Who are the Proud Boys?

Watchdogs described them as a far-right fight club and hate group

ATLANTA — When asked by moderator Chris Wallace to denounce white supremacy and violent militias during Tuesday’s presidential debate, U.S. President Donald Trump asked for suggestions.

“Give me a name. Go ahead. Who would you like me to condemn?” Trump said.

Former vice president Joe Biden jumped in. “White supremacists and Proud Boys,” he said.

“Proud Boys?” the president said. “Stand back and stand by.”

Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio greeted the name drop enthusiastically.

“ProudBoys!!!!!!! I will stand down sir!!!” he posted on the conservative social network Parler.

Google search traffic spiked immediately for the group that calls itself a “drinking club” of “western chauvinists.” Watchdog groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League have described them as a kind of farright fight club and hate group.

Compared to the activities of groups like the Three Percenter militias, QAnon conspiracy theorists and neo-Confederates, the Proud Boys’ impact on the far-right scene in Georgia is minimal.

The group has chapters across the nation, but it’s more active in western states where members have openly clashed with left-wing groups in street battles in recent years.

“In case anyone has any doubts, the Proud Boys are a virulent strain of American right-wing extremism,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted. “They have a long track record of violence, including in Portland this past weekend.”

The group was created in 2016 by Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInnis amid a spike in activity in the broader alt-right. McInnis styled the group as an uber-masculine fraternity of men “who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world.”

As a result, the ADL has called the group “less a pro-western drinking club and more an extreme, right-wing gang” whose “members subscribe to a scattershot array of libertarian and nationalist tropes.”

Members of the group, including McInnis, have made antiMuslim and anti-Semitic statements and the group is proudly anti-feminist. The ADL estimates the group’s total membership as “unknown” but relatively small.