All posts tagged "nazi"

Nazi-saluting candidate decamps for Illinois governor race after failed congressional bids

A candidate who keeps adding a Nazi salute to his ballot name and losing is once again running for office.

Richard Mayers filed to run for Illinois governor and asked that he be listed on the statewide ballots as "Richard Benedict (Sieg Heil) Mayers" and listed his party as the "Germanic Aryan Supremacy Smokers, Gamblers," according to local reporting.

The Democratic and Republican Parties of Illinois teamed up earlier this week to petition against his nomination, according to the State Journal-Register, an Illinois newspaper.

Mayers previously ran for Congress with the same ballot name. He was removed from the ballot for the First District of Indiana in February after he failed to appear for a hearing challenging his candidacy, Indiana's Post-Tribune reported.

In 2000, Mayers filed ballot referendums in Cook County, Illinois, to urge constitutional amendments that would ban interracial marriage, prohibit the abortion of "healthy white babies," and send Black prisoners "back to western Africa," according to the Chicago Tribune.

"Some of my views are controversial," Mayers told the Evanston Review in 2000. "But I think I could do good in some places."

That year, he also ran in the Democratic primary for Illinois's Third Congressional District.

In 2002, Mayers tried running as a Democrat for the Illinois Ninth Congressional District, but he didn't get enough petition signatures for a nomination, according to the Post-Tribune.

He also put up unsuccessful bids for office in Alaska in 2024 and in Illinois in 1993, 1998, 2007, and 2009, per the State Journal-Register.

Trump admin caught using 'blatant' Nazi propaganda to recruit ICE agents

An extremism expert accused the Trump administration of brazenly using white supremacist and Nazi propaganda as ICE ramps up its aggressive attacks across American cities.

Wendy Via, co-founder of the Global Project Against Extremism and Hate, described how as tensions have escalated following the ICE killing of 37-year-old mother Renee Good and that the administration has increased its "contentious messaging" as questions rise over the agency's aggressive immigration tactics, The Daily Beast reported.

“DHS, and now other departments, are hardly bothering with dog whistles anymore,” Via told The Beast.

“They’re using blatant white supremacist and Nazi references in their imagery and slogans in an attempt to recruit staff, and they don’t even try to defend their actions. Their shameful reincarnation of white America propaganda from decades ago perfectly illustrates this administration’s view on what America should look like.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has been criticized for standing at a podium last week, just a day after the fatal ICE killing, with the message "one of ours, all of yours." The phrase was reminiscent of a Nazi slogan.

"Observers and historians say the words on the podium echo the notion of collective punishment, which underpinned atrocities such as the World War 2 massacre in which Nazis killed civilians in retaliation after an SS officer’s assassination," according to The Beast.

The administration has attempted to blame Good for her own death and signaled that ICE agents would have immunity — raising further questions about ICE recruitment and training. Critics have also warned that the administration uses "dark imagery" to recruit potential ICE officers, "which is often shared among extremist groups on Telegram networks, is part of the problem," The Beast reported.

'Dangerous rot' inside Trump's Republican Party just got exposed: analyst

An analyst warned of a "dangerous rot inside the modern Republican Party under [President Donald] Trump" amid rising "Nazi rhetoric" that Republicans appear unclear on how to address.

Just in the last few weeks, an alarming number of Neo-Nazi-related scandals — including the leaked Young Republicans racist, homophobic and antisemitic messages and Paul Ingrassia's messages saying he has a "Nazi streak" — are tied to the GOP and its followers, Bulwark Managing Editor Sam Stein and journalist and political commentator John Avlon discussed Thursday in a Substack interview.

Avlon has covered Neo-Nazism and written his book "Wing Nuts" about it. Stein asked him about "what Republicans should do about this — and the divide that's emerged on the right over whether to condemn it, or to do the JD Vance thing, which is there are no enemies to my right."

Stein and Avlon pointed to how Vice President JD Vance appears unable to respond to the problem, and this "strand of Neo-Nazism that we've seen that has become more problematic."

