When the volunteer helping after a hurricane is a white nationalist | 60 Minutes
In a Nutshell
White nationalist groups like Active Club and Patriot Front exploit U.S. disasters such as Hurricane Helene in North Carolina by providing aid, filming content for social media recruitment, and softening their anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant image to attract young white men, while spreading government conspiracy theories that hinder official responses. Leaders like Robert Rundo promote "pro-white" nationalism and fascist ideals, aiming for a militant white Christian nation under military rule, as watchdogs label their efforts "disaster tourism" that creates chaos without sustained help. Sheriff Loy Griffin warns that false rumors—like FEMA seizing supplies or government weather weapons—complicated rescues and may become the new normal for future events.
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
A surge of over 200 tornadoes hit 20 states in the last couple of weeks in April. Hurricane season is approaching. Militias, conspiracists, and white supremacists show up to hard-hit communities, as in Texas last week, offering help but called disaster tourists who sow doubt in government, soften their image, and gain followers.
September 2024, Hurricane Helene barreled through North Carolina, nearly wiping out Batcave, lifting homes and toppling trees.
Imagine taking in a box of toothpicks and dumping them on your kitchen counter.
Sheriff Loy Griffin faced a daunting rescue task after days of heavy rain followed by the hurricane, described as a triple whammy.
Outsiders poured into North Carolina, including anti-government far-right groups.
These folks that we're talking about, they were in the minority. However, that minority can create chaos, and that's what we ran into.
Some outsiders launched their own rescue operations, acting as a militia to bring self-deployed law and order with weapons, diverting time from real rescues.
Members of white nationalist group Active Club showed up.
Going to a disaster relief is directly helping our people. You go in to help white people. Yeah.
Robert Rundo co-founded Active Club in 2020 for disgruntled young white men to work out and share ideology. It has nearly 90 chapters, described by watchdogs as one of the country's fastest-growing white supremacist networks that are anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, and anti-democracy. They hold mixed martial arts tournaments.
We get together with the boys. We box. We travel. Do you think of it as fun? Of course. You know, there's fun in fascism.
I'm a nationalist. What does that mean? A nationalist? Means I put my people first.
Would you say white supremacist? No. I think that's a slanderous term. But my people are white people. European white people. And there's plenty of organizations that are geared towards other ethnic groups. If we don't look out for ourselves, who is?
Active Club has gone to floods, fires, hurricanes.
What if you came upon someone who wasn't white but is suffering because of the flood? Like if there was a guy on fire, would I give them water? Yeah, I'd probably give them water.
When you go into these areas, are you recruiting? We hand out flyers. If somebody wants to contact us later, that's fine. But just us showing up changes somebody's opinion. So the next time when they put something out and they say these evil guys, they say, "Wait a second, that's the guy who came when my house was on fire and helped me out."
These groups aim to build a pro-white parallel system.
Patriot Front, a prominent white supremacist group, cut down trees and handed out bread in North Carolina.
Are you sure just one loaf?
Freddy Cruz from Western States Center, a hate group watchdog, says white nationalists go to disasters primarily to build a following via social media content, dubbed disaster tourism, then leave.
These people come in, they hand out water, they help clean up the debris. Whatever their ideology, they're doing something positive, aren't they? What we're seeing is actually these groups will show up and generate a whole bunch of social media content. That's generally what we see.
Unlike Team Rubicon (veterans) or Samaritans Purse (religious), which coordinate with authorities and stay.
When you go into an area that's distressed, do you coordinate in any way with the local law enforcement, with the sheriff? Absolutely not. They would probably do everything they can to prevent us.
What do you say to people who argue that you go in, the purpose is to have some video shot of you handing out some water and then you leave. And the whole point was for to get that video so that you could post it. That kind of sounds like what everyone does, right? That's what a president does when he goes into a community. They have the cameras there. So, is that bottle of water actually being handed out? Absolutely it is. Does our guys actually care and feel for the people that are helping out? Absolutely. Do we also video it and put it out there to show another side of us? Absolutely.
Extremist groups post videos after floods (Patriot Front in central Texas) and during fires (Santa Monica Pier collecting donations for wildfire victims).
Videos about natural disasters reach a large audience.
I think white nationalists are interested in natural disasters because everybody is interested in natural disasters.
John Kelly of Graphika notes natural disasters focus public attention.
These groups change their image to wholesome, leaving triggering iconography behind to appeal mainstream, avoiding swastikas.
A lot of mainstream media how they depict us, they like to show a guy who's in camo, trucker hat, maybe overweight, face tattoos. What I wanted to do was to create something positive for young guys like myself.
Robert Rundo thinks the macho, wholesome image gives young men permission to adopt his fascist philosophy.
Dan Bilzerian, Instagram influencer with 30 million followers, promotes anti-Semitism.
I believe that Jewish supremacy is the greatest threat to America and I think it's the greatest threat to the world today.
Ideas seep into mainstream politics: Bill Xarion running for Congress in Florida; in a group chat, young Republican leaders praised Hitler.
Nick Fuentes:
And I was thinking, what is it about Hitler that's cool? Why does it tickle? Cuz kids love Hitler. Kids love Hitler.
Active Club young men hide faces in disaster posts.
Our people come first.
Rundo is spokesman; hasn't gone to disasters recently as he was in prison twice: first as teen for gang fight (allegedly stabbed somebody), second for 2017 fights with anti-Trump protesters at rallies (video shows him pounding).
36-year-old from New York, on the lam when launching clean-cut white pride group.
We're ultra nationalist, far-right fascist.
Ultimate goal: turn America into a completely white Christian nation, more militant, under military rule.
Is your ultimate goal to turn America into a completely white Christian nation? I would also add like a more militant nation as well, military rule like having a military person run the country.
Well, just not more of democracy. Democracy is terrible because it's such a scam. Politicians get lobbied, they never have the interest of anything that's important. Do they ever ask us? No. But if you have a military they'll decide. We don't decide anything right now.
Disasters allow slamming government.
Government didn't help whatsoever.
Videos claim government response was chaotic, clueless, corrupt.
And I am disgusted.
Drew more outsiders: militia men from Virginia to clear houses.
When the government fails, the people come together.
Veterans on Patrol from Arizona organized supplies but created chaos per law enforcement. Sheriff Griffin says they spread misinformation complicating the situation: people still stranded, bodies floating in river, FEMA rationing/seizing supplies (all false).
Get your information from official sources and not from TikTok or Facebook.
FEMA rescuers backed away for days fearing militias hunting them during Helene. Rumor: government created Hurricane Helene using weather monitoring towers as directed energy weapons to manipulate weather.
Now, this is a directed energy weapon utilized to manipulate the weather. These are weapons of mass destruction. So basically the rumor was that the government controls the weather and that this was a direct attack on the area.
Sheriff Griffin fears this—false rumors, conspiracies, outside groups streaming in making law enforcement harder—will be the new normal.
How China exploits US natural disasters by boosting narratives portraying US government as ineffective at 60minutesovertime.com.
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