Read on Twitter
1/12 While Augustus Invictus' declaration that he's the "new head of the Proud Boys" is likely a prank, it does highlight a fluid relationship between the overtly racist elements of the far right & PB, whose disavowal of white nationalism has provided cover for their violence
2/12 Richard Spencer, once the most prominent faces of Trump-era white nationalism, actually captures the dichotomy well. (He appears to have been trolled.)
3/12 Invictus, one of the marquee names at Unite the Right in August 2017, attended as second in command of the Fraternal Order of the Alt-Knight, an off-shoot of the Proud Boys. Gavin McInnes, founder of the Proud Boys, disavowed Unite the Right.
4/12 Today, Invictus is declaring to the Proud Boys membership: "You are allowed to have friends in the alt-right.... But if you want to be friends with Richard Spencer, you can be. If you want to be friends with a white nationalist, you can be."
5/12 Again, the layer between PB's "civic nationalism" & the overt white nationalism of UTR is paper thin. Shane Reeves, a Colorado Proud Boy, boasts about providing security for Invictus at UTR. Eva Gunther vouches for Reeves in a planning thread for UTR2
6/12 In this Facebook post, Reeves tries to persuade a white nationalist named Danny Wolf to attend the violent Patriot Prayer rally in Portland, OR on 8/4/18
7/12 Interesting that Invictus announces in his video today that Kevin Cormier and Jovi Val are "reinstated with full honors at their old degrees."
8/12 Cormier, who lives in Raleigh, NC, posted a Facebook thread after the Pittsburgh massacre with commenters musing about bringing high-powered rifles into synagogues, concluding it was time to "purge and rage." https://triad-city-beat.com/far-right-social-media-violent-rhetoric-continues-unabated/
9/12 Cormier participated in a Facebook planning thread on Facebook with Jason Kessler (and Eva Gunther) to organize UTR2 in Washington, DC. Jovi Val (pictured here in Stokes County, NC in April) participated marched with Kessler at UTR2.
10/12 Meanwhile, the official Proud Boys website posted a statement this morning calling Invictus a "liar," and pledging to "continue to be a multiracial organization, who bars our members from being in the alt-right."
11/12 The statement from a newly formed "council of elders" also announces that "the duly elected chairman of the Proud Boys Elders Chapter is J.L. Van Dyke, fourth degree brother and current sergeant-at-arms of the Dallas/Fort Worth chapter.
12/12 Not that there isn't abundant evidence that Van Dyke is a white nationalist, too. As @HuffPost reported, he tweeted a picture of a noose with the words, "Look good and hard at this picture you fucking n***er. It's where I am going to put your neck." https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lawyer-anti-fascist-lawsuit_us_5a0aefbee4b0b17ffce028fe
