As Nazis swarm Florida, Ron DeSantis and staff still refuse to condemn them

I got into a heated exchange about it.

Welcome to a Saturday evening edition of Progress Report.

There were a few news stories that I had planned to touch tonight, but then a bunch of Nazis had to go harass people across central Florida.

In an ideal world — or really just a sane country — there would be no need for me to cover what those Nazis were up to this weekend, because they’d be ultra-fringe goons with no political relevance, whose afternoon of goose-stepping in silly masks was universally condemned by politicians across the spectrum and media alike.

Regrettably, if not predictably, none of those things happened this weekend. I did, however, have a very revealing conversation with one the leaders of the Florida Republican Party, a sniveling and inconsequential imp who took up way too much of my time with the least-clever arguments I’ve ever encountered.

I’ll be back on Monday with a big Labor Day story on workers’ rights and the rapid improvement of conditions for unions right now.

Please consider a subscribing and/or donating to keep this work sustainable. Far-right extremists are financed by billionaires and corporations, who invest in conservative outlets, think tanks, and law firms to advance their interests. We rely on forward-thinking readers like you, and without your help, Progress Report

Thank you to our latest crowd-funding donors: Mehroo, Mary, Lee, Kathy, David, Thomas, Muriel, Myra, Karen, Anthony, Thomas, Theresa, Grace, Matthew, Ann, and Matthew!

---

---

Gangs of neo-Nazis loitered in parking lots and public parks in Central Florida on Saturday, annoying locals and harassing tourists with impunity.

The incels assembled for two separate demonstrations planned by several different neo-Nazi organizations, each with a dumber name than the last. A group of masked bigots known as the Order of the Black Sun (who share a name with some bad guys in Doctor Who) gathered at the entrance to Walt Disney World, while the Blood Tribe and Goyim Defense League collaborated on a “March of the Redshirts” across Altamonte Springs. Also present at the demonstration was a group of racists operating under the name White Lives Matter.

(Order of the Black Sun counts as the most “enlightened” of the neo-Nazi groups in attendance, because it permits women to yell at minorities. Blood Tribe is strictly men-only.)

The groups overcame several other fundamental tensions, including their desire for anonymity — some neo-Nazis wore masks, while others were identifiable by their layers of smeared tattoos. See: Kent Mcclellan, a violent meth dealer and Asov militant better known as Boneface, for obvious reasons.

Neo-Nazi demonstrations have almost become part of the landscape in Florida, and even taken on a predictable cadence. Saturday’s displays did not deviate from the routine.

Here’s the basic run of show: Losers in mismatched tactical gear stand sweltering in the hot sun and humidity, screaming bigoted chants and antisemitic conspiracy theories at passersby who have already clocked their assorted Nazi flags and resolved not to make eye contact. They ripped up a rainbow flag at the Disney World protest, while once again, their massive Ron DeSantis campaign flag danced on the wind next to flags bearing the swastika and SS logo.

No police ever get involved, allowing all of the neo-Nazis to go home after a hard day’s work of spreading hate and scaring children.

It’s hardly novel, police treating white supremacists who explicitly threaten hate crimes with more respect than the average Black pedestrian. But in Florida, police inaction — they just can’t seem to catch them violating any rules — it carries the weight of unofficial state policy.

As I’ve been documenting for more than a year now, Florida’s neo-Nazis have become fervent fans of Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose rhetoric and policies would earn him top marks if the swastika set released annual legislative scorecards. They fly his flag and follow his lead, adopting his battles as their own. Before DeSantis began fighting with the company over his anti-trans laws, the neo-Nazis had no reason to hang a giant banner that accused Disney of being a groomers and pedophiles at the entrance to the theme park.

DeSantis has provided those far-right goons implicit encouragement for years now. While he’s quick to comment on all manner of events and conspiracies taking place far beyond Florida’s borders, all the way down to pizza ovens in New York, DeSantis has been conspicuously quiet about his idol status amongst his state’s absolute worst people.

I’ve spent the past 18 months trying to raise the alarm and pressure the governor into publicly disavowing his neo-Nazi supporters, but until this weekend, calls for him to do the absolute minimum have been met with deafening silence.

I was one of the first people to tweet on Saturday about the neo-Nazi marches, and in my post, I called out the DeSantis flag and called the governor a white supremacist. The tweet went viral enough that it drew the attention of Evan Power, the vice chair of the Florida Republican Party.

A professional DeSantis mouthpiece, Power initially responded to my tweet by suggesting that the neo-Nazi blitz “appears to be a orchestrated event,” propagating the lie that the marches were a hoax perpetrated by Democrats. Not all of the neo-Nazis were DeSantis fanatics, but suggesting they were Democrats was idiotic, irresponsible, and unsurprising.

Our subsequent exchange was driven by my repeatedly asking Evan why DeSantis has regularly declined to condemn the white nationalists who so worship him, even after one of them just murdered three Black civilians shopping at a Dollar General. (He naturally focused on the fact that the murderer was mentally ill, fully eliding the swastikas on his AR-15 and racist manifestos. That’s the GOP playbook.)

After some pressing, Power offered up a screenshot of a single headline from early 2022 as proof that the governor had addressed attacks by his neo-Nazi admirers; as I pointed out, the headline was a generous takeaway from a press conference during which DeSantis largely whined that even asking him about an earlier neo-Nazi demonstration amounted to an attempt to smear him.

There were no other examples to cite, so after I reminded him that people being harassed by white supremacists needed DeSantis to make a strong statement, Power gave a glib response that unintentionally provided a disturbing look into the right wing’s worldview.

The message was unambiguous: Don’t ask Ron DeSantis to disavow the white supremacists who support him, just be grateful that he angrily mumbled out a weak nonresponse nearly two years ago while defending himself from the indignity of being asked questions by reporters.

To be clear, I had no illusions that Evan Power would or could convince me that DeSantis has any interest in discouraging the furthest fringes of the far-right, because he’s staked his entire political career on appealing to those freaks, whose worldview he seems to largely share. Just last month, his failing presidential campaign was caught producing Nazi memes and laundering them through white nationalist Twitter accounts, and that wasn’t some rogue employee’s idea.

What surprised me about the exchange, however, was the fact that Power didn’t even try to lie about his boss’s support white nationalism, nor did he bother to say that he abhorred them himself. The modern Republican Party is simply too terrified of not appearing deeply and unabashedly racist that even spokespeople jousting on Twitter avoid condemning Nazis.

It’s easy to shrug off this sort of thing as typical and unsurprising, a sign of the times best left buried. That, however, lets politicians off the hook and permits them to pursue evermore bigoted supporters, which is in turn how neo-Nazis start to feel comfortable enough to scream into their bandanas. Ron DeSantis must answer for his allegiance to these monsters, or the next clever white nationalist who wants to run for president is going to bring them even farther forward from the fringe.

---

Wait, Before You Leave!

Progress Report has raised over $7 million dollars for progressive candidates and causes, breaks national stories about corrupt politicians, and delivers incisive analysis, and goes deep into the grassroots.

This is a second full-time job, and I’m looking to expand. There are no corporations, dark money think tanks, or big grants sponsoring this work. It’s all people-powered. So, I need your help.

For just $5 a month, you can buy a premium subscription that includes premium member-only newsletters with original reporting, useful information, and deep analysis.

You can also make a one-time donation to Progress Report’s GoFundMe campaign — doing so will earn you a shout-out in the next weekend edition of the newsletter!

---