Vance this month said the following on late MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk's podcast:

"By focusing on what kids are saying in a group chat, grow up, I'm sorry. Focus on the real issues. Don't focus on what kids say in group chats," Vance said.

But the problem is that these are not kids — they're actually people over 18, in their 20s and 30s, Stein and Avlon explain.

"These are people who are old enough to know better," Avlon said.

Vance appears to be stumped on how to respond to the rhetoric.

"But the fact that JD Vance, Yale Law graduate, smart guy, embraced that no enemies to the right attitude, with regard to that Hitler loving group chat, is the problem," Avlon adds.

It's also a sign of a larger problem for Republicans.

"This is about people expressing love for, admiration with, or self-association with Hitler," Avlon said. "Much of the time... when opponents accuse their political opponents of being Nazis or being like Hitler, that means you've lost the argument. But what happens when your opponents compare themselves to Hitler? This is not a tough call. This is not within the universe of what should be a tough call."

Avlon cited the rise of Christian nationalism and militia adjacent-belief systems following the election of former President Barack Obama as playing a role in white extremism.

"You've got this percolating beneath the surface, revealed in group chats or texts that are released, shows that there is a dangerous rot inside the modern Republican Party under [President Donald] Trump," Avlon said. "It does not mean that all Trump supporters are Nazi adjacent, at all. I want to triple underline that. But one is too much. This number of stories should be alarming and should cause people to question — deeply — what animal spirits we've been tapping into. And it's part of a larger trend."

Why Did the GOP Stop Caring About Nazis? by The Bulwark

Read on Substack

'He knew what he was doing': Obama aide shuts down outraged conservative over Trump attack

Donald Trump's longest-serving chief of staff recently called his former boss a "fascist," and said Trump wished his generals were more like Adolf Hitler's generals, but one conservative analyst has had it with tying the former president's fans to Nazis.

Brendan Buck, a former key adviser to ex-House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), appeared on MSNBC Saturday, where he spoke up about what he thinks is an unfair comparison regarding Trump. Buck, a conservative critic of the former president, said Hillary Clinton went too far when she compared Trump's upcoming rally at Madison Square Garden to a Nazi event.

"I do have to say, I find that Madison Square Garden conversation a bit silly," Buck said. "Look, what Hillary Clinton said there is completely obnoxious."

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Buck continued, saying, "I am as critical of Donald Trump as anybody but people going to Madison Square Garden that night are not gathering for a Nazi gathering. It is an arena."

"I don't think setting foot in Madison Square Garden makes anybody who goes there a Nazi," he added. "That is the kind of rhetoric that just tells people it doesn't matter. They are going to say anything they want. Now all of a sudden going to Madison Square Garden you are a Nazi. I can't tell you how much that upsets people who are on the fence on Donald Trump and say they are just out to get him and they will say anything. I don't know why it has to go that level."

After a short protest from the MSNBC show's host, Buck got louder.

"I don't think Madison Square Garden has anything different to do with the rally he is having right now as it relates to Nazism. What Hillary Clinton said is that people who gathered that day were there to pledge allegiance to Nazism and that's what's going to happen again at Madison Square Garden. That is so disrespectful to a lot of people, I don't support Donald trump, I think he's a bad guy, but people who go there are not pledging their support to Nazism, which is what Hillary Clinton said."

Former Obama campaign advisor Ameshia Cross, on the other hand, argued in response to Buck that Trump knows exactly what he's doing when he plans his events at famous sites of racist leaders.

"He knew what he was doing then," she said.

Watch below or click the link.

Rudy Giuliani finds a new low: platforming a Nazi

Rudy Giuliani has fallen low in the four years since conducting a press conference at Four Seasons Total Landscaping in Philadelphia, which kickstarted the former New York City mayor’s inglorious era of election denialism, indictments, lawsuits, disbarment, debt and bankruptcy.

It’s hard to imagine how the man once widely admired for leading his city in the aftermath of the 9/11 attack could fall any lower. It would take something like hosting a Nazi on his YouTube channel.

