At the end of 2018, the Proud Boys were completely deplatformed from social media. Now in 2020, their resurgence is complete with their fraternity chairman Enrique Tarrio is running for congress.

Proud Boys’ Resurgence

Since his selection as Proud Boy Chairman by the fraternity Elders in 2019 Enrique Tarrio’s leadership has been pivotal to the Proud Boys resurgence. Enrique replaced founder Gavin McInnes who quit the fraternity at the end of 2018.

Enrique is a Cuban-American businessman from Miami, Florida who was raised in the city’s Little Havana. I spoke with him on a 2019 episode on the former The Unshackled Waves show about his life to date and membership and leadership of the Proud Boys.

Fake News Smears

The Proud Boys’ deplatforming was mainly to do with fake news and smears following an Antifa ambush against the New York Proud Boys when they were leaving a local Republican Party event in November last year where Gavin McInnes was the keynote speaker.

The Proud Boys responded in self-defense yet they were the ones charged and prosecuted by the state. The Antifa instigators were not charged and none of them came forward to co-operate with the New York Police Department investigation.

Two of the Proud Boys involved Maxwell Hare and John Kinsman were convicted of attempted gang assault, attempted assault and riot, by a jury in the New York State Supreme Court in August this year. They were sentenced to four years in prison by Judge Mark Dwyer. A fund has recently been set up to support Kinsman’s wife and three children during his imprisonment titled Justice for Liberty.

Proud Boys Expose Antifa

Under Tarrio’s leadership, the Proud Boys have returned to full strength in 2019. They have been able to continue to communicate with the public and with each other through the Telegram encrypted messaging and broadcasting app. Their information website and online magazine are also still active and accessible.

The Proud Boys have also returned to street activism with their most notable achievement being part of a coalition of American patriot groups that helped exposed how Antifa was born, spread and protected by local government and media in US city of Portland, Oregon which began with the Rose City Antifa in 2007.

During the annual Patriot Prayer rally in Portland in July, this year Antifa brutally attacked journalist Andy Ngo who was covering the event for his exposes on the left-wing terror group’s influence in the city and collusion with local media.

The Antifa attack on Ngo turned into a public relations disaster for the left-wing group, earning long overdue condemnation from mainstream media and politics. Antifa’s defence that Ngo deserved to be assaulted for supporting fascist-white supremacists were seen as farcical.

In response, Republican Senator Ted Cruz signaled his intention to propose a resolution to the US Senate to properly identify Antifa as a domestic terrorist organisation. President Donald Trump also indicated consideration was being given by his Administration to declare Antifa an organisation of terror.


Following Ngo’s assaults, there were two attempted Antifa terrorist attacks on the US Government’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities in Oregon and Texas. This attempted terrorism was fueled by fake news that that ICE officials were mistreating illegal southern border crossers while they were being held in custody.

End Domestic Terror Rally

In response to this Antifa terrorism, The Proud Boys under Tarrio’s leadership teamed with up with patriot groups in Portland to return to the city for ‘End Domestic Terror’ rally on Saturday 17th August 2019.

The rally showcased the difference in activism between US patriots and Antifa. As soon as Proud Boys and other patriots arrived via bus to centre of Protland Antifa thugs attempted to attack them with hammers, mace and broken parts of a concrete slab that was smuggled into the city before the event.

Portland police made 13 arrests and numerous weapon seizures, all of those were from the Antifa side. The only time the Proud Boys and other patriots used physical force were to defend themselves against the onslaught Antifa attackers. One person was injured had to be taken to hospital, while three others were treated by paramedics at the scene for minor injuries.

Because all of the violence and arrests were on the Antifa side, the Proud Boys and other patriot groups were still blamed for causing the violence for their mere presence in the city by ‘provoking’ the Antifa response that required 1,000 police officers deployed throughout the city and local businesses having to close due to safety concerns

It was reported that 1,000 Portland police officers had to be deployed to keep order. There were two dozen local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI monitoring the event.

But the reality was Antifa exposed how dangerous they have made Portland. No city in the United States should be a safe haven for an extremist terrorist organisation like Antifa to plan their acts of political violence all over the country.

Further Proud Boys Deplatforming

Various members of the Proud Boys throughout their years online had created accounts on other social media platforms. Although they had remained unused for many years, once these big tech companies discovered the horror that Proud Boy members had inactive yet functionally accounts of their platform they had to deplatform them still, supposedly to take a ‘moral’ stand against ‘extremism’.

Discord is a popular messaging server and app in the gaming community, but it has also been used by many internet media personalities to communicate. The Proud Boys experimented with it after their Facebook ban before deciding to use Telegram for their future communications.

