The Daily Caller Has A White Nationalist Problem
On Monday, August 14, the Daily Caller very quietly to the publication after the violence and chaos in Charlottesville. The white nationalist 鈥淯nite the Right鈥� rally was organized by Kessler.听
But the white nationalist problem at Tucker Carlson鈥檚 Daily Caller, a conservative political outlet as a 鈥渞esponse鈥� to the Huffington Post, is bigger than just Kessler. Throughout the 2016 election and since, the Daily听Caller has not only published the work of white nationalists, but some of its writers have routinely whitewashed the Alt-Right, while one editor there is an associate of key Alt-Right figures. Two Daily Caller contributors, including a senior investigative reporter, were recently announced as speakers at the upcoming white nationalist H.L. Mencken Club conference organized by Paul Gottfried, a godfather of the Alt-Right.听
As for recent Daily Caller contributors, take Peter Brimelow; the English white nationalist is the founder of the website VDARE, named after Virginia Dare, the supposed first white child born in the new world. VDARE is a major hub for white nationalists and anti-Semites. Brimelow is a leading figure on the Alt-Right and has been published in the Daily Caller in recent months, with his first coming in March defending Rep. Steve King, a hero to white nationalists, who recently , 鈥淕eert Wilders understands that culture and demographics are our destiny. We can鈥檛 restore our civilization with somebody else鈥檚 babies.鈥�
A few years ago, the Daily听Caller publishing the work of an established white nationalist would be unthinkable. Take the response from Washington, D.C., senior contributor Matt K. Lewis following the firing of white nationalist John Derbyshire from National Review in 2012 for writing a racist screed regarding the Trayvon Martin shooting titled, 鈥淭he Talk: Nonblack Version.鈥� The article, presented as conversation between a white parent and their child included lines like, 鈥淎 small cohort of blacks 鈥� in my experience, around five percent 鈥� is ferociously hostile to whites and will go to great lengths to inconvenience or harm us.鈥� It also included tips like, 鈥淚f planning a trip to a beach or amusement park at some date, find out whether it is likely to be swamped with blacks on that date.鈥� Lewis鈥� in the Daily Caller to Derbyshire鈥檚 2012 firing was, 鈥淪ome people aren鈥檛 worth the [sic] fighting for. Some things are indefensible. This is one of those cases.鈥�
Following his firing, Derbyshire joined VDARE as a regular contributor, and now his boss, Brimelow, is contributing articles to the Daily Caller.
But Brimelow is only a contributor. Despite his attempts to hide it, Daily Caller deputy editor Scott Greer has questionable ties to many younger members of the white nationalist movement. The activist website published multiple photographs of Greer in late 2016 documenting his extensive relationships with other white nationalists. In the expose, mostly taken from Facebook, Greer is photographed with hardcore white nationalists such as Devin Saucier, a man who works as an assistant to Jared Taylor of American Renaissance. One of the most prominent white nationalists of the past quarter century, Taylor once wrote, "Blacks and whites are different. When blacks are left entirely to their own devices, Western civilization 鈥� any kind of civilization 鈥� disappears."
Saucier is a regular attendee at white nationalist gatherings, including Alt-Right leader Richard Spencer鈥檚 National Policy Institute (NPI) conferences. Greer is also pictured with another white nationalist, Marcus Epstein, another friend of Spencer鈥檚 who pled guilty in 2009 to drunkenly assaulting an African American woman in Washington, D.C., which occurred two years prior.
In these photos, Greer is seen wearing a Youth for Western Civilization (YWC) t-shirt. YWC is a now defunct white nationalist student group founded by Epstein and another white nationalist, Kevin DeAnna. DeAnna has been involved with the 听collective called the Wolves of Vinland, and Greer has been photographed at a Wolves gathering with Saucier and others.
An active member of the Wolves is Maurice Michaely, a man who was for burning down the black historical Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Haymarket, Virginia. to the 鈥淔ools of Vinland鈥� blog, Greer liked a picture of Michaely that was posted on Facebook in 2014, showing him in prison with the letters 666 scrawled onto his hand.听
While Greer has scrubbed his Facebook page, his account still shows that he 鈥溾�� a number of white nationalists, including of YWC who Greer is sometimes photographed with, as well as Richard Spencer and Steve Sailer of VDARE.