Which is exactly what Giuliani did on Aug. 23 following the conclusion of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where Vice President Kamala Harris accepted her party's presidential nomination.

Speaking on his show “America’s Mayor Live,” Giuliani introduced the 10-minute segment with Rachel Siegel, a woman who drew attention during the previous week for her racist actions, Hitler salutes and antisemitic protests outside the Democratic National Convention.

Giuliani said on his show that Siegel was 21 years old, suggesting that her youth gave her a unique perspective.

“Therefore, what we thought was we would ask Rachel her view of what’s going on in Chicago and in the United States, particularly with the influence now of this convention,” Giuliani said.

Siegel described herself in the interview as a “lifelong hardcore conservative.”

But four days earlier, in an interview with video journalist Ford Fischer at Chicago’s Union Park — where pro-Palestine protesters gathered to protest the DNC — Siegel had used another word to describe herself: “Fascist.”

Among a dozen or so far-right extremists who sought to infiltrate or otherwise exploit the pro-Palestine protests to promote their own agenda during the week of the convention, Siegel stood out.

On Aug. 19, the first day of the convention, Raw Story observed Siegel holding up a hand-written cardboard sign at Union Square that was replete with slogans attacking Jews, Black people and LGBTQ+ people.

Siegel’s sign read: “F--- n-----s. Go the f--- back to the s---hole you’re from. Jews f--- off. F-----s eat s---. Get AIDS and die!’”

Siegel’s sign also included a hand-drawn swastika.

The following day, Raw Story observed Siegel and another woman holding a banner outside the Israeli consulate in Chicago that promoted the white supremacist conspiracy theory known as the Great Replacement. The banner included the Telegram channel for a white supremacist group.

At least twice that night, Siegel was observed giving straight-arm Hitler salutes, one of which Raw Story witnessed in person.

Siegel’s racist and antisemitic actions were the subject of an article published by Raw Story on Aug. 22.

Ted Goodman, Giuliani’s publicist and spokesman, did not respond on the record to an inquiry from Raw Story about Giuliani’s decision to bring Siegel on the show.

But a video published on X by the @satireAP account shows Goodman walking over to Siegel after dozens of pro-Palestine protesters had been arrested near the Israeli consulate on Aug. 20. The owner of the @satireAP account can be heard in the video mocking Giuliani as “RICO Rudy” while calling Goodman “Nurse Boy.”

“Go hang out with the Nazis, Nurse Boy,” the @satireAP account owner says. “She’s a Nazi. Go get her. Go get her. Follow her. That’s just your type right there.”

The video then shows Goodman and Siegel huddling.

Siegel pulls out her phone as Goodman speaks, and she appears to punch in his number.

ALSO READ: Inside the neo-Nazi hate network grooming children for a race war

“Did you not see her videos today, Nurse Boy?” the @satireAP account owner says. “Oh, you’re going to be in so much trouble. This is bad. This is a bad look. I’m gonna have the shot. Exchanging contact info with the Nazi…. Bro, you just gave your phone number.”

“That’s a bad look,” the @satireAP account owner continues, speaking directly to Goodman. “Did you see her videos from today?”

“Who is that?” Goodman asks.

“You should have found out before you exchanged info with her,” the @satireAP account owner says. “That’s so bad. She is viral like crazy today here. She’s a literal Nazi, bro. She has the worst racist Nazi sign.”

Goodman ignores the @satireAP account owner, a livestreamer known for trolling Trump associates involved in the effort to overturn the 2020 election.

Goodman turns his camera toward the protesters, and says, “I got friends! All right, guys. Guys! What is going on? Look at these guys.”

That was three days before Siegel appeared on Giuliani’s show.

‘You are not colonized; you are conquered’

Siegel altered her message from the time she was protesting in Chicago’s streets to her appearance on Giuliani’s show.

Instead of holding a sign that read “F— off Jews” as she did earlier last week, she told Giuliani that she believes the treatment of the Jews by Hamas is “abhorrent.”

