I am a Western chauvinist.
I am a Western chauvinist!
And I refuse to apologize.
I refuse to apologize.
For creating the modern world.
For creating the modern world!
This is the Proud Boys oath.
Saying it out loud is the first step
towards joining the right-wing extremist group.
And you have to believe that the West is the best.
That Western civilization is the best civilization on Earth.
And it's something that you cherish.
Enrique Tarrio
is the Proud Boys' current leader.
And over the past four years,
he's seen the group grow from a few guys in a bar
to thousands of members across the United States.
They've been labeled a hate group.
The FBI says they have ties to white nationalism.
And on January 6, they joined armed Trump supporters
in an insurrection at the Capitol.
I would say the Proud Boys are one of the most
dangerous extremist organizations in America.
But for members of a fringe organization,
the Proud Boys have done a pretty good job
of inserting themselves into mainstream American politics.
Who would you like me to condemn?
White supremacists. Proud Boys.
Proud Boys, stand back, and stand by.
So how did a group of right-wing extremists
rise to the main stage of American politics
to become the president's self-appointed defenders?
And will they fall under a new administration?
Go home to mommy.
Insider recorded an exclusive interview
with Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys.
I've kind of always been a Proud Boy.
I've always had these values.
And I wasn't a group guy.
I've been an activist for 18 years,
but I've never joined a group.
And I decided to join this one
because it was a little different.
It was based on comedy. It's based on fun.
It all started with a guy named Gavin McInnes.
He's been a big media personality since the 1990s.
He actually cofounded Vice Media.
But these days, he's more famous for making
racist, sexist, and all kinds of other offensive remarks
on his streaming show.
I think my favorite monkey has to be Barack Obama.
Here's the deal, dude.
I am a total fervent racist,
but I married an Indian because I'm cleaning up the racism.
Back in 2008, McInnes left Vice
because of creative differences.
His views started to get more and more extreme.
And in 2015, he founded the Proud Boys.
I'll make you proud, boy.
That song is from the musical "Aladdin."
I'll make you proud of your boy.
And that sort of is the moral of the Proud Boys,
where we seem like p-----s,
we're named after a Broadway show tune,
we wear black and yellow Fred Perrys, but we'll murder you.
We will kill you. Because we're full of hate.
We want to make America hate again.
And this is where you might notice
Gavin McInnes sounding, in a way,
like someone else you know.
We will make America proud again.
We will make America safe again.
And yes, together we will make America great again.
Four more years! Four more years!
Since the Trump presidency began,
these groups are kind of emboldened by Trump's rhetoric
to kind of get out there and be more in the mainstream.
Rachel E. Greenspan covers
far-right extremism for Insider.
She says Donald Trump opened the doors
for a group of men who felt like society
had wronged and emasculated them.
And then Gavin McInnes took things one step further.
He gave these men a purpose and a name.
You know the most dangerous gangs,
they have names like the Crybabies and the Mama's Boys.
That's who we are. We're the Proud Boys.
And something that was a joke
isn't so much of a joke anymore, is it?
USA! USA! USA! USA!
By 2016, McInnes' gang of Proud Boys
had turned into a real organization with a set of rules.
To join, you had to take the Proud Boys oath.
Which is,
I am a Western chauvinist!
And I refuse to apologize
for creating the modern world!
Experts who study extremism
say "West" could be interpreted as code for "white."
And some current and former Proud Boys
have documented ties to white supremacist groups.
Tarrio, who's Cuban American,
says he's proof that's not true.
We're not white supremacists.
But you have admitted in the past that the group
has attracted some members who hold white supremacist views.
Yes.
You know why?
If the media's constantly saying,
these guys are white supremacists, white supremacists.
A white supremacist sees this
and is like, oh, you know what?
I have a home here.
But the truth is that they don't.
In the context of Proud Boys,
they will say, we're really just misunderstood.
The media has us wrong.
This is how I came to understand the group.
Samantha Kutner studies
the Proud Boys and how they recruit.
As part of that, she's talked to
dozens of current and former members.
And she's noticed an important pattern.