But despite the fact that most Proud Boys’ Discord accounts were now inactive late last year Discord sent emails to Proud Boy members informing them their accounts had been disabled for threats, harassment and incitements to violence

Vimeo is the second most popular video hosting platform after YouTube. The discovered an account in Gavin McInnes’ name so closed it just in case he ever uploaded anything. On his Telegram channel Gavin said ‘Uh oh, the hounds are out. I haven’t used my Vimeo for years but they shut it down this morning for “violating guidelines”’.

Since his departure from the Proud Boys, Gavin McInnes founded Censored.tv which continues to host his former CRTV show Get Off My Lawn. As the name of the media platform suggests it hosts other online personalities such as Milo Yiannopoulos and Laura Loomer who have also been censored from major social networks.

Due to Gavin and Milo’s previous Proud Boy membership Facebook and Instagram now completely bans its users from sharing the name and URL of censored.tv.

Enrique Announces His Candidacy

On November 1st last year Enrique filed a statement of candidacy with the United States Federal Election Election for Florida’s 27th congressional district. The district takes in the city of Miami and Miami Beach and includes Little Havana where Enrique grew up.

Florida’s 27th congressional district location

The district was created in 2013 and was held by Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen until her retirement in 2018. In the Democratic sweep in the 2018 midterms, the district was won by 79-year-old Donna Shalala who was the US Secretary of Health and Human Services for the entire Clinton Administration 1993-2001 and was President of the Clinton Foundation from 2015 to 2017.

Enrique released a formal statement announcing his candidacy on November 4th through his Telegram channel Enrique’s House. He began with a few quotes from mainstream media reports his run of Congress: “A nightmare for the democrats in congress if elected.” “He’ll likely be a lightning rod candidate during this race.” “The anti-Castro buzz-saw has stepped into the arena.”

Mainstream media bias in the United States is not just confined to the major news networks and newspapers. Every city in the US has its local corporate-owned news media. The local press in Miami is no different and one local weekly newspaper the Miami New Times report Enrique’s candidacy with the headline Local Douchebag Announces 2020 Congressional Run. This bias from a news outlet that calls itself an “independent source”.

Campaign Platform

Not surprisingly for a candidate running on principle, not power, Enrique’s campaign platform is extensive. Defending freedom, both personal and economic, putting Americans First the overarching philsophy underpinning his platform.

Enrique promises if elected to protect the US Constitution’s First Amendment to free speech and applying to the digital world. Support for criminal justice reform where law enforcement focuses on violent crimes, instead of victimless crimes. He has vowed to crackdown on domestic terrorism organisations like Antifa.

He will assist to debureaucratize the Veterans’ Affairs Department so they can receive the care they deserve. He will fight legislative violations of the US Second Amendment granting Americans the right to bear arms.

On economic matters, Enrique favours retooling the education system to better favour tradework and vocation schools, instead of expensive worthless university degrees. Drastic simplification of the federal tax code so it is only a few pages long so it is understandable to every taxpayer. On energy policy, he favours empowering entrepreneurs to make the United States energy independence.

His full policy platform is listed on his campaign website. He has also released on his telegram channel and on other social media this campaign commercial.

Enrique’s Friendship with Roger Stone

Enrique has developed a personal friendship with another prominent South Florida resident Donald Trump’s closest confidant Roger Stone. Stone is also a member of the Proud Boys a resident of Southern Florida.

Stone was arrested at his Palm Beach home in January this year by the FBI and charged with witness tampering, obstruction of justice, and five counts of making false statements. Stone’s arrest via an aggressive SWAT team was broadcast live on American mainstream media.

These charges stemmed from Stone’s interaction with Robert Mueller’s Special Counsel investigation. It has long been alleged that Stone was in communication with WikiLeaks during the period in the lead up to the site’s release of the Democratic National Committee emails in June 2016 which exposed how the party organisation rigged the primaries in favour of Hillary Clinton.

The Proud Boys supported Stone’s legal defence fund as fighting the charges has completely decimated his family’s wealth. The official Proud Boys store launched a range of Roger Stone Did Nothing Wrong apparel products.

Enrique wearing Proud Boys’ Roger Stone Did Nothing Wrong t-shirt

Stone’s trial was held last November in the US District Court in Washington DC. He was found guilty by the jury on all counts.

Following the verdict on Twitter, Tarrio lashed out at Hillary Clinton’s former campaign chair John Podesta who was gloating about the guilty verdict. Tarrio warned Podesta he should rig the voting machines in Florida’s 27th district, otherwise, if he’s elected to Congress Tarrio will pursue Podesta over his alleged involvement in a child sex trafficking ring, an allegation born out of the contents of the Podesta email leaks that is known as Pizzagate.