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“If anyone who is an American citizen thinks it is acceptable for a terrorist cell to invade a sovereign recognized nation with its own military, its own set of laws that has existed for decades, and say, ‘Well, we were here first.’ Are you 6 years old?” Siegel told Giuliani. “‘We were here first.’ You were not colonized; you were conquered. When a stronger society or civilization comes into an area, you are not colonized; you are conquered.”

Siegel’s rhetoric echoes Patriot Front, one of the most active white supremacist groups in the United States, which uses the slogan “Not Stolen. Conquered” to describe the relationship between people of European descent and the land of North America.

Siegel also used her appearance on Giuliani’s show to convey a watered-down version of the message on the banner she displayed during the protest outside the Israeli consulate on Aug. 20, the night she exchanged contact information with Goodman.

The banner stated, “Stop the white replacement. Deport them all.”

Siegel emphasized to Giuliani that she is an American citizen and her family members were born in the United States.

“I’m very proud to live here. I would never want to live anywhere else,” Siegel said. “And I feel very much to my core that people who are not grateful to live in this country should leave. If you are not happy, you go to Palestine.”

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Giuliani appeared to be charmed by Siegel, laughing at least twice in response to her remarks.

At one point, following a rant in which Siegel called her progressive contemporaries “hyper-opinionated” and “mentally ill,” Giuliani paused a moment, as if to take it all in, and then blurted out: “I think you’re absolutely right!”

Following Siegel’s guest appearance, one of her followers on X gave her credit for adapting her message to Giuliani’s more mainstream MAGA audience.

“I didn’t hear anything objectionable,” the X user commented. “Not really shilling for Israel. She did a good job considering the audience.”

“I would never!” Siegel replied, adding a smiley face.

Giuliani described himself on the YouTube show as “a very, very strong emotional supporter of Israel.”

Common ground on racist stereotypes about immigrants

It’s been a year for Giuliani.

A very bad year.

Last August, Giuliani was criminally charged in Georgia — alongside former president and current Republican nominee Donald Trump and 16 others — with racketeering and other alleged offenses to overturn the election.

Three months later, a federal jury found Giuliani liable for $148 million in a defamation lawsuit brought by two Black election workers in Georgia.

And last month, he was disbarred in his home state of New York for repeatedly lying about the 2020 election.

The conduct at the heart of the defamation case against Giuliani involves characterizations that play on stereotypes of Black criminality that are deeply rooted in American society.

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During a Dec. 10, 2020, hearing at the Georgia state legislature, Giuliani called attention to “two people” — a mother and daughter who were Black election workers — who he falsely accused of passing USB thumb drives containing manipulated election data “as if they’re vials of heroin and cocaine. I mean, it’s obvious to anyone who is a criminal investigator or prosecutor, they’re engaged in surreptitious illegal activity.”

Following Giuliani’s remarks, the women faced a deluge of racist threats. State investigators found that they engaged in no wrongdoing. And the incident Giuliani described as “surreptitious illegal activity” was nothing more than the two women exchanging a mint.

Prior to Siegel’s appearance on his show, Giuliani played a video clip showing protesters burning an American flag outside the Israeli consulate. He used the clip as a jumping-off point to convey a negative and false — in short, racist — characterization of Palestinian people.

“Don’t go soft on me on Palestinians or we’re going to have a terrible problem here,” Giuliani said. “Palestinians are taught to kill you at 2 years old. They’re taught to kill Jews. They’re taught to kill Americans.”

Noting that Israel’s neighbors have closed their borders to Palestinians seeking to escape Gaza and the West Bank, Giuliani continued: “But we’re supposed to take them. Is there a reason for this? We don’t have enough murder?”

Siegel expressed a similar view — also echoing Trump’s rhetoric — by falsely equating immigrants and refugees with criminality and violence.

“We are living in a death spiral in this nation,” she said. “We have an immigration problem that is murdering children, raping children, and there is no hold on it. There is no gauge on it. We have no idea how many of these individuals are even in our nation.”

