Racist ‘Groypers’ Step up Attacks on Campus Conservative Groups
This week:
Racist activists step up attacks on GOP groups.
Border wall group appears to ignore court orders.
Star GOP candidate arrested for extortion, stalking charges.
Pizzagate arson developments.
Matt Drudge versus Dan Bongino.
Racist “Groypers” step up attacks on establishment GOP
Racist activists who call themselves “groypers” are stepping up their attacks on more mainstream conservative groups, hosting an event next week aimed directly at conservative campus group Turning Point USA.
Since October, the “groypers,” who take their name from an obese cartoon toad who’s like a more racist version of Pepe the Frog, have been showing up at campus events hosted by conservative groups like Turning Point and Young America’s Foundation. They ask questions meant to push their anti-Semitic and racist beliefs into mainstream pro-Trump conservatism, and heckle speakers—even Donald Trump Jr.
The fight has generated new publicity for groyper leader Nick Fuentes, a 2017 Charlottesville marcher and Holocaust denier. Meanwhile, Turning Point has struggled with the questioners mobbing their events. Turning Point boss and Trump pal Charlie Kirk, who has become the focus for much of the so-called “America First” crew’s enmity, tried to turn the tables on them in an appearance last month at the University of Houston.
Kirk showed up for his showdown with the groypers with a computer monitor hidden under a cloak. At a dramatic moment, Kirk pulled off the cloak to reveal the monitor—and was initially stymied by his inability to get the video to actually play. Kirk eventually succeeded in playing a clip of Fuentes criticizing Trump, which was meant to embarrass the groypers. Instead, Kirk was chased off campus by yelling Fuentes fans.
The fringe groypers have won other fights, too. Under pressure, Kirk backed down from his proposal that foreign students who graduate from a U.S. college should receive green cards. On Friday, Tucker Carlson hosted GOP congressional candidate and right-wing blogger Peter D’Abrosca, who repeated many of the groypers’ anti-immigrant talking points to Fox News’ huge audience.
Meanwhile, popular conservative columnist Michelle Malkin has sided with the Fuentes crew, going on a white nationalist YouTube show and even losing her speaker contract in an attempt to mainstream their arguments.
Now Fuentes and his crew are taking on one of Turning Point’s biggest events. Next week, Turning Point activists will gather in West Palm Beach, Florida, for their annual Student Action Summit, to hear from speakers including Ben Shapiro, Glenn Beck, and Sean Hannity. At an undisclosed location nearby, though, Fuentes and his allies will be holding a “Groyper Leadership Summit” at the same time.
Fuentes’ event appears to be aimed at embarrassing Turning Point, potentially by luring some of the Turning Point students to Fuentes’ white nationalist event. Turning Point has already lost some campus leaders over the fight, with a few heads of college chapters resigning from Turning Point after siding with Fuentes.
Border wall GoFundMe operators appear to flout court orders
The group behind the border wall GoFundMe is attempting to build another segment of privately funded border wall, this time in Texas. Now their construction company appears to be flouting multiple judges’ orders to stop building that wall.
Border wall group We Build the Wall and its founder, triple-amputee veteran Brian Kolfage, have frequently clashed with a nearby butterfly sanctuary whose operators are concerned that Kolfage’s wall will change the course of the Rio Grande and flood the nature refuge.
Kolfage dubbed his foes “butterfly freaks” and accused them of aiding sex traffickers. But the butterfly refuge got a temporary win earlier this month, when a state judge issued a temporary restraining order halting construction on the wall. Shortly after that, a federal judge issued another temporary restraining order meant to block construction.
Despite being ostensibly constrained by two court orders, the border wall construction crew continues to be work on the site, according to video filmed by Border Report and photos posted by a Texas newspaper.
I asked We Build the Wall how their crews can still be working on the wall, despite the court orders.
“What’s your point?” We Build the Wall spokeswoman Jennifer Lawrence responded in an email.
GOP House candidate arrested on extortion charge
Republican businessman Omar Navarro has raised more than a million dollars for his quixotic bids against Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), turning himself into a MAGA-world celeb.
But now Navarro, who’s running against Waters again, has a new problem that could keep him off the fundraising circuit: an arrest Saturday on felony stalking and extortion charges.
Pizzagate arson plea in the works
We could soon find out why a 22-year-old California man allegedly started a fire last February at Comet Ping Pong, the Washington pizzeria at the heart of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory.
So far, prosecutors and defense attorneys for suspect Ryan Jaselskis have been tight-lipped about what would drive Jaselskis to come to Washington to commit such a bizarre crime, and whether he was influenced by the far-right conspiracy theories surrounding Comet Ping Pong.
But now court records show that Jaselskis has a plea hearing scheduled for next week, suggesting that he’ll soon plead guilty to a charge related to the arson. That would start the sentencing phase, which could reveal what inspired Jaselskis to allegedly start the fire.
Drudge succession war heats up
Everybody wants to be the next Matt Drudge! Conservatives have turned on the Drudge Report operator amid claims that he’s biased against Donald Trump during the impeachment process, with a number of would-be Drudge replacements promoting their knock-off aggregation sites.
The sites, with aggressive names like NewsAmmo and Rantingly, are mostly indistinguishable from one another. Last week, though, pro-Trump commentator and former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino launched his own Drudge-style site, “Bongino Report,” promising to bring some Fox News star power to the world of Drudge clones.
So far, Drudge hasn’t been impressed with his new rival. In a tweet, Drudge reacted to the launch of the Bongino Report with a snoozing emoji.
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