The report followed Tuesday night's presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden during which Trump was asked about disavowing white supremacist groups.
A report by NBC News about the response by far-right extremist group The Proud Boys to comments made by President Donald Trump during Tuesday night’s presidential debate includes insights from Professor of Computer Science Megan Squire, who has conducted extensive research into online extremism.
The report followed an exchange during which Trump was asked whether he would disavow The Proud Boys. “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by, but 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,” Trump said.
Squire told NBC News that Trump’s comments, viewed by some as marching orders, was the groups’ long-sought “fantasy.”
“To say Proud Boys are energized by this is an understatement,” Squire said. “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.”
Read the entire report here.