Nick Fuentes

Nicholas Joseph Fuentes (born August 18, 1998) is an American far-right[2][3][4][5] conservative[8] political commentator and podcaster. He was formerly a YouTuber before his channel was permanently suspended in February 2020 for violating YouTube's hate speech policy.[7] He describes himself as a nationalist and paleoconservative[9][10][11] and is said to hold white nationalist and antisemitic views.[6]

Nick Fuentes
Fuentes in 2017
Born
Nicholas Joseph Fuentes

(1998-08-18) August 18, 1998
Illinois, U.S.[1]
NationalityAmerican
EducationLyons Township High School
Alma materBoston University (Dropped out)
OccupationPodcaster
Activist
Years active2016–present
Known forYouTube
Groypers
MovementFar-right politics[2][3][4][5]
White nationalism[6][7]

Fuentes has feuded with Turning Point USA and its founder, Charlie Kirk, for supporting views that Fuentes believes to be insufficiently conservative.[12] On October 29, 2019, his followers, known as Groypers, began heckling Turning Point's Culture War Tour, including a speaking event for Donald Trump Jr.[13]

Career and views

Fuentes hosts the podcast America First with Nicholas J. Fuentes.[4][13] On the show, Fuentes strongly opposes immigration, which he believes is a demographic threat to the United States.[4] He also opposes homosexuality,[14][15] and describes transgender people and same-sex marriage as "deviancy".[16]

Fuentes attended the August 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, and positively of a "tidal wave of white identity" afterwards.[17][18]

On his show in April 2017, Fuentes said "Who runs the media? Globalists. Time to kill the globalists" and "I want the people that run CNN to be arrested and deported because this is deliberate." Fuentes also said that "The First Amendment was not written for the Saudi Royal Family". The publisher of the show at the time, RSBN issued an apology, calling the comments "unacceptable" and "inappropriate".[19] Following these and other comments, as well as publicity over his attendance of the Unite the Right rally, he left RSBN in August 2017.[20][21]

He co-hosted the Nationalist Review podcast with James Allsup until January 2018. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, "the two had a public falling out with each host accusing the other of laziness, impropriety and a variety of petty slights."[22]

In January 2019, Fuentes aired a monologue in which he compared the Holocaust to a cookie-baking operation, which has led to accusations of Holocaust denial. Fuentes later disputed that he had ever denied the Holocaust, calling his monologue a "lampoon".[16]

Fuentes has repeatedly criticized Turning Point USA and its founder Charlie Kirk, accusing them of betraying Donald Trump by advocating in favor of mass legal immigration, support in foreign aid for Israel and LGBT issues.[6] Throughout October and November 2019, his supporters were present at many of Kirk's public speaking events, which have had guest speakers including Donald Trump Jr., Lara Trump, and Kimberly Guilfoyle.[6] These campaigns frequently involved asking questions that prompt viewers to look up far-right and anti-semitic conspiracy theories and hoaxes online.[23]

As a result of this campaign the majority of right-wing mainstream politicians and pundits as well as mainstream conservative media disavowed Fuentes.[24][25][26]

In December 2019, Fuentes confronted conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro, who was with his family at the time, outside of a TPUSA event in West Palm Beach, Florida. Fuentes had confronted Shapiro to ask why he had given a speech at Stanford University bashing Fuentes.[27] The encounter was filmed and led to criticism of Fuentes.[28]

In January 2020, Fuentes' YouTube channel was demonetized and one of his videos was removed by YouTube as a violation of their hate speech policies. Fuentes had previously been banned from Twitch and from Reddit.[29][30] On February 14, 2020, his YouTube channel was terminated for violating policies on hate speech.[7]

He has received support from conservative commentator Michelle Malkin, who agreed to speak at Fuentes' "America First Political Action Conference" in February 2020.[2][31] As a result of supporting him, in November 2019 Malkin was promptly fired by the Young America's Foundation where she had been employed for 28 years.[32][33][34]

Fuentes' political commentary show America First with Nicholas J. Fuentes is live-streamed on DLive.[35][36]

Personal life

Fuentes attended Lyons Township High School where he was president of the Student Council.[37] In August 2017, he left Boston University after attending the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.[18] He applied for transfer admission to Auburn University for the Fall 2017 term, but did not confirm his enrollment by the deadline.[20] Fuentes is Catholic.[2][38]

