"RNC Contact" Gave White Supremacist And Virulent Misogynist A Convention Pass

Matt Forney, a pro-Trump white supremacist who claims women “want” to be “raped” and “beat[en],” attended the second day of the Republican National Convention with a guest pass and reported live from inside the convention arena for a racist radio program.

The white nationalist movement and adherents like Forney have been celebrating the Republican convention and nominee Donald Trump. They’re attending his convention and other campaign events and have used Trump and the RNC to recruit followers, fundraise, and spread their message. The Trump campaign has had a series of troubling interactions with the white nationalist movement, including giving a white nationalist radio host press credentials, failing to condemn their support, and retweeting them.

Forney has claimed that “Blacks do nothing but murder cops, rob and rape people, and bring death and destruction wherever they go” and argued that America needs “strict black control.” He’s also written misogynistic pieces claiming that women want to be raped and beaten and shouldn’t be educated.

Slate's Michelle Goldberg profiled Forney in the series "Better Know an RNC White Supremacist" and wrote that he "says he’s been gratified by the way the Donald Trump campaign has made his views less taboo." 

He wrote a July 20 piece headlined “The Alternative Right Infiltrates the Republican National Convention.” Forney claimed he received “guest credentials” from an unnamed “RNC contact” and was able to attend the convention on July 19. At one point, Forney says he was “invited to sit with the Hawaii delegation on the floor and observe the action up close.” He added that he “filmed several portions of the vote count for” a white nationalist show.  

Forney retweeted a picture of himself with a July 19 guest pass. He also tweeted pictures of himself “Sitting with the Hawaiian delegation on the floor of the RNC,” and shots from other spots around the convention.

Sitting with the Hawaiian delegation on the floor of the RNC. #RNCinCle #RNC2016 pic.twitter.com/VfZzj47RO9

— Matt Forney (@basedmattforney) July 20, 2016

Forney reported live from the RNC for the white nationalist program Red Ice Radio, which is hosted by Henrik Palmgren and Lana Lokteff. The Southern Poverty Law Center calls the program “a racist online radio broadcast” and “white nationalist.”

Red Ice Radio promotes anti-Semitism and Holocaust denialism. Its YouTube videos include “David Cole - The Truth Behind the Gates of Auschwitz,” “Jim Rizoli - What Really Happened at Auschwitz?,” “Eric Hunt - The Shoah: The Biggest Hoax of the 20th Century?” and “Ole Dammegard - Making Critical Thinking Illegal: Questioning the Holocaust.”

During the July 19 broadcast, Palmgren said that Forney is “inside in the convention center right now.” Forney then briefly described what was currently happening at the convention and broadcast live images of the proceedings. (Forney’s broadcast appeared to have some technical difficulties.)

Forney previously held a fundraiser “to help me cover the Republican and Democratic National Conventions this month” with Red Ice Radio and made his “goal with a total of $2,639.88 in donations, exceeding my original goal of $2,500.”

Forney has written that blacks and Muslims “can’t be trusted” and must be brought under control, "Mexicans are a fifth column in the U.S.," “The children of interracial marriages are almost always fucked in the head,” and Jewish and Mormon people “work to undermine their host cultures.” Here is a sample of his white supremacist writings:

• “White men built America, and without them, America will die.” [MattForney.com, 4/5/16]

• “The children of interracial marriages are almost always fucked in the head. If I get married and have a family, it'll be with a white woman.” [Twitter, 7/9/16]

• “White people can handle their guns. Blacks and Muslims can't. Bring them under control and end the violence. #PrayForFlorida #Orlando.” [Twitter, 6/12/16]

• “The Amarillo incident is more proof that we need strict black control and Muslim control, not gun control. #prayforamarillo #prayfortexas.” [Twitter, 6/14/16]

• “Blacks and Muslims have proven that they can't be trusted. Black control now, Muslim control now. #Amarillo #PrayForAmarillo #PrayForTexas.” [Twitter, 6/14/16]

• “Mormons are white Jews: belligerent subversives who despise ‘Gentiles’ and work to undermine their host cultures.” [Twitter, 3/20/16]

