'Straight up Nazis': Author slams masked white supremacist group marching through D.C.

[0:00] As America celebrated its 250th birthday, white nationalists from the group known as Patriot Front marched down the streets of Washington, D.C., carrying American and Confederate flags, the traitor's flag. [0:12] According to the Southern Poverty Law Center and other civil rights group, Patriot Front is a hate group that broke off from vanguard America in the aftermath of the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. [0:24] They arrived in Washington by train surrounding everyday Americans just trying to go about their holiday. [0:30] Including this woman who sits calmly as white nationalists surround her and whose image will likely be in our history and textbooks one day as future generations try to make sense of this current political moment. [0:42] The members of the group have a well-documented and highly coordinated uniform. [0:46] They're always covering their faces with masks and sunglasses, always donning dark Navy polos and khaki pants and hats. [0:53] Their goal is to project an image of uniformity as they push a vision of America that is all about exclusion and uniformity as well. [1:01] They march through the streets of the Capitol chanting, reclaim America. [1:06] Let's bring into the conversation Christopher Mathias, a journalist who covers the far right and author of To Catch a Fascist. [1:14] Christopher, it's good to see you again. [1:16] I'll just begin with your reaction as you were celebrating the 4th this weekend with friends and family. [1:22] As you saw these scenes unfold in D.C., what did you think? [1:26] You know, for me, I think one of the most alarming things is obviously it's always a scary thing when you have a straight up white nationalist group in these numbers marching in D.C. relatively unopposed. [1:38] What's scary for me is what's scarier for me is that the views that Patriot Front holds aren't that dissimilar from the views held currently by the Republican Party. [1:50] And I'll give you one quick example. [1:52] Thomas Rousseau, the idiot in the cowboy hat that's the leader of Patriot Front, eight years ago in a private Discord server, he called for re-migration. [2:01] That was a term that no one else used at the time except explicit neo-Nazis. [2:05] We fast forward eight years to 2026, and who's using that term now? [2:11] DHS. [2:11] DHS. [2:12] Last week, they posted re-migration with a video of them putting immigrants in chains. [2:18] We are celebrating our 250th anniversary, you know, extolling our freedom. [2:22] And they are posting propaganda celebrating putting people in chains. [2:27] This term, re-migration, has the clearest of fascist lineages. [2:31] You can pinpoint the people that created it and why, and they are straight-up Nazis. [2:37] And the scariest part for me yesterday seeing, you know, this march wasn't isn't so much the march. [2:44] I mean, yes, it's scary, and those guys, you know, are whatever. [2:49] The scary thing for me is that what they believe in actually isn't that dissimilar from what the people in halls of power believe in. [2:56] And, you know, one more example, Andy Ogles, Andy Ogles, however you say his name, he introduced the Remigration Act in Congress last week. [3:05] And when he's giving interviews about this, you know, it's not limited to immigrants and undocumented people. [3:12] They are turning their sights on citizens. [3:17] They want to denaturalize people. [3:19] And the example he gave was Zoran Mamdani. [3:21] I think it's really important when we think about what's happening right now is that this administration is using a euphemism, [3:31] remigration, that is used by Nazi groups, developed by Nazi groups, which has one clear meaning, and that meaning is ethnic cleansing. [3:39] Speaking of this administration and the way in which these movements have moved from the fringe to being closer and closer into our mainstream politics, [3:46] I want you to take a listen to Cabot's secretary, Doug Burgum. [3:50] He was asked about all of this, and I thought his response was interesting. [3:54] Well, I think that certainly what they stand for is nothing that I could possibly agree with. [4:01] But one of the foundational principles of the United States, which makes democracy messy, is free speech. [4:06] And there are plenty of things that I see that I might personally find offensive, irreprehensible. [4:12] But in America, free speech is allowed, and this is by the whole spectrum of things. [4:19] I mean, we're a country where someone can run and be elected saying that they're a communist. [4:24] Will you recommend to the president that he condemn this group and what they were trying to message, what they did try to message here in Washington? [4:34] Well, there have been—Dana, part of my response to that is that there are protests on the mall that people say things that I think are irreprehensible about President Trump, [4:46] and yet they're allowed to go on because of free speech in our country. [4:49] Chris, what do you make of the fact there that a secretary is basically saying that he's not going to recommend that the president condemn all of this [4:57] because the president has been personally insulted by protesters who've gathered in the same spot? [5:02] I mean, a white nationalist group versus, I guess, some people who've called Trump some mean names. [5:08] Right. I mean, it's also—you know, the whole premise is a little flawed because this is essentially a white nationalist administration, [5:16] and they are in no position to condemn white nationalism. The, you know, Patriot Front grew out of the ashes of one of the most infamous acts of white supremacist terror [5:26] in the 21st century, which was the car attack in Charlottesville that killed Heather Heyer and injured 35 other people. [5:34] And what do we know about what happened after that incident? It's Trump's very fine people comment, right? [5:41] And these are Trump's very fine people. And, you know, when you see that interview with Doug there, [5:47] it's so interesting that you are asking him to condemn Nazism, to get the president to condemn Nazism. [5:53] And all he can do is deflect and create this false equivalency and say, well, look, there's communists, too. [5:59] And when he's talking about communists, he's talking about, you know, essentially Zohar Mondani, Democratic Socialists of America. [6:06] He's drawing an equivalency between people who want free health care and people who actively want to ethnically cleanse America. [6:13] So it's a just kind of absurd thing. [6:16] I have to ask you, too. It's been interesting to see some others on the right respond to these visuals that came out from the weekend. [6:23] For example, Laura Ingram said, I call fake looks more like Antifa in costume. [6:29] No one should be allowed to cover their faces. [6:30] And then Elon Musk called it just another SPLC, that's the Southern Poverty Law Center that he's referencing there, false flag operation. [6:38] Why do you think they would jump to these conclusions? [6:42] You know, whenever a group like this makes waves, makes headlines, the right has to find a way to distract and deflect from how similar they are to these groups. [6:53] So throughout the last eight years, they have constantly said that these groups are the works of feds or Antifa provocateurs. [6:59] The truth is, and this is what my book is about, is that Antifa has done more to destabilize groups like this. [7:05] Most of what we know about Patriot Front is because anti-fascists have put their lives on the line and gone undercover into these groups and uncovered all this information, identified their members. [7:14] You know, Elon Musk saying, you know, the SPLC thing again, MAGA is on this campaign to discredit SPLC because SPLC and the work they've done has in many ways been effective in drawing the lines between the extreme right and the MAGA movement. [7:34] But to insinuate that this was somehow the work of provocateurs or some kind of false flag operation is absolutely absurd. [7:43] Christopher Matthias, great to see you again. [7:45] And thank you, as always, for your work. [7:46] Thank you. [7:47] Thank you.