When you call them out, the Proud Boys say
they're not extremist, they're not a hate group.
Proud Boys is a patriot club.
Actually, no, I'm sorry.
A drinking club with a patriot problem.
Instead of the other way around.
They are not a fraternal drinking organization.
They are a radicalization vector.
There are arrests.
There is violence.
These are things that you can't deny.
By 2017, the Proud Boys
were earning a reputation.
Not as a harmless boys club, but for showing up
as self-declared bodyguards
at Trump rallies around the country.
Some wore helmets and brought weapons.
The police made arrests.
Meanwhile, some people thought President Trump
was encouraging that kind of behavior among his supporters.
Any guy that can do a body slam, he's my guy.
He's my guy.
And then, in August 2017, the Proud Boys
became explicitly linked to violent extremism.
A group of white nationalists organized
a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The mastermind was Jason Kessler,
a member of the Proud Boys.
Do you all have a problem with an uppity white person
who's proud of who they are?
Some Proud Boys marched along with neo-Nazis
and other members of the alt-right.
You could hear them chanting.
Jews will not replace us!
Fights broke out with counter-protesters.
And one of them, Heather Heyer, was killed in a car attack.
Charlottesville made national news.
In a press conference, President Trump said
I think there's blame on both sides.
Almost immediately, Gavin McInnes
and the Proud Boys started to walk back their involvement.
McInnes kicked Jason Kessler out of the group.
Gavin, I know you're going to see this.
Be proud of your boys, man.
Enrique Tarrio denies Kessler was
even ever a member of the Proud Boys.
Jason Kessler showed up to a vetting meetup,
and this was before Charlottesville,
and he was denied membership.
But Insider obtained video
of Jason Kessler reciting the Proud Boys oath,
the first step towards joining the group.
I'm a proud Western chauvinist.
Do you refuse to apologize for creating the modern world?
I do refuse to apologize for creating the modern world.
You do not apologize.
And of him earning
the Proud Boys' second degree.
To do that, members have to list
the names of five breakfast cereals
while being punched by other Proud Boys.
Rice Krispies. Raisin Bran.
We reached out to Enrique Tarrio for comment.
He says Kessler was denied membership
shortly after this video was recorded.
But according to court records obtained by Insider,
Kessler said under oath that he was a member
for a couple of months and he was kicked out
after the rally in Charlottesville.
In our interview, Enrique Tarrio told us
white supremacists are not his problem.
I'll be honest with you.
People with those views are allowed to hold those views.
They should hold those views.
Do I think it's stupid?
Yes, I think it's stupid.
But like, who am I to police someone's thought, you get me?
As long as they're not hurting anybody,
let them do whatever they want.
It's not my problem.
In the last decade,
right-wing extremists have been responsible
for the majority of terrorist attacks
and attempted attacks in the United States.
And last October, the US Department of Homeland Security
said it expects racially and ethnically motivated
violent extremists to remain the most persistent
and lethal threat in the United States.
And this is why it's hard to detect
groups like the Proud Boys,
because you're not going to be looking for the type
of extremism that comes wrapped in the American flag.
What would you say to reports
that members of the Proud Boys are violent?
You were saying before, it's always in self-defense?
Mm-hmm.
Is it always in self-defense?
It's always been in self-defense.
I always ask this.
I never get an answer.
I'm dying for somebody to give me a pointed question,
or a pointed incident where the Proud Boys
either initiated a fight or instigated a fight to happen.
Well, I have one for you.
So two Proud Boys were sentenced
for four years in prison last year
for attacking left-wing protestors.
In 2018, Gavin McInnes spoke
at the Metropolitan Republican Club in New York City.
A group of Proud Boys got in a fight
with some anti-fascist protesters outside the building.
They said it was in self-defense,
but the New York Times obtained security footage
that shows they started the attack.
Oh my gosh, oh my gosh.
No.
Oh my gosh.
No.
There's two Proud Boys sitting in prison
for four years for defending themselves.
And there's nothing that anybody is going to do
to make me apologize for defending ourselves.
