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 wasnt familiar with the group, but asked how Kent countered the accusation.
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 theyre terror, I dont know, he continued. Its just, its a group to scare left-wing people. Its like saying antifa to a bunch of Republicans. So really, its a scare tactic.
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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.
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.
Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years in prison for the key role he played in orchestrating the attack on the U.S. Capitol that resulted in more than 140 police officers injured and several later dying by suicide. Other Proud Boys leaders, all of whom are Trump loyalists, were also found guilty of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to prison.
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A Kent campaign spokesperson did not respond to HuffPosts request for comment about why the Republican is downplaying the dangers of a violent, extremist, neo-fascist organization.
Heres a video of the GOP congressional candidate making his latest remarks. Kents comments on the Proud Boys begin around the 42:28 mark.
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