Oath Keeper Stewart Rhodes suggests he is 'just like Nelson Mandela' as jail looms

Oath Keeper leader Stewart Rhodes suggested that he is "just like Nelson Mandela" because he is willing to go to jail for his beliefs.

During a break in his trial for crimes allegedly committed on Jan. 6, Rhodes called into an Infowars program for an update.

Media Matters first reported the remarks.

"My caution to people out there is you should not self-censor, should not shut up, you should keep on talking and speaking truth to power, doing what you can to save this country but once you've spoken in a text message to somebody, whether it's a friend, family, in a chat with other people, once it's gone beyond its usefulness, delete it," he advised. "Once you've conveyed the information you want to convey to another person, why leave it out there for the Gestapo, I mean the FBI, why leave it out there for them to come back and later on and use to parade out of context in front of a jury. So delete it."

Rhodes argued that his followers "need to be willing to go to jail."

"I think Americans need to lose their fear of being indicted or put in prison. When you have a dictatorship you're going to have dissidents," he said. "And if you're going to have anybody standing up for freedom, some of you are going to go to jail and some of you are going to go to prison."

The Oath Keeper then compared his tribulations to South African activist and leader Nelson Mandela.

"But just like Nelson Mandela was willing to go to jail for life, he did 20 years, you have to be willing to do that. You have to be willing to take the hit if you're a person who's a freedom fighter and is standing up for rights," Rhodes remarked. "Because if you don't, then what you become is a slave."

Watch the video below.