Tarrio says he doesn't believe
the Proud Boys started it,
and he thinks they were unfairly prosecuted.
But at their sentencing in 2019,
a New York State Supreme Court judge compared their actions
to what was going on in Nazi Germany during the 1930s.
Facebook and Instagram banned
the Proud Boys organization from their platforms.
And they took down Gavin McInnes' accounts.
And then McInnes announced he was leaving the Proud Boys,
the group he started.
Enrique Tarrio ran to replace him.
He says he was voted in unanimously.
We've never changed direction.
We've never changed what we're about.
But we've kind of become, I guess,
a symbol of fighting back.
Because up until that point,
conservatives weren't fighting back.
Under Tarrio's leadership
the Proud Boys have taken it upon themselves
to jump to President Trump's defense around the country.
They've marched in Sacramento; Kalamazoo;
Washington, DC; and Portland.
And at every stop, Tarrio wore a bulletproof vest
and said the same thing.
We are not the aggressors.
We're here to protect Americans.
The truth is that this is all about love.
Love for each other and love for our country.
And that is how the Proud Boys
ended up on the biggest stage in America,
the first presidential debate.
More than 73 million people were watching.
What are you saying? I'm willing to do anything.
I want to see peace.
Well then do it, sir.
Say it, do it, say it.
Do you want to call them,
what do you want to call them?
Give me a name, give me a name.
White supremacists.
Who would you like me to condemn?
Proud Boys.
White supremacists.
Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.
But I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what,
somebody's got to do something about antifa and the left.
Because this is not a right-wing problem,
this is a left-wing problem.
His own FBI director said
the threat comes from white supremacists.
It was a gift to the Proud Boys.
Before the debate, Tarrio says his chapter in Florida
had less than 200 members.
And we have right now, sitting in the application process
we have about 700 to 800 members that are trying to join.
So I kind of want to thank Joe Biden for that.
You know, I think his mention on the debate stage
opened a lot of people's eyes.
Today, Tarrio says the Proud Boys
have more than 20,000 members worldwide.
But some experts think the real number
is probably much, much lower.
Since the election, many members of the group
have refused to accept Trump's loss.
Hundreds of them showed up in Washington, DC,
for the Million MAGA March and Stop the Steal protest.
And two weeks before the inauguration,
Enrique Tarrio was arrested as part of an FBI investigation
into individuals with intentions to cause violence
at the Capitol on January 6.
He was carrying two high-capacity firearm magazines,
which he told officers he was returning to a customer.
He was charged for this and an unrelated offense.
The day after he was released, some Proud Boys
participated in the attempted coup at the Capitol Building.
Let's get in there, let's go!
Come on!
This is the people's house!
Tarrio told Insider he was not
in DC during the siege.
But earlier that week, an account
on the social media platform Parler
with a username linked to Tarrio
posted that the Proud Boys would turn out in record numbers.
During and after the siege
the same Parler account made posts that seem to
applaud the attempted coup and support the insurrectionists.
But even after Tarrio's arrest
and the violence on Capitol Hill,
some experts warned what we're seeing now
may not be the fall of the Proud Boys.
So the Proud Boys are not going to
waver at all in a Biden presidency.
They're going to be more emboldened
because they're going to be really re-victimized
in the same way that Trump likes to see himself as a victim,
and see himself as kind of a persecuted figure.
The FBI is working on identifying extremists
who participated in the attempted coup,
including some Proud Boys.
But even with that added scrutiny,
experts have pointed out that the attack on the Capitol
could work as a massive recruitment effort
for groups like the Proud Boys.
If you're ready to fight for America,
you have to move forward!
That is what Samantha Kutner is worried about.
And here's the question she thinks
the future of the group hinges on.
How persuasive is the image they're trying to promote?
Do mainstream conservatives see them
as a violent extremist group
or as a fraternal drinking organization
here to protect Americans?
That's how they've been able to kind of pull
a fast one on the public since they formed in 2016.
Kutner says if the Proud Boys continue to grow,
it will be because they've gotten so good
at masking the most violent
and intolerant parts of their organization.
At passing themselves off as patriots.