Proud Boys Continue to “Stand By” as Trump Salutes Their Violent Extremism:
At a presidential debate in September of 2020, then-President Trump was asked whether he condemned white supremacists and military groups. In response, Trump said, “Proud Boys — stand back and stand by.” On January 6, 2021 several Proud Boy leaders actively engaged in the effort to block the peaceful transfer of power. For that, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and three others were convicted of seditious conspiracy and other charges. Tarrio is now serving a 22 year sentence in federal prison. Trump, of course, never disavowed the Proud Boys and, as we saw last week in North Carolina, they are still on the team. The Washington Post reported, “ At least 10 men wearing the uniform of the Proud Boys, a violent extremist group, appeared outside the entrance of a rally here for presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, prompting condemnation from President Biden’s campaign….One of the men held a sign saying ‘Free All of the J6 Prisoners,’ a reference to people charged in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.” The Proud Boys have no compunctions about showing up at Trump rallies and the Trump campaign has no problem with them being there.
This week, Trump showed his continued embrace of white nationalists when he downplayed the magnitude of their deadly August 2017 Charlottesville rally, describing it as “peanuts.” Trump later doubled down on the “peanuts” description, ranting about the criticism on his social media platform. For many Americans, that rally and the chants of “You will not replace us. Jews will not replace us” was their first exposure to the Great Replacement Theory. In the wake of the violence and despite the blatant invocation of racism, xenophobia and anti-semitism, the then-President said there were “very fine people on both sides.”
COMBATING THE NARRATIVE: Trump’s downplaying of the white nationalist and antisemitic violence in Charlottesville in 2017 opened the door of this conspiratorial bigotry to march straight onto the main street of the Republican Party. It’s no surprise that white nationalist street gangs like the Proud Boys, who were instrumental in the violent assault on the US Capitol on Jan. 6, continue to show up at Republican events. Trump is boldly planting a welcome sign for violent bigots to see a home inside the Republican Party. Meanwhile, there is a deafening silence from anyone else in the Party condemning such a horrific and anti-democratic invitation. The violent, anti-democratic white nationalism at home in the GOP isn’t a novel moral question adjacent to the question of the upcoming election but a core feature. And we must all start to treat it that way.
Hate Group Spokeswoman Shies Away from White Nationalist Rhetoric GOP Wanting Embraces:
Last week, in a House Natural Resources subcommittee hearing, Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL) challenged the Republican majority witness, Jessica Vaughan of Center for Immigration Studies, on use of the white nationalist “invasion” rhetoric. Vaughan denied using the rhetoric (Gabe Ortíz brings the receipts to show otherwise), correctly asserting that such rhetoric is inappropriate. In a piece for The Hill this week, Rafael Bernal followed up with Vaughan and Eric Ruark at NumbersUSA – another organization like CIS, which was founded by the late white nationalist and eugenist John Tanton for the purpose of mainstreaming nativist ideas – both of whom distanced themselves from the invasion conspiracy. The Tanton anti-immigration network of organizations has a long and well-documented history of aligning itself with white nationalists and their ideas. It is this history that likely makes them sensitive to further association with bigoted, violent, and anti-democratic ideas like the invasion conspiracy. Critically, this nuanced dance from a hate group like CIS exposes the radicalization of the Republican Party as they wantonly peddle the deadly white nationalist invasion conspiracy as their baseline rhetoric about immigration and the border. Just in the last two weeks, Republicans have aired 20 unique ads on TV and CTV that employ the invasion rhetoric, spending an estimated $1.09M and making some 39.5M impressions. For the year, the numbers reach 42 unique ads at $8.9M making some 365M impressions (AdImpact data). There have also been 201 Facebook ads using invasion rhetoric in 2024. Not counted here is the torrent of X ads from Republicans that are similarly pushing the deadly invasion lie into American’s social media feeds. The New York Times noted this trend this week, writing:
“It was not so long ago that the term invasion had been mostly relegated to the margins of the national immigration debate. Many candidates and political figures tended to avoid the word, which echoed demagoguery in previous centuries targeting Asian, Latino and European immigrants. Few mainstream Republicans dared use it.
