GOP Candidate Says Violent, Neo-Fascist Proud Boys Just ‘A Group To Scare Left-Wing People’

LOADING ERROR LOADING Washington state GOP congressional candidate Joe Kent told supporters at a recent event that the Proud Boys — the all-male, far-right, neo-fascist organization whose leaders were convicted for seditious conspiracy after trying to violently overthrow the U.S. government on Jan. 6, 2021 — are really just a bunch of hooligans who scare progressive Democrats. During a Sept. 21 event marking the opening of a new Clark County GOP headquarters, an attendee asked Kent about ads being run by his opponent, Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, tying him to the Proud Boys. The attendee said she wasn’t familiar with the group, but asked how Kent countered the accusation. Advertisement Kent, a former special forces operator and foreign policy adviser in the Trump administration, scoffed at Gluesenkamp Perez for trying to make the Proud Boys “scary-sounding.” “Look, the Proud Boys are the guys who went and fought antifa,” Kent said, using a nickname for the anti-fascist, left-wing movement that confronts neo-Nazis and white supremacists at demonstrations. “So, the left says they’re terror, I don’t know,” he continued. “It’s just, it’s a group to scare left-wing people. So really, it’s a scare tactic.” In fact, the Proud Boys are nothing like antifa and have been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a watchdog organization that highlights that the Proud Boys are known for their “white nationalist memes” and “anti-Muslim and misogynist rhetoric.” Advertisement But the Proud Boys are perhaps best known for their central role in the violent Jan. 6, 2021, attempt to stop the constitutionally mandated transfer of presidential power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden after Trump lost the 2020 presidential election. Other Proud Boys leaders, all of whom are Trump loyalists, were also found guilty of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to prison. A Kent campaign spokesperson did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment about why the Republican is downplaying the dangers of a violent, extremist, neo-fascist organization. Advertisement Kent, who unsuccessfully ran against Gluesenkamp Perez in 2022, has been tied to alleged Proud Boys and far-right extremists. The Republican congressional hopeful is also a close affiliate of Joey Gibson, the founder of a Christian nationalist group, Patriot Prayer, that has coordinated with the Proud Boys to organize several demonstrations and violent rallies. In March 2022, he posted on social media that it was “Great to see all the Patriots at GRIT rally in Olympia yesterday!” GRIT, which stands for Government Resistance Impedes Tyranny, was a themed event hosted by the anti-government extremist group Washington State Three Percenters. Advertisement More recently, the GOP congressional hopeful made some curiously timed statements on social media about Ukraine that echo the propaganda being pushed out by pro-Putin outlets. What happens when Russia kills French troops in Ukraine?” Kent asked in one post in May, despite there being no French combat troops (or any troops from a NATO country) deployed to the region. Support Free Journalism Consider supporting HuffPost starting at $2 to help us provide free, quality journalism that puts people first. We are sincerely grateful for readers like you who help us ensure that we can keep our journalism free for everyone. The stakes are high this year, and our 2024 coverage could use continued support. We are sincerely grateful for readers like you who help us ensure that we can keep our journalism free for everyone. The stakes are high this year, and our 2024 coverage could use continued support. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates this congressional race a “toss-up.” Polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight only features one poll in this race so far, and it shows Gluesenkamp Perez leading by four points. – This Summarize was created by Neural News AI (V1). Source: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/gop-candidate-joe-kent-proud-boys_n_66f57b3fe4b064e1788bae4e