During Siegel’s segment, Goodman, Giuliani’s publicist, can be heard speaking off camera as Giuliani asks him to adjust the shot.

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Later, Goodman joined the show as Giuliani lamented that his mayoral legacy has been erased. Giuliani also complained about the cost of housing migrants in New York City.

“It makes me feel exceedingly sad to the point of every once in a while wanting to cry,” Giuliani said.

Giuliani recalled that he recently told a supporter that “the only thing they haven’t ruined is the hope,” adding that someday in the future a leader might come along and pick up where he left off.

“There are men in this country’s history that cannot be replaced, and you are one of them,” Goodman replied.

One person who has not forgotten Giuliani: Trump.

In May, Trump recorded a video greeting that was played at an Italian restaurant in Manhattan where Giuliani was celebrating his 80th birthday.

“You’re a very special guy, Rudy,” Trump reportedly said to the man who for years served as his personal attorney. “Just keep fighting. There’s nobody like you.”

Last September, Trump hosted a fundraiser at his Bedminster, N.J., golf club to help Giuliani cover his legal bills.

Giuliani also still enjoys elevated standing at five colleges that — unlike several others — have declined to rescind honorary degrees they bestowed on Giuliani prior to his current legal troubles.

The schools include Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.; Syracuse University in Syracuse, N.Y.; The Citadel in Charleston, S.C.; St. John Fisher University in Pittsford, N.Y.; and Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore, Md.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Federal prison for neo-Nazis who plotted electric grid attack and race war

A neo-Nazi former porn actor who fantasized about launching a white supremacist “ground war” against the U.S. government, destroying electrical substations and assassinating political enemies was sentenced to six years in prison on Thursday.

Paul Kryscuk, 38, had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to damage an energy facility.

Justin Hermanson, a 25-year-old Marine Corps veteran and Kryscuk’s co-defendant who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to manufacture firearms and ship interstate, received a sentence of one year and nine months in prison.

The two men appeared before Chief Judge Richard E. Myers II for sentencing in a federal courtroom in Wilmington, N.C., some 70 miles from Camp Lejeune, the Marine Corps base where Hermanson and co-defendant Liam Collins were stationed at one time.

Collins, like Hermanson and Kryscuk, was scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday, but the length of his sentence was not immediately known. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina, which prosecuted the cases, could not be reached for comment.

Kryscuk and Hermanson will serve significantly less prison time than the maximum amount allowable under sentencing guidelines. Kryscuk could have received up to 20 years, while Hermanson faced up to five years.

The maximum sentence for Collins, who founded the neo-Nazi terror cell that came to be known as “BSN,” fell in the middle. He faced up to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to aiding and abetting the interstate transportation of unregistered firearms.

Two other co-defendants — Jordan Duncan, 29, and Joseph Maurino, 25 — have also pleaded guilty to federal firearms charges, and will be sentenced at a later date.

Duncan, a Marine Corps veteran and former federal contractor, has been the focus of extensive coverage by Raw Story following the disclosure that the FBI found classified materials on his hard drive during the FBI raid in October 2020. The government has not charged Duncan with any violations related to the classified materials, and Judge Myers has ordered the parties to maintain tight control of the materials.

Some hints of the types of sensitive material Duncan might have obtained from the government and passed along to his fellow would-be insurgents have emerged during court hearings, however.

Navy Criminal Investigative Service Special Agent John Christopher Little testified in Maurino’s detention hearing that Duncan’s external hard drive contained a “vast amount of explosives schematics” that also turned up on Kryscuk’s electronic devices. Similarly, the agent testified that a manual on how to build homemade silencers that similarly found its way from Duncan’s hard drive to Maurino’s phone.

BSN’s emergence as a neo-Nazi terror cell coincided with the wave of racial justice protests sweeping the country in response to the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Evidence presented in open court by Navy Criminal Investigative Service Special Agent John Christopher Little shows that Kryscuk stalked Black Lives Matter protesters in Boise, while Maurino similarly filmed racial protesters in New Jersey as he drove by in his car.