But now, the word has become a staple of Republican immigration rhetoric. Use of the term in television campaign ads in the current election cycle has already eclipsed the total from the previous one, data show, and the word appears in speeches, TV interviews and even in legislation proposed in Congress.”
COMBATING THE NARRATIVE: When the groups founded by the late white nationalist and eugenicist John Tanton attempt to publicly distance themselves from rhetoric linked to conspiratorial white nationalist violence like ‘invasion,’ while at the same time, the Republican Party employs the rhetoric, the dangerous radicalization occurring in the GOP should be blindingly clear. They are doubling down to advance ‘invasion’ as the undergirding of actual policies and laws while spewing rhetoric with clear connections to violence at the Tree of Life synagogue and elsewhere. Elected leaders are giving the invasion conspiracy legitimacy and normalization that is exponentially increasing the threat to public safety from white nationalist and antisemitic political violence.
Republicans Continue Steady Drum Beat of Racist Fearmongering About Chinese Migrants:
The GOP is continuing to seed bigoted conspiracies about Chinese migrants to their supporters, including the white nationalist invasion conspiracy theory, creating a climate of racist political violence. Republicans and Fox News have been pushing the misleading static about a “6,300% increase in Chinese nationals” seeking entry at US borders. While there has been an increase, Chinese nationals represent just 0.014% of total encounters.
But to hear Republicans tell it, Chinese migrants are all agents of the Chinese Communist Party and pose an existential national security threat. In March, ranking House Republican Elise Stefanik (R-NY) baselessly claimed the migrants were “sleeper cells.” Earlier this month Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) alluded to an alleged ongoing plot by the government of China, writing, “As the CCP seeks to infiltrate our homeland, the state of Biden’s border is an open invitation to Chinese nationals.”
It's worth noting, as it is glaringly absent from the GOP talking points, that our current asylum system allows those fleeing repressive regimes like China to apply through a rigorous process to be granted refuge in the United States. Instead, Republicans – often in their official capacity – are hyping a conspiracy to their supporters warning of “military-aged Chinese men.” Inside the Republican’s bigoted conspiracy, if the migrants are not the foot soldiers of an invading CCP army, then they are their active spies, often dawning the ‘just asking questions’ figleaf to obscure the racist ideas they are delivering to their base. For example, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) writing, “How can we be sure they’re not tied to the Chinese Communist Party?” Or Rep. Byard Donalds (R-FL) writing, “How many CCP agents are here due to Biden's open border?”
It's also a GOP-wide effort. In just the last week, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the GOP, and the House GOP pushed the anti-Chinese nativism.
With increasing regularity, Republicans are embracing the deadly white nationalist invasion rhetoric to describe Chinese migrants seeking safety in the US. Yesterday, the NRCC wrote, “There is an INVASION happening and extreme Democrats REFUSE to stop it. Chinese nationals are now “the fastest-growing demographic of illegal immigrants” crossing our southern border.” For example, Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) recently wrote, “The historic spike in the number of Chinese nationals attempting to invade our country should alarm every American.” Or Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) wrote, “Over 20,000 Chinese nationals (that we know of) have invaded our country”
COMBATING THE NARRATIVE: The downstream consequences to bigoted conspiratorial fearmongering should be obvious even if there isn’t the exact one-to-one correlation. When political leaders promote these white nationalists and other racialized conspiracies, they court racist political violence against the communities they dehumanize for their selfish political gain. Nor is the bigotry contained to the target like newly arrived Chinese migrants. Last year, 1 in 3 Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders experienced racial abuse. In 2020, there was a 150% spike in anti-Asian hate crimes – a likely deep undercount of the actual problem. That year, Republicans made anti-Chinese racism around COVID-19 a central part of their campaign message. Obviously, there are many other contributing factors to the hate and violence being directed at the AAPI community, but the widespread promotion of bigoted conspiracies by Republicans cultivates the climate for it to thrive. Last week, Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) delivered some powerful remarks that are worth a watch in full. “Racial slurs are not a national security strategy,” she said. “They do nothing to counter the threat posed by the CCP.”
