Fuentes and his "groypers" at the MAGA March in Washington, DC.

The Proud Boys played themselves last weekend, and there were others that we took notice of. Now everyone will.

UPDATE, 12/18/20: We added information noting Bobby Pickes’ real name and to note that Jack Posobiec spoke at the rally as well.

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WASHINGTON, DC—There were warnings from residents about the possibility of violence spurred on by the right well before Saturday’s rally at Freedom Plaza, including a request to rescind the permit granted to Women for America First (WFAF) after it played a part in last month’s rally at the plaza which also devolved into violence. As expected, there was violence, and just like last month it was largely instigated by the neo-fascist Proud Boys who continued to escalate by stabbing several people vandalizing Black churches. This time however, not only did the Proud Boys and their associates have to contend with a larger contingent of antifascists meeting them in confrontations that sent some of them to the hospital, but also law enforcement that pepper sprayed and arrested members where little was done to stop them one month before and a condemnation from even some right wing circles that long avoided doing so, as well as investigations and arrests due to their actions over the weekend.

The rally took place the weekend before Monday’s nationwide Electoral College vote that secured President-elect Joe Biden’s election to the Presidency, which those coming out falsely believe was rigged against Donald Trump, presidential advisor Sebastian Gorka warning statehouses that they risk not being reelected if they certify the election results, which they ultimately did. Many of the attendees insisted that Biden will never be the next president, with Trump attorney and GOP strategist Boris Epshteyn leading the crowd in a call-and-response declaring this and that Trump will serve another four years. Donald Trump himself even participated, twice doing a flyover the rally in Marine One just as a woman was singing the national anthem. Curiously, few took their hats off as they sang along. WFAF Executive Director Amy Kremer said in her remarks to the crowd that 1.4 million came out to their November 14 rally when numbers were actually estimated in the thousands, and numbers last weekend reflected those from last month.

There were several pronouncements from the stage decrying the charge that they were racists, neo-Nazis and White supremacists, but they seemed disingenuous as even the invoking of “America First” recalls the anti-Semitic and racist groups that opposed the United States entering World War II to fight Nazi Germany. That was punctuated by the huge presence of Nick Fuentes, a White Nationalist and Holocaust denier who hosts the podcast America First. He was joined by other neo-Fascists such as former Daily Caller writer Scott Greer, Patrick Casey, the former head of the recently-disbanded American Identity Movement (AmIM), which itself was formerly Identity Evropa, Jaden McNeil of America First Students, Vincent James Foxx of Red Elephants and several of their supporters who at times would overwhelm the main rally as they spoke and chanted “Destroy the GOP!” to express their anger with the party for failing to keep Trump in the White House, calling for supporters to sit out Georgia’s Jan 5 runoff election that would decide which party holds control of the Senate. When they spotted Pro-Trump drag queen Lady MAGA, the decidedly homophobic group shouted slurs and chanted “Shame!” at the performer.

Announced as a reporter for One America News (OAN), Jack Posobiec, who has recently been profiled by the Southern Poverty Law Center for his White Supremacist ties and leanings, spoke on stage. It was a brief appearance however, where he only spoke of being a Navy veteran and simply introduced another speaker to the stage.

In addition to Fuentes and Posobiec, there were groups peddling anti-Catholic tracts and books for free in the crowd. One tract relied heavy on the book The Great Controversy by Ellen G. White, one of the founders of the Seventh Day Adventist Church which is considered controversial because of the anti-Catholic stance she takes. The Great Controversy was also passed out for free at the rally, the particular version published by Remnant Publications who in 2015 mailed out 700,000 copies of the book for free to homes in Philadelphia in expectation of Pope Francis’ visit to the city. President-elect Biden will be only the second Roman Catholic President in American history after John F. Kennedy.

The Proud Boys were initially the group that many had seen promoting the rally, drawing concerns that they will attack and assault those they consider political adversaries while they were in the city, as they did last month where they stabbed three people and assaulted and robbed others with little intervention from the police. Recalling how when the last rally took place many of the attendees vandalized Black Lives Matter Plaza and tore down any signs supporting the movement, there was a group of antifascists that guarded the Plaza during the rally. Proud Boys attempted to march to the Plaza but were prevented by police from entering the area. They did engage in confrontations along the way that resulted in them reportedly stabbing one person. Later that evening, several other clashes with antifa resulted in a number of injuries and arrests of nearly three dozen people on both sides, including more stabbings, including one that reportedly left a Proud Boy severely injured. Tensions were so great that police even began pepper spraying and arresting the Proud Boys. “We were just on the street doing a night patrol – a night rally kind of thing,” Proud Boy Robert “Bobby Pickles” Piccirillo, who prints many of the Proud Boys’ T-Shirts at his ENZO T-Shirt company,, said in an interview with the Palm Beach Post. A photograph with the article shows him with a bruised shoulder from what he says was a baton.

The Proud Boys have been seen moreso as the criminal element as overnight they not only engaged in unprovoked attacks on random persons, but also several historic Black churches. They targeted both Asbury United Methodist Church and Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church just a mile away, taking down their Black Lives Matter banners and setting them on fire. William H. Lamar IV of the Metropolitan Church took to Twitter to write, “We have not been distracted by signs, sounds, or fury for nearly two centuries. We worship. We liberate. We serve.” Rev. D. Ianther M. Mills, Sr. Pastor of Asbury Church wrote a statement pointing out that “if this was a marauding group of men of color going through the city and destroying property, they would have been followed and arrested. We are especially alarmed that this violence is not being denounced at the highest levels of our nation and instead the leaders of this movement are being invited to the White House,” The last point was a reference to reports that Proud Boy leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio was invited to the White House, although later reports indicated he was on a White House tour and did not meet with Donald Trump. A new banner was raised at the church on Wednesday.

The Proud Boys have been roundly condemned from Biden in two presidential debates to the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group to namecheck on the song “Fiyah to the Fascists” by the hip hop duo Rebel Diaz and Tef Poe, one of the co-founders of the Ferguson, MO- based Hands Up United. Little if any condemnation has come from conservative groups and individuals and they were particularly welcomed, just like the “Groypers” at last weekend’s march. But there was a break in even that when author Walter Olson of the Cato Institute tweeted how the Asbury Church attack was just blocks for his office, noting this was an example of how “Contempt for the rights of church members to believe differently combines here with contempt for property rights.” Meanwhile, police are investigating the church attacks as a hate crime and others have acted in response to just the Proud Boys presence at the rally. At one point during the rally, four Proud Boys wearing kilts lined up and mooned the crowd to reveal that the words “FUCK ANTIFA” – a regular slogan of the group’s – was written across their backsides. The kilts are made by Virginia-based and LGBTQ-owned Verillas, who announced in a tweet that in response they donated $1000 to the NAACP, $250 more than the kilts cost, saying the Proud Boys were “against everything they stand for.”

One Proud Boy associate may be facing legal trouble already for her role in the attacks. Magen Stevens, who is currently facing charges for making several counter-protesters at a September rally in Salem, Oregon, was given special permission to travel out of state. Investigators have reportedly identified her from videos as participating in at least one assault with the Proud Boys. Stevens is dating Proud Boy Alan Swinney, who himself is in jail awaiting trial on numerous charges stemming from an Aug. 15 rally in Portland that include assault, menacing, unlawful use of a weapon, use of pepper spray and pointing a firearm at another person.

On the right-wing social media outlet Parler, Proud Boy Joe Biggs announced that he and the group plan to be in Washington, DC for President-elect Biden’s inauguration on Jan 20.

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