Greer鈥檚 writings also indicate his white nationalist views, though calibrated for a more mainstream conservative audience. He recently published a book, No Campus for White Men 鈥� an attack piece focused on the evergreen right-wing grievance of 鈥減olitical correctness鈥� on college campuses 鈥� which received glowing reviews from white nationalist websites including , and . Greer, originally from Tennessee, published a staunch defense of the Confederate battle flag for the Daily Caller in July of 2016, that a National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples leader鈥檚 call to remove Confederate soldiers from a carving on Stone Mountain in Georgia was 鈥渞emarkably similar to the tactics of jihadis like ISIS and the Taliban.鈥� Other stories written by Greer for the Daily Caller include tropes that are often peddled by white nationalists including black-on-white crime, and that immigrants are bringing disease to the country.
In a 2014 piece, Greer an article in Time magazine on the threat right wing anti-government groups and individuals pose to law enforcement. 鈥淎 thorough search of Time鈥檚 archive produced no stories about the threat that communists, black nationalists or prison gangs pose to police,鈥� he claimed. In a May 2015 opinion piece, Greer praise on St. Louis County district attorney Bob McCulloch for his handling of the Michael Brown case, despite McCulloch鈥檚 of bias and the widespread criticism he received for his actions during the aftermath of the shooting.
One of Greer鈥檚 fixations is on downplaying the problem of sexual assault on college campuses. In a July 2015 opinion piece, Greer then-candidate Donald Trump who called Mexicans 鈥渃riminals and rapists,鈥� writing, 鈥滶xcept that it鈥檚 still Hispanic men who are raping these women, and the countries where illegal immigrants primarily come from countries [sic] have sexual assault rates that dwarf the phony numbers for American universities. The eight-in-ten figure for migrant women proves that there is a very real rape culture among illegal immigrants, contrary to what some fact checkers might want you to believe.鈥�
In a June 2015 piece, Greer again sexual assault on campuses, writing, 鈥淸I]t鈥檚 the perverse fantasy that thousands of women will be raped at some point during their college years,鈥� before making a statement that is often heard from Alt-Right misogynists. 鈥淥n top of that,鈥� Greer opines, 鈥渕ore innocent men will find themselves accused of these crimes and see their lives ruined by a culture that nurses and refuses to punish false rape accusations.鈥�
The day after the 2016 election, Greer , 鈥淣ow as a white man, I can finally feel safe in America.鈥� Richard Spencer is clearly a fan of Greer鈥檚, retweeting him a number of times.
Unite the Right鈥檚 Jason Kessler is another white nationalist who contributed to the Daily Caller in 2017. His three pieces just happen to span some of the recent causes common to both white nationalists and some mainstream conservatives: The preservation of Confederate monuments, the hyping of grisly crimes committed by the M-13 gang as a frame to attack immigration, and the听manufacturing of campus free speech martyrs, in this case听Ann Coulter.
Kessler is a fresh face on the scene, coming to prominence in late 2016 when he launched a vendetta campaign against Charlottesville, Virginia, Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy, following Bellamy鈥檚 call for the removal of a statute of Robert E. Lee from a downtown park. Kessler started a petition to oust Bellamy and also founded an anti-immigrant/white nationalist organization, Unity and Security for America, and used it to vocally support Corey Stewart, pro-Confederate Virginia gubernatorial candidate. Kessler was arrested in January for punching a man while he was gathering signatures for his anti-Bellamy petition. After video evidence showed Kessler punching the man unprovoked, he pled guilty to misdemeanor assault and was later sentenced to 50 hours of community service.
His petition campaign failed in March of 2017, but Kessler continued attacking Bellamy, sharing a number of racist articles on social media, including one that referred to Bellamy as a 鈥減avement ape鈥� and 鈥淐ouncilman Dindu,鈥� a reference to a racist meme. At the same time he was writing for Daily Caller, Kessler also wrote for VDARE.
On May 14, the dispute over the Confederate statues galvanized white nationalists who convened in Charlottesville to protest, with Richard Spencer leading a torch-lit march. Kessler was arrested for a second time in four months for not obeying an officer鈥檚 orders.
Nevertheless, the next day Kessler published a glowing account of the protest on the Daily Caller, complete with photos from his own Twitter account (#SaveLeeandJackson). He noted that though not all of the speakers were Southerners, they, 鈥渟ympathized with the fight to preserve a history which they say is increasingly under attack by Left-wing ideologues who want to tear down statues, change the names of buildings and rewrite history books to place white people in an unsympathetic and even hostile light.鈥�
pointed out glaring omissions from Kessler鈥檚 report, writing, 鈥淚t didn鈥檛 disclose that its author, Jason Kessler, is supportive of white supremacist groups, and on the day of the march had himself made a speech to the protesters in which he praised fascist and racist organizations, thanked a prominent Holocaust denier, and declared the beginnings of a cultural 鈥渃ivil war.鈥� The Daily Caller ended its freelance relationship with Kessler only after ProPublica contacted the organization for comment. Kessler鈥檚 LinkedIn page still lists him as a Daily听Caller contributor.
