Trump Tells Violent Hate Group to "Stand Back and Stand By."
Towards the end of the first 2020 Presidential Debate, moderator Chris Wallace asked Donald Trump if he would condemn white supremacists and violent militias. Instead of condemning these groups, Trump told them to “stand back and stand by,” adding, “but somebody’s got to do something about antifa and the left.”
Trump’s instruction to “stand back and stand by” was directed towards the Proud Boys, a violent hate group, after Joe Biden called on Trump to denounce them by name. Proud Boys members immediately celebrated Trump’s directive, with one prominent figure writing “Trump basically said go fuck them up! this makes me so happy.” That same night, the Proud Boys posted a meme on their Telegram channel featuring their logo and the words “stand back, stand by,” and then began advertising t-shirts for sale with the same image:
A multiracial far-right movement founded in 2016, the Proud Boys describe themselves as “western chauvinists,” and are rooted in an ideology of violence, misogyny, and white supremacy. As the Southern Poverty Law Center has reported, “Any man — no matter his race or sexual-orientation — can join the fraternal organization as long as they ‘recognize that white men are not the problem.’”
The Proud Boys have multiple levels of membership: Level one simply requires saying “I am a western chauvinist, and I refuse to apologize for creating the modern world.” The second level requires being physically beaten by fellow Proud Boys while yelling out the names of five breakfast cereals. Level three requires giving up masturbation entirely, or at minimum refraining from masturbating more than one time a month. After meeting these requirements, members must get a Proud Boys tattoo. Finally, in the words of founder Gavin McInnes, a Proud Boy must “get beat up, kick the crap out of an antifa” or engage in a similar type of physical altercation.
McInnes has a long history of racism, antisemitism, and advocacy for violence — and the Proud Boys’ activities and belief system are modeled after this. In 2017, as part of an anti-Jewish rant, that McInnes said he was “becoming antisemitic.” That same year, he stated, “I cannot recommend violence enough. It’s a really effective way to solve problems.”
Jason Kessler — who organized the infamous 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, VA, where neo-Nazis marched, injured dozens of counter-protestors and killed Heather Heyer — was a Proud Boy, although the group attempted to distance themselves from Unite the Right, revoking Kessler’s membership following the negative association. In the years since, Proud Boys members have continued to engage in brutal acts of violence.
The most infamous of the Proud Boys’ attacks took place on October 12, 2018, when McInnes gave a talk at New York City’s Metropolitan Republican Club. As part of his speech, McInnes reenacted the assassination of Japanese socialist leader, Inejiro Asanuma. After the event, dozens of Proud Boys violently attacked anti-fascist protestors:
Multiple members of the Proud Boys were arrested, with two of them later convicted. Among the members arrested were Ian Reilly — a staffer for then-State Senator Marty Golden — who was the person responsible for McInnes’s invitation to speak at MRC. Gavin Wax, who was later appointed to a leadership position with the Young Republicans and has hosted events with Trump 2020 campaign surrogates like Lara Trump, assisted Reilly in setting up the event.
Golden, Reilly, and Wax are far from the only Republican figures to associate with the Proud Boys: Also in October of 2018, the Miami-Dade County Republicans chair and a staffer for now-Governor Ron DeSantis promoted and attended multiple Proud Boys events. In February of 2019, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) defended a member of the Proud Boys who was banned from Twitter for violating rules about hate speech. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) was photographed with a member of the Proud Boys on the 4th of July in 2020. In August of 2020, the head of the Stanislaus County Republican Assembly co-organized a pro-Trump assembly with the Proud Boys and other far-right extremist groups.