When the FBI raided Kryscuk’s home in Boise, where he, Collins and Duncan had relocated, in October 2020, agents recovered a handwritten list of intersections that correlated with electrical substations in Oregon, Washington state and California, according to the government. A separate list was written on the flipside of the paper that included politicians such as California state Sen. Scott Wiener and then-Oregon Gov. Kate Brown; Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza; journalist James LaPorta; and L Brands founder Les Wexner.

Veteran newsman schools neo-Nazis: 'When I look at you guys, I do not think master race'

Legendary Nashville newsman Phil Williams clashed with neo-Nazis protesting in the "Music City."

The Goyim Defense League is described by the Anti-Defamation League as "virulently antisemitic provocateurs," and they brought "symbols of hate and vile words," wrote Williams on Friday.

People were out and about in the city's entertainment district when the neo-Nazis began harassing a "lesbian mom who had just left a restaurant."

A photo of her shows her small daughter crying and clutching her mother while they're surrounded by young men yelling.

"You're a sodomite. You go to hell," said leader Jon Minadeo.

Canadian Ryan Scott McCann, one of the men in the group, jabbed a flag pole at a bartender, which led to his arrest. It wasn't the first for the group.

Williams described the men lashing out at police officers tasked with keeping the peace between the men and the public.

"How much do you think the Jews are paying this guy?" Minadeo asked of one officer who'd been on the force for 30 years.

Williams asked why they chose Nashville as the place to attack.

"It's the only place that respects freedom of speech," one member, Nicholas Bysheim, claimed.

"Yeah, this city respects freedom of speech, but communist Jews like yourself don't," agreed Minadeo, talking to Williams.

They tend to attack Jewish people as pedophiles and anyone they oppose as being a Jew.

Williams confronted Minadeo, noting, "I have a photo of you with a pedophile right here."

The photo shows Minadeo with Jesse Shenk. He was arrested three years ago for soliciting sex with someone he thought was 14 years old.

"So one of your own group was a pedophile," said Williams.

Minadeo defended Shenk, saying he was "set up" and promised he'd been kicked out of the group. The problem is that many of the men wear ski masks to cover their faces. So, Shenk could have been among them.

Minadeo was triggered enough to lead the group into chanting, "Pedophile protector, pedophile protector, pedophile protector."

Each time, he tried to confront the men about their inconsistencies, the men broke into a chant calling Williams a pedophile protector.

The group had claims, but Williams came with receipts that shot back to the facts. Dr. Anthony Fauci isn't Jewish, he's Catholic. Members of Donald Trump's cabinet involved in the pandemic were Episcopalian and Catholic.

Williams went flier by flier to question the lies the group was caught telling. Minadeo turned to his livestream to call Williams a "liar," which is a typical move when extremists don't agree with the facts, he explained.

"Can I be honest with you guys?" Williams asked.

"You're a loser, scumbag," Minadeo shot back.

"When I look at you guys, I do not think 'master race,'" Williams said, dealing a blow to the branding of the men.

The only way he could think to respond was to call Williams old.

"You're old and about to die. Your time is coming to its end," one of the men said.

Williams explained, "In fact, what I saw was a group of wounded, angry men who've never accomplished much in their own lives, looking for someone else to blame."

Read about his full encounter and back and forth with the men right here.

'You just cost yourself your business': Residents rebel against tire shop flying Nazi flag

A Florida tire shop owner is refusing to buckle under pressure for dangling a Nazi flag to protest the Israel-Hamas War.

“I put that out there to bring awareness, to bring remembrance … to let people understand, we’re living … or Palestinians are living in a modern-day holocaust,” Radio Ahmad, owner of 904 x 4 tire shop in Spring Park, Florida, told Action News Jax.

The shocking stunt to wield a flag that served as the Nazi Germany's brand during World War II where 6 million Jews were slaughtered in an effort to decimate them — was to draw more support for the Palestinian people who have been suffering as collateral damage ever since the battle began.