White nationalist Paul Gottfried, who many credit with coining the phrase 鈥淎lternative Right鈥� alongside Richard Spencer, recently announced the lineup for his annual H.L. Mencken Club conference, a white nationalist event that takes place in Baltimore each November and was co-founded by Spencer. Daily Caller contributor Ilana Mercer听is slated as a speaker听for this year鈥檚 event and听will be joined by Peter Brimelow. Mercer has written for the Daily听Caller in the past year.听
Mercer鈥檚 pieces contain racially charged rhetoric commonly found on white nationalist websites. Mercer鈥檚 own website contains praise from white nationalist John Derbyshire, who in 2007 her, 鈥渞avishing, brilliant, and eloquent.鈥� Writing for the Daily听Caller just after the first Charlottesville rally, Mercer a piece titled, 鈥淪anctuary City Mayor Trashes American Hero Robert E. Lee,鈥� where she called Lee a 鈥済reat American.鈥� In another decrying black-on-white crime in her native South Africa, Mercer wrote, 鈥淟et not the swirl of statistics conceal the flesh-and-blood casualties of this black-on-white offensive. South Africa鈥檚 farmers, undeniably, are the focus of ethnocide. Contrary to the Syrians and Somalis streaming into the United States, they would make fabulous refugees, President Trump.鈥� The article was on Jared Taylor鈥檚 American Renaissance website the same day it appeared in the Daily Caller, and no wonder. Decrying and embellishing black on white crime is a key white nationalist trope, as is claiming to there is a systematic 鈥�white genocide鈥� taking place in South Africa.
In one of her many anti-Muslim screeds written on the Daily Caller, Mercer in May, 鈥淧olicy makers and power brokers in the West have invited Muslim immigrants to live among us in the idiotic belief that, underneath the nose-bags (the burqa, the abaya and full-body swaddle), they were just like us.鈥� Mercer, whose personal website carries the banner 鈥淰erbal Swordplay For Civilization,鈥� is especially proud of the 鈥渘ose-bag鈥� line, using it in multiple columns and her book The Trump Revolution.
In March of 2017, Mercer wrote another racist piece for the Daily Caller fit for the pages of American Renaissance. Her concluding paragraph of an article titled, 鈥淎frica: Before and After Colonialism,鈥� Mercer , 鈥淲hen all is said and done, the West is what it is due to human capital 鈥� people of superior ideas and abilities, capable of innovation, exploration, science, philosophy. Human action is the ultimate adjudicator of a human being鈥檚 worth; the aggregate action of many human beings acting in concert makes or breaks a society. Overall, American society is superior to assorted African and Arab societies because America is still inhabited by the kind of individuals who make possible a thriving civil society.鈥�
There is a long history of white nationalists contributing to mainstream conservative publications, such as the National Review. But the Daily Caller鈥檚 embrace of white nationalists reflects the resurgence of the nationalist right, ethno and otherwise, represented by President Trump. Trump鈥檚 campaign and Electoral College victory electrified the radical right and pulled the Overton Window further in their direction. Stephen K. Bannon鈥檚 elevation into the West Wing after running what he as 鈥渢he platform for the Alt-Right鈥� in Breitbart was part of the jackpot shared by a rogue鈥檚 gallery of extremist political operators. This is also apparent in the administration鈥檚 immigration policy, which is almost perfectly aligned with the white nationalist movement, and was originally . There鈥檚 no other way to understand why Daily Caller would hire Peter Brimelow as a contributor if not for Trump鈥檚 victory.
In his founding editor鈥檚 note Carlson wrote:
We see our core job as straightforward: Find out what鈥檚 happening and tell you about it. We plan to be accurate, both in the facts we assert and in the conclusions we imply. If we鈥檙e not, tell us
We鈥檙e telling you, Tucker. Your听flagship website has a white nationalist problem.
An email听to the Daily Caller's executive editor Paul Conner seeking comment went unanswered.听
Editor's note:听Daily Caller听Senior Investigative Reporter Richard Pollock was initially included in this story because he gave a speech on DC media to the H.L. Mencken Club. It was his only speech in front of the group and -- beyond this experience as a guest speaker -- there is no evidence to suggest Mr. Pollock is otherwise a white nationalist.听