Of course, calling Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager a pedophile and vote rigger isn’t going to go down well on Twitter. Not long after this tweet, Tarrio’s account was suspended.

Proud Boys CPAC Ban

Tarrio was a notable attendee at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) 2019 and was photographed with Donald Trump Jr, Senator Ted Cruz, and former Florida Governor now Senator Rick Scott.

But a year later the Proud Boys are now banned from CPAC and other Conservative Inc events as the range of allowable conservative thought has narrowed since the groyper wars commenced against Turning Point USA and Charlie Kirk

The trigger for this was ban was when Proud Boy and podcast host Nick Ochs was kicked out of CPAC Korea in November last year for simply having a Proud Boy tattoo on display. He was not there at a guest but working as a conservative consultant.

The tattoo was noticed by Fox News host Judge Jeanine Pirro who wanted Nick to delete all pictures he took because she’s worried about her contract at Fox News.

Despite being told by CPAC organisers that it was just Judge Jeanine kicking up a stink he was escorted out of the conference and was fired from his conservative consultant job when he arrived back home in Hawaii despite two years of solid employment with them.

For CPAC 2020 Enrique had been banned in advance, as had Gavin and Milo and Laura Loomer had her press pass revoked. Yet Right Wing Watch founder Jared Holt was granted a press pass to look for young conservatives to doxx on his website.

Fundraising and Volunteers

As Enrique’s media and online profile has increased so has his personal following. This doesn’t just come from other Proud Boy members but those on the dissent right who admire his personal courage in leading patriot and free speech activist and standing up to the fake mainstream media.

Of course, Enrique is not running campaign event almost everyday meeting new voters in my district.

The fake news about the Proud Boys at the end of 2018 saw Enrique become one of the first targets of commercial banking deplaforming. Less than a month after his election as Proud Boys Chairman Chase Bank sent him a letter informing him they could no longer support his banking accounts and would be closing them with two months notice

With it comes to election campaigns all around the world you cannot run without money and donations. The fact that ever since he became a public figure his bank account was shut down threw major fundraising challenges at any potential political campaign.

Credit card payment processors were one of the first financial institutions to join the wrongthink platforming movement that the Proud Boys through their 1776 shop were targeted by this. Enrique being the entrepreneur he is stated during his Unshackled Waves interview that the Proud Boys were developing their own payment processor.

Currently, Enrique’s campaign website can process credit card donations so he has significantly overcome this handicap. Because of this it should therefore not be surprising that given his campaign was only launched in November that his FEC return for the final 2019 quarter not exceed $5,000 and did not trigger his Committee’s reporting responsibilities under the Act.

But this reality did not stop another smear piece against Enrique being published in The Miami New Times titled ‘Proud Boys Leader Has Raised Basically No Money for Miami Congressional Run’. Basic maths would demonstrate that less than $5000 does not equal zero.

The State of the Race

Enrique faces his first electoral hurdle in the Republican primary for Florida 27th District which is scheduled for Tuesday, August 18, 2020. He is one of four candidates, his main rival is the Republican nominee for the district in 2018 local journalist Maria Elvira Salaza. Salaza lost in the general election to Donna Shalala by 6 percentage points and 15,000 votes.

While democracy has been suspended during the coronavirus pandemic in the United Kingdom with their local government elections delayed by a year, the United States with its fixed congressional terms is considering no such delay of democracy. Some primaries have been rescheduled, but all general elections including congressional, legislative, Presidential and gubernatorial elections will take place on Tuesday, November 3, 2020.

With social distancing measures being part of coronavirus containment practices Enrique can’t meet and greet voters in his district at community and campaign events as is the norm in a traditional campaign. But every other candidate is the same boat.

But the virtual campaign continues both in local media and throughout the internet. Florida is known as a state that has a “Pay ballot” which makes it impossible to reach the signatures needed to be on the ballot unless you have significant funds behind you which is Enrique’s main focus at this time.

If Enrique wins the Republican primary, given Florida’s 27th district recent history as a swing district, add to that the fact the Republican base will hopefully be united behind him in the general election he would stand a very good chance of becoming an elected Congressman. We will continue to follow Enrique’s campaign closely and provide you with updates closer to the primary date.

Author Details
Tim Wilms is the Founder and Editor in Chief of https://theunshackled.net. the Host of Tim’s News Explosion, the WilmsFront interview program and The Theorists with Andy Nolch. He based in Melbourne, Australia where he also conducts field reports.
×
Tim Wilms is the Founder and Editor in Chief of https://theunshackled.net. the Host of Tim’s News Explosion, the WilmsFront interview program and The Theorists with Andy Nolch. He based in Melbourne, Australia where he also conducts field reports.