• “Jews support gun control because their limp wrists make it impossible for them to shoot straight.” [Twitter, 2/8/16]

• “Blacks do nothing but murder cops, rob and rape people, and bring death and destruction wherever they go. #Dallas #PhilandoCastile.” [Twitter, 7/7/16]

• “Whites don't shoot cops. Blacks do. Bring blacks under control and the violence will end. #Dallas #PhilandoCastile.” [Twitter, 7/7/16]

• “Mexicans are a fifth column in the U.S. An occupying army. And our politicians let them in by refusing to enforce our laws. #MAGA #SanJose.” [Twitter, 6/3/16]

• “#PaulLePage is right. What, you think the old white liberals of Maine are selling heroin? It's blacks and Latinos.” [Twitter, 1/7/16]

• "Let’s just be honest: everyone hates blacks." [alternative-right.blogspot.com, 1/3/15, via Slate] 

He regularly writes virulently anti-women posts. His website includes posts with headlines like “How to Beat Your Girlfriend or Wife and Get Away with It.” Forney advocates “weekly whippings,” claiming: “Since most girls want to be spanked, it’s extremely unlikely that she will ever consider your weekly whippings to be ‘domestic violence.’ Even if she doesn’t like the sting of your palm, her sense of shame will keep her from reporting you to the police.”

Other headlines include: “Why Feminists Want Men to Rape Them” (“Here are the reasons why feminists want to be sexually assaulted, and why they’re working around the clock to aid rapists”); “Hurt Your Wife to Show Her You Love Her”; “The Case Against Female Education”; “The Myth of Female Intelligence”; “Who Cares What Women Think?”; “The Inevitability of Female Submission”; “The Case Against Female Self-Esteem”; and “Why Fat Girls Don’t Deserve to Be Loved.”

Forney is also anti-gay and uses his Twitter account to call opponents “faggot.”

The Washington Post’s Caitlin Dewey wrote that “Forney is a professional Internet troll” and can contend for “most-hated man” on the internet:

Matt Forney: Forney, a blogger and member of the Valizadeh school, proudly crowned himself the most-hated man on the Internet after his argument “against female self-esteem” went viral last fall. Forney is a professional Internet troll, and has actually published a book to that effect. Publishing blog posts with titles like “Why Fat Girls Don’t Deserve to Be Loved” is, apparently, a profitable enterprise.

Forney is strongly supporting Trump for president. He explained that he’s voting for Trump because “Trump’s presidential campaign is the closest America will come to redemption, the last triumph of nationalism before the left swamps us with hordes of barely literate foreigners who will vote them into a permanent majority. I’m not going to sit back and pretend that both parties are identical when one of them is presenting a clear alternative to decay and decline.”

He also wrote a piece headlined “How Donald Trump Is Inspiring A Masculine Renaissance In America.” He explained that “his unabashedly masculine personality has (in the words of my friend the Bechtloff) been an injection of testosterone directly into the nation’s bloodstream.”

Radio host Alex Jones also reportedly received a “special guest” credential for the convention. Jones believes numerous toxic conspiracy theories, including that the 9/11 attacks were an inside job by the government.

White nationalists have been regular attendees at Trump events.

BuzzFeed’s Rosie Gray reported that white nationalist leader Richard Spencer also had received “a credential for the convention but wouldn’t say how he’d gotten it, only saying he has ‘friends in high places.’ But he said he had continually been running into self-identified members of the alt-right around Cleveland. ‘The alt right is here,’ he said.”

Vice News reported that white nationalist leader Matthew Heimbach, who has been supporting Trump outside the convention, said “he personally knows several other members of his group who are Trump delegates and currently on the convention floor.” American Freedom Party leader William Johnson was picked as a convention delegate but resigned following criticism.

White nationalist radio host James Edwards attended a February Trump event and was given press credentials by the campaign. VDare founder Peter Brimelow attended a rally in November. Heimbach and his allies previously engaged “in pushing and shouting match with African American counter-protesters at [a] Super Tuesday Trump rally,” as the Southern Poverty Law Center noted.