References
  1. Arnett, Dugan (March 22, 2017). "The kids are far right". Boston Globe. Retrieved April 1, 2020. Nicholas Fuentes, a Boston University freshman from Illinois
  2. Nick, Anderson. "Far-right agitators roil the conservative movement on college campuses in battle to define Trumpism". Washington Post (November 16, 2019). Retrieved November 18, 2019.
  3. Calicchio, Dom (December 22, 2019). "Nick Fuentes fires back at Nikki Haley, Meghan McCain, others over Ben Shapiro confrontation". Fox News. Retrieved December 31, 2019.
  4. Dominic, green. "The groypers are American fascists". The Spectator.
  5. Collins, Ben (November 12, 2019). "Pro-Trump conservatives are getting trolled in real life by a far-right group". NBC News. Retrieved November 18, 2019.
  6. Coaston, Jane (November 11, 2019). "Why alt-right trolls shouted down Donald Trump Jr". Vox. Retrieved November 17, 2019.
  7. Thalen, Mikael (February 14, 2020). "YouTube deplatforms white nationalist Nick Fuentes". The Daily Dot. Retrieved February 16, 2020.
  8. Kidder, Jeffrey L.; Binder, Amy J. "Analysis | In the Trump era, campus conservative groups are fighting one another". Washington Post. Retrieved February 27, 2020. Over the past several months, however, Turning Point and YAF have been attacked for failing to espouse the more extreme “America First” populism advocated by figures like conservative columnist Michelle Malkin and conservative podcaster Nick Fuentes.
  9. Kidder, Jeffrey L.; Binder, Amy J. "Analysis | In the Trump era, campus conservative groups are fighting one another". Washington Post. Retrieved February 27, 2020. Over the past several months, however, Turning Point and YAF have been attacked for failing to espouse the more extreme “America First” populism advocated by figures like conservative columnist Michelle Malkin and conservative podcaster Nick Fuentes.
  10. Holt, Jared (May 8, 2018). "Nick Fuentes Denies Being A White Nationalist By Explaining That He's A White Nationalist". Right Wing Watch. People for the American Way. Retrieved March 5, 2020.
  11. Newman, Kalina. "Citing threats, student withdraws from BU after attending Charlottesville rally". USA TODAY. Retrieved January 5, 2020.
  12. "How the groypers gave the 'debate guys' a rough time". Spectator USA. November 6, 2019. Retrieved January 5, 2020.
  13. Gumbel, Andrew (November 11, 2019). "Donald Trump Jr walks out of Triggered book launch after heckling – from supporters". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved January 5, 2020.
  14. Petrizzo, Zachary (November 5, 2019). "Charlie Kirk has finally had it with these white nationalists in his movement". The Daily Dot. Retrieved February 10, 2020.
  15. "Don Jr. storms out over far-right hecklers at event for his book about liberals "silencing" speech". Salon. November 11, 2019. Retrieved February 10, 2020.
  16. Anderson, Nick (November 16, 2019). "Far-right agitators roil the conservative movement on college campuses in battle to define Trumpism". Washington Post. Retrieved January 7, 2020.
  17. Sommer, Will (December 11, 2019). "Racist 'Groypers' Step up Attacks on Campus Conservative Groups". Daily Beast. Retrieved January 5, 2020.
  18. Toussaint, Kristin (August 16, 2017). "Right-wing BU teen won't return to Boston after attending Charlottesville rally". www.metro.us. Retrieved January 7, 2020.
  19. Staff, Media Matters. "Right Side Broadcasting, The "Unofficial Version Of Trump TV," Forced To Apologize For Contributor's Call To "Kill The Globalists" At CNN". Media Matters for America. Retrieved November 17, 2019.
  20. Johnson, Roy S. (August 30, 2017). "Alt-right's Fuentes no longer with Right Side Broadcasting". Al.com. Retrieved January 7, 2020.
  21. Hananoki, Eric (August 22, 2017). "Right Side Broadcasting and Nicholas Fuentes, host who participated in white supremacist rally, part ways". Media Matters for America. Retrieved January 7, 2020.
  22. "James Orien Allsup". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved April 26, 2020.
  23. Breland, Ali (November 21, 2019). "How Twitter and YouTube are helping a white nationalist build a community fueled by hate". Mother Jones. Retrieved January 5, 2020.
  24. November 8, John SextonPosted at 4:43 pm on; 2019 (November 8, 2019). "Ben Shapiro bashes the alt-right- gets protested by the far-left". HotAir. Retrieved March 7, 2020.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  25. http://www.washingtontimes.com, The Washington Times. "No- Nick Fuentes and his 'Groypers' are not conservatives". The Washington Times. Retrieved March 7, 2020.
  26. "Charlie Kirk has finally had it with these white nationalists in his movement". The Daily Dot. November 5, 2019. Retrieved March 7, 2020.
  27. Anderson, Nick. "Far-right agitators roil the conservative movement on college campuses in battle to define Trumpism". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 30, 2020.
  28. Petrizzo, Zachary (December 21, 2019). "Nick Fuentes Trying to Bicker with Ben Shapiro Riles Up the Internet (updated)." The Daily Dot. Retrieved June 7, 2020.
  29. Thalen, Mikael (January 10, 2020). "It looks like white nationalist Nick Fuentes just had his YouTube channel demonetized". The Daily Dot. Retrieved January 12, 2020.
  30. Petrizzo, Zachary (November 8, 2019). "White nationalist Nick Fuentes tossed off Reddit". The Daily Dot. Retrieved January 12, 2020.
  31. "Young America's Foundation Excommunicates Michelle Malkin for Defending Nick Fuentes". Reason.com. November 18, 2019. Retrieved February 11, 2020.
  32. Sommer, Will (November 18, 2019). "Conservative Group Fires Michelle Malkin Over Support for Holocaust Denier". The Daily Beast. Retrieved March 7, 2020.
  33. "Young America's Foundation Excommunicates Michelle Malkin for Defending Nick Fuentes". Reason.com. November 18, 2019. Retrieved March 7, 2020.
  34. Mali, Meghashyam (November 18, 2019). "Conservative group cuts ties with Michelle Malkin". TheHill. Retrieved March 7, 2020.
  35. "What is DLive? It's White Nationalists Favorite Streaming Platform". The Daily Dot. January 1, 2020. Retrieved March 2, 2020.
  36. "nickjfuentes · DLive". DLive. Retrieved June 3, 2020.
  37. Mannion, Annemarie. "Area teen rallied in Charlottesville, got death threats, now planning move to 'solidly red' Alabama". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved March 2, 2020.
  38. Cortellessa, Eric; Sheffield, Matthew (November 22, 2019). "The Conservative Establishment's Nightmare Is Only Just Beginning". Washington Monthly - Politics. Retrieved April 30, 2020.
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