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“They are going through hardships, starvation, demolishing other homes,” Ahmad said. “There’s so much hate, so much cruelty out there, and we’re witnessing it firsthand.”

The message wasn't well-received by many.

“It’s a symbol of antisemitism, and it’s a symbol of true hatred ... nothing more and nothing less,” Jewish Federation & Foundation of Northeast Florida CEO Mariam Feist told the outlet. “He is comparing contemporary Israeli policy with that of the Nazis. That is nothing short of antisemitism and Jew hatred. Period! That’s what it is.”

There was a mix of condemnation over the flag protest.

A neighbor felt the messaging was hurtful.

“It shows racism,” Derrick Blunt told the outlet. “And it just upsets me that it’s right there.”

Others chimed in online.

"I hope you have a good retirement plan, you just cost yourself your business," wrote Todd Satola, commenting on the tire shop's social media page.

Jenn Rockefeller also was offended. "You ought to be ashamed of yourselves," she wrote. "This is disgusting. I'm Jewish and I find this HIGHLY offensive."

"F--- the Nazis and anybody who stands with them," Jordan Lewis wrote.

Neo-Nazi leader charged with child abuse, domestic violence

Sean Kauffmann, a neo-Nazi and violent white supremacist whose harassment of LGBTQ+ people and journalists has been highlighted by Raw Story, faces charges for aggravated assault and child abuse following a report that he punched the mother of his infant son in the head.

A sheriff’s deputy in Perry County, Tenn., was dispatched to Kauffmann’s home in Linden, Tenn., at about 8:09 p.m. on March 22, according to a police report obtained by Raw Story.

Kauffmann’s partner, whose name is redacted in the report, told the deputy that Kauffmann “assaulted her by punching her numerous times in the face and head, while she was holding their infant son.”

The report goes on to say that Kauffmann’s partner “had bruising above both her eyes and swelling on her left jaw, and around both her eyes,” that she was “bleeding from the mouth and ears,” and “had a broken tooth, which was about to fall out.”

The woman also reportedly told the deputy she was several weeks pregnant and that Kauffmann told her he was going to kill her.

The report also quotes the woman as saying that Kauffmann, who is listed at 6 feet, 5 inches tall, and weighing 225 pounds, grabbed the infant by the clothing and tried to pull him from his mother’s arms, causing bruising on the child’s head and a red mark on his arm.

Kauffmann was held in the Perry County Jail from March 22 through March 26, and released on a bond for $15,000 for aggravated assault and $10,000 for child abuse, according to police records.

He is scheduled to appear in court before Judge Katerina Moore on Thursday to face charges of child abuse/neglect/endangerment for a child eight years old or younger, and aggravated assault-domestic.

Kauffmann could not be reached for comment for this story.

The Telegram channel for Tennessee Active Club, the neo-Nazi group led by Kauffmann, went dark on March 26, the day he bonded out of jail. A new channel for Kauffmann’s group reemerged on Telegram on March 30, but does not include any content.

History of violence

Sean Kauffmann leads the Tennessee Active Club, a group that is part of a decentralized, global network of white nationalist groups.

Under Kauffmann's leadership, Tennessee Active Club has served as a hub for neo-Nazi organizing and harassment of LGBTQ+ people and other perceived enemies.

In 2021, Kauffmann was convicted of two counts of domestic assault in Perry County in November 2021, according to local court records.

According to an incident report filed in the case, an investigator observed red and purple marks on the neck of the victim — a different woman — and she told him he strangled her and she could not breathe. The investigator reportedly observed a knot on her forehead, black eye, swollen lip and swollen nose.

William Beals, a 15-year-old boy and Sean Kauffmann (l-r) outside a drag show in Cookeville, Tenn., on Jan. 22. Robert Bray is in the background at left. (Courtesy Josh Brandon)

Following Kauffmann’s arrest in the 2021 case, according to the report, deputies obtained a court order to seize all the firearms from his house.

Moore, whom Kauffmann will again face on Thursday, also granted a protective order to the victim.

