Proud Boys celebrate online after Trump told the far right group to ‘stand back and stand by’

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The Proud Boys were celebrating online Tuesday night after Donald Trump told them to ‘stand back and stand by’ during the first presidential debate. 

Members of the far-right group posted about the shout out, telling the president: ‘We’re ready.’ Their account on the social media app Telegram posted: ‘Standing down and standing by sir.’

Proud Boys is a far-right organization that admits only men as members and promotes and engages in political violence. The group believes white men and western culture are under siege.      

‘Proud boys, stand back and stand by, but I tell you what, somebody has got to do something about antifa and the left because this is not a right wing problem, this is a left-wing problem,’ Trump said when he was challenged to condemn white supremacists during Tuesday’s presidential debate.  

He claimed the protests in the country on race relations were a left-wing problem. 

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a liberal advocacy organization, has designated the all-male Proud Boys as a hate group. The group is known for its violent clashes at political rallies.  

Following the shout out several members of the group pledged their allegiance to the president. 

One social media account connected to the organization even appeared to made ‘Stand back. Stand by’ part of a new logo.

Proud Boys organizer Joe Biggs wrote: ‘President Trump told the proud boys to stand by because someone needs to deal with ANTIFA… well sir! we’re ready!

‘Trump basically said to go f*** them up! this makes me so happy.’

Joe Biden retweeted a post which looked to show a number of their posts in the wake of Trump’s comments. 

He wrote: ‘This. This is Donald Trump’s America.’ 

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted: ‘It’s astonishing that, when asked a simple question, will you condemn white supremacists, @POTUS responded – ‘The Proud Boys should stand back and stand by.’ 

‘Trying to determine if this was an answer or an admission. @POTUS owes America an apology or an explanation. Now.’

Proud Boys describes itself as a fraternal organization that ‘venerates the housewife’ and is ‘anti-political correctness.’ It has been suspended from both Twitter and Facebook. 

Computer science professor Megan Squire told NBC News: ‘To say Proud Boys are energized by this is an understatement.

‘They were pro-Trump before this shoutout, and they are absolutely over the moon now. Their fantasy is to fight antifa in his defense, and he apparently just asked them to do just that.’

Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the president’s campaign, said Trump’s call to ‘stand by’ was ‘very clear he wants them to knock it off’. 

The Trump campaign tweeted afterward: ‘President Trump has repeatedly condemned white supremacists. What a ridiculous question from Chris Wallace.’ 

Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInnes started the Proud Boys in 2016. 

McInnes and the Proud Boys have described the group as a politically incorrect men’s club for ‘Western chauvinists’ and deny affiliations with far-right extremist groups that overtly espouse racist and anti-Semitic views.

In February last year, McInnes sued the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center for labeling the Proud Boys as a hate group. 

In response to the lawsuit, the law center said Proud Boys members often spread ‘outright bigotry’ over the internet and have posted social media pictures of themselves with prominent Holocaust deniers, white nationalists and ‘known neo-Nazis.’

In New York City in October 2018, police arrested several Proud Boys members who brawled with anti-fascist protesters following a speech by McInnes at a Manhattan Republican club. 

Proud Boys members also have frequently clashed with counterprotesters at rallies in California and Oregon.  

About 1,000 people gathered at the Proud Boys rally in Delta Park on Saturday, while a group of 500 left-wing counter-protesters massed at nearby Peninsula Park, leading to fears of clashes.

Ahead of the right-wing rally, which organizers said was to support President Donald Trump and ‘to end domestic terrorism’, Oregon Governor Kate Brown declared a state of emergency and Mayor Ted Wheeler said it poses the ‘greatest threat we’ve faced so far’ amid fears of clashes with left-wing protesters.    

Debate moderator Chris Wallace asked the president if he would condemn white supremacists and militia groups.

‘I would say almost everything I see is from the left wing, not from the right wing,’ Trump said.

Wallace asked him to clarify what he meant. 

‘I’m willing to do anything, I want to see peace,’ Trump said.

‘Then do it, sir,’ Wallace challenged.

‘What do you want to call them? Give me a name, give me a name,’ Trump said. 

‘White supremacist and right wing militias,’ Wallace said.

Instead, Trump turned to attack antifa, an unorganized group opposed to extreme right-wing political groups like fascists.

‘Proud boys, stand back and stand by, but I tell you what, somebody has got to do something about antifa and the left because this is not a right wing problem, this is a left-wing problem,’ he said. 

But antifa is not an organization – it’s a political idea that many different groups support. And law enforcement has found no evidence these groups were working with the Black Lives Matter protesters in cities across the United States.

Trump has declined to call out the citizen militias that have sprung up during the protests as he declined to do Tuesday night. 

‘Antifa is an idea not an organization. His FBI director said,’ Biden said.

‘Antifa is a dangerous, radical,’ Trump started saying as Wallace interrupted him to say they were moving on to another topic.

But the president got in one last zinger on antifa: ‘They’ll overthrow you.’

Race relations, like other debate topics, resulted in a furious back-and-forth, shouting over each other conversation between the presidential contenders.  

At one point in the night, Biden called Trump a ‘racist’ when the two men debated race relations in the country.

Trump was defending his decision to end racial sensitivity training for federal workers when his Democratic rival hit him with the ‘racist’ label.