POLITICS UPDATES
Predictable GOP Attacks: Following the Senate’s dismissal of the political sham impeachment of DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) – the leading outfit to elect Senate Republicans – warned they were going to now hit battleground Senator John Tester (D-MT) with ads on the issue as if that wasn’t already the plan. In January 2023 (yes, 16 months ago), the NRSC cut an ad attacking Tester with the “open borders” disinformation, using a clip of individuals climbing a border fence from 2016. Tester’s vote is immaterial to whether or not the GOP was going to spend millions on nativist attack ads. To that end, One Nation, a superPAC aligned with Senate leadership, put out an attack ad this week disingenuously attacking Tester’s past votes, but notably, the GOP obscure and partisan stunt to impeach the Secretary was not among them.
House GOP Primaries: As we noted last week, a superPAC aligned with former Speaker Kevin McCarthy is running ads attacking ultra-right-wing members who were vocal advocates for his ouster, like Rep. Bob Good (R-VA). The ads lead with the deadly white nationalist invasion rhetoric and are clear examples of how these inter-party battles over who is the biggest nativist have steadily worked to radicalize the GOP. Case and point: this week, Sen. Rand Paul (R-TN) dropped an ad defending Rep. Good, saying he trusts “Bob to stop the migrant invasion.” Each of the PACs have already spent over $100K (AdImpact) to air the ads hundreds of times across the Virginia markets covering Good’s District. Said another way, Republicans are spending a quarter of a million dollars to pump a white nationalist conspiracy that has inspired multiple deadly terrorist attacks just into a sliver of a deep red Congressional District in Virginia.
PA Senate: Republican David McCormick won an unopposed Republican primary for Senate in Pennsylvania on Tuesday and will face incumbent Democratic Senator Bob Casey in the fall. McCormick ran in the 2022 GOP Senate primary, losing to Dr. Oz, who was endorsed by Trump. One of McCormick’s top advisors in that effort was Stephen Miller. This year, Trump did endorse McCormick, as did the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC). McCormick has consistently invoked the border, though, like most Republicans, he opposed the border deal negotiated by Republican and Democratic Senators -- after Trump said to kill it. Then, two weeks after opposing the bipartisan deal, McCormick wrote an oped demanding Biden deal with the border.
WEEKLY STATS OF NATIVIST NARRATIVE
148 Republican ads running with immigration-related attacks on TV and CTV
Total spending on nativist ads for the week of April 22 -- $7,863,878 (AdImpact)
31 new Republican-aligned immigration-related Facebook ads
Year to date
Total nativist TV and CTV ads: 626
Total spend on nativist TV and CTV ads --- $116,985,621 (AdImpact)
Nativist Ad of the Week:
In the Republican primary in Indiana’s 8th US congressional district, Richard Moss has a TV ad claiming that “Biden’s border crisis created an invasion…Mark Mesner is making it worse” with red and green typography and latin-esque background music to connect that “Mesmer is already surrendering to Mexico”.
Of the 525 GOP Twitter accounts we track, this week, they sent:
508 original tweets peddling anti-immigrant attacks mentioning “border”
97 original tweets about “open borders,” with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tweet having the most reach with 237.8K Views, 1.6k Retweets, and 4.4k Likes.
18 original tweets that used “Biden Border Crisis” with Rep. Jim Jordan tweet having the most reach with 101.4K Views, 1.4k Retweets, and 3.9k Likes.
24 original tweets that mentioned both “fentanyl” and “border” with Sen. Ted Cruz tweet having the most reach with 52.6K views, 326 Retweets and 1k Likes.
Top Articles on Social of the Week (Right-wing media still dominating the conversation online)
This past week there were 263.9k interactions, a decrease of ↓ 36% and 9k articles published, a decrease of 15% from last week. Interactions and article count are both lower than the previous week. Data assembled from Newswhip.
NY Post: “NYC high school soccer game canceled after group of about 30 migrants refuse to leave the field — even after cops showed up” - Facebook: 4.3k interactions X: 1.6k shares
Fox News: “'Nothing more backwards' than US funding Ukraine border security but not our own, conservatives say” - Facebook: 4.1k interactions X: 589 shares
Western Journal: “Chicago Woman in MAGA Hat Unleashes on Mayor Over Immigrant Spending Plan: 'Use Our Tax Money for Our People!'” - Facebook: 2.8k interactions X: 0 shares