* * *

Editor’s note: Kauffmann was among five neo-Nazis who demonstrated in front of Raw Story reporter Jordan Green’s home in Greensboro, N.C. in February. Flanked by four men holding lit emergency flares, Kauffmann held a handwritten sign warning of “consequences.”

Kauffmann suggested in a post on the encrypted social media app Telegram that he held Green responsible, at least in part, for his ongoing legal troubles.

“We can’t wait for everyone to see how our activities have helped build a case for a far greater exposé of the people orchestrating antifa and these journalists,” he wrote in the post, referencing the demonstration. “Specifically to me how this will impact all of my legal situations helping me win decisive victories! It’s the only thing that’s helped keep pushing me as hard as it’s gotten!”

The post was made in a Telegram channel run by Kauffmann’s partner, who is the alleged victim in the aggravated assault case.

Wendy Greenlaw contributed to this story

Raw Story reporter stalked by Nazis exposes plot by nationwide Nazi youth network

WASHINGTON — Raw Story today revealed how a neo-Nazi organization led by teenagers has launched a multi-state campaign of violence aimed at Jews, African Americans, LGBTQ+ people and leftists.

The organization, known as 2119, aspires to even greater acts of terror, Raw Story reports in a 6,500-word investigative article headlined “Inside the neo-Nazi hate network grooming children for a race war.”

The four-month investigation is accompanied by a first-person account by its author, Raw Story reporter Jordan Green, of how neo-Nazis and other extremists have attempted to stop him from pursuing and publishing information about 2119.

“Green unearthed shocking, essential truths about dangerous extremists at significant personal risk,” said Dave Levinthal, editor-in-chief of Raw Story, the nation’s largest independently owned progressive news website. “His reporting today underscores the power — and peril — of independent, investigative journalism at a time when press freedoms are under constant attack and fascist ideologies creep into the mainstream.”

Extremists’ actions against Green include death threats, online doxxing and visiting his house earlier this month dressed in skull masks and holding burning flares.

As Green writes in “Hunted by Nazis: How extremists stalked me while I reported on their violence,” the threats white supremacists have directed at him “would become ever more extreme — and strange.

“The experience was unsettling, but their efforts at intimidation only confirmed in my mind that we had a story that was worth telling,” Green writes.

Green’s ordeal in exposing a violent neo-Nazi group are emblematic of dangers journalists across the nation face while exposing wrongdoing, from corruption in government to plotting by hate groups.

A second Raw Story article about the Nazi youth network to be published Feb. 21 explores the roles parents play in the lives of 2119 members.

Raw Story celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. The site significantly expanded its investigative and original reporting team in 2023, redoubling its commitment to journalism focused on domestic extremism, political malfeasance and government accountability.

“Violent extremists threaten our freedoms and the very foundation of democracy,” said Raw Story CEO and founder John Byrne. “The nation is a better place because of Jordan Green’s courageous reporting. Raw Story is proud to support journalism that matters.”

In August, Raw Story filed a federal Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Navy and U.S. Department of Defense following the agencies’ refusal to release records related to a former U.S. Marine and avowed neo-Nazi.

Green, who joined Raw Story in 2021, reports on extremism full-time and has regularly broken national news stories. Last year, he won a Folio Award from the Fair Media Council for his investigative reporting on extremism in America.

Green revealed that a Marine Corps veteran and former defense contractor facing prosecution for his role in a neo-Nazi terror plot is suspected by the government of mishandling classified documents.

He also reported that a former soldier convicted of distributing bomb-making instructions and advocating for the assassination of former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) menaced a drag show at an LGBTQ community center in North Carolina.

Green’s reporting on the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol ranks as among the most incisive in the nation. On the morning of the Jan. 6 attack, Green wrote an article headlined “We’re gonna kill Congress.” As Editor & Publisher later noted, Green’s story predicted “exactly what would happen on that fateful day.”

Contact: Editor-in-Chief Dave Levinthal, levinthal@rawstory.com