[imagesource: Mark Peterson/ Redux]

On Tuesday night Donald Trump and Joe Biden faced off in one of the worst presidential debates in recent history.

And, I’m including that time in 2016 when Trump skulked behind Hilary Clinton.

A standout moment in the debate happened when Trump was asked to condemn white supremacists.

After demanding that he be given an example before he would commit to an opinion, the moderator Fox News’ Chris Wallace mentioned militia groups, like the Proud Boys.

Observe:

Ladies and gentlemen, that’s the current American President telling a white supremacist group to “stand back and stand by” before this:

“But I’ll tell you what, 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].”

If you’re still in the dark about who the Proud Boys are, this should clear things up. Vice visited a Proud Boys rally earlier this week to interview members of the group and the leftwing activists who oppose them:

Per Sky News, since Trump’s ‘instruction’ the group has been celebrating, pledging allegiance to the president and echoing his sentiments about Antifa (a leftwing anti-fascist group).

A Proud Boy organiser, Joe Biggs [said] “President Trump told the Proud Boys to stand by because someone needs to deal with ANTIFA…well sir! we’re ready!!”

One member of the white supremacist group said that they’d already seen a spike in new recruits.

The group describes itself as “Western chauvinists who refuse to apologise for creating the modern world” but has been categorised as an “extremist group with ties to white nationalism” by the FBI.

Over to TIME, for the consequences of Trump’s endorsement of the organisation:

“The comments by the president were a huge win for the Proud Boys, which we should remember is a group who views its mission as literally ‘fighting Antifa’ as part of its ’defense of the West,’” Megan Squire, a computer science professor at Elon University who tracks online extremism, tells TIME. “They’ve now been blessed by the President on the world stage and the data shows they are extremely excited by this.”

The Trump administration has come under fire for repeatedly downplaying the threat of white nationalist violence and inflating the threat posed by left-wing agitators including whistleblowers from inside the Department of Homeland Security.

The Proud Boys may be standing back for the moment, but they’ll be standing by for the slightest hint from Trump that they can take action.

I shudder to think of what that will look like.

[source:skynews]