Louis Theroux: Forbidden America (2022–…): Season 1, Episode 1 - Extreme and Online - full transcript

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This programme contains
racist and discriminatory language,

strong language from the start
and scenes of sexual violence

What is my agenda? You hate white
people, OK? So, why don't you get

over yourself? Why don't you
apologise for your ancestors from

thousands of years ago, cos you're
white, Louis, aren't you?

Aren't you white? Yeah.

Oh, so why don't you apologise
for who you are?

Cos you're a disgrace.

You're seething now.
No, you're seething.

You look like you're about to start
crying.

You're the one that's crying. Why
are you so triggered? Come on, man.



OK, let's finish this.

For several months,
I'd been spending time with

a new incarnation of the far right.

America First, bitch.

You think America should be
majority white?

Yes! Yes.

It's not a bigoted thing.

It's not a white nationalist thing
or a hateful thing.

CHANTING: America First!
America First!

A movement spawned online
and defined by racism,

misogyny and homophobia...

Racism is the new rock and roll!

And I'm the biggest rock star
of all of 'em!

...using social media and streaming
to radicalise its young audience.



Let me tell you a joke.

Black lives DON'T matter.

Isn't there some part of you
that thinks, like,

"That's not really where
I want to be"?

No, I actually enjoy racist
humour and misogyny.

I think that's awesome.

I think we need more racist jokes,
to be honest.

CROWD: You will not replace us!
You will not replace us!

We are in the Capitol building!

At a time when internet hate

is increasingly leading
to real-world conflict,

I was attempting to understand
the motivations and the techniques

of a new generation of
home-grown extremists...

You did a Nazi salute.
I did not do a Nazi salute.

You should get the BLEEP
out of my house.

...on the front line of
a cultural war.

Are you kind of making
a documentary about me

while I make one about you?

Well, I can't tell you, but you're
dealing with one of the world's

most intricate internet trolls.

In Orlando, Florida, outside CPac,

the Conservative Political
Action Conference,

I was with the followers of
a rising star of the far right.

CHANTING: America First!
America First! America First!

CHEERING

His name is Nicholas ] Fuentes.

22 years old and
a fan of Donald Trump,

he's considered too extreme
even for the right wing of

the Republican Party
and is banned from their events.

I'd like to go to CPac.
No, you cannot.

There are no more tickets on sale.
There's no more tickets?!

No more tickets.

CPac sucks, it's gay,
they're not conservative.

Yeah, we're leaving,
we're leaving now, bye-bye.

CHANTING: America First!
America First! America First!

Reportedly barred from CPac,
for the last two years,

Nick has run his own event, AfPac -

the America First Political
Action Conference -

a short distance away.

We were the first television crew
they'd allowed in to film.

OK, so here we are.

This is going to be our
conference tomorrow.

You're in charge of this, right?
Yes, we got our helpers around.

They're just setting up the tables.

So, they're putting out these,
which are stickers, right? Yes.

"America First Bitch."

NICK LAUGHS
Yeah.

There should be a comma there,
cos it's not like, you know,

"I'm an America-First bitch".

They messed it up. Yeah.

Cos I saw that I was, like...

That makes it sound like YOU'RE
the bitch. Right, I know.

LOUIS CHUCKLES

That's the worst possible outcome.
I know.

You could go around just doing
a comma in all of them.

Yeah, yeah, we could get
a white Sharpie.

Cos otherwise... Yeah, I know.

In terms of what
America First represents,

am I right in thinking that,
for you, something that you call

"demographics" is big?
Yes. Critical.

What is that?

Well, demographics is just obviously
the people that comprise the nation.

Mm-hm. And, er, you know,
people take that to mean race.

And race is a big part of it,
but demographics... For you?

Is it for you?
Big part of it, period.

I think, you know, just racial
demographics are very salient

right now, given Black Lives Matter.

But it's about recognising
that race is not everything,

but it's not nothing.

If you change the people in America,

and you change the place
that is America,

is it really still America any more?

Is it really still our home?
I think that's the question.

And the answer, to me, is "no".

Am I right in thinking
you want no immigration?

Yeah, more or less. Including legal?

Correct, yeah.

How's the set-up coming?
Pretty good.

In the last several years,

Nick has emerged as
the new voice of the far right.

Test, test...

Hosting a nightly show which he
streams from Chicago to thousands of

homes around the US and the world.

Why do we need people
coming into our countries?

The United States
was doing just fine before

all these immigrants came here.

We take them out of countries
like the Middle East.

How do they repay that generosity?
They rape our children.

And you see scum. You see filth.

In his broadcasts, Nick embraces
views and language that are racist,

homophobic, sexist and anti-Semitic,

packaging the most extreme
statements as jokes and irony.

People say, "Nick, what's your
problem with Jews?

"What is your problem with
the Jewish people?

"Why on earth do you have such
a problem with them?"

I say, "You know what?
I have a big problem with Jews.

"There's not enough of 'em! There's
not enough of 'em to go around.”

Hello, folks. Nick Fuentes here.

We are in sunny Charlottesville,
Virginia.

In 2017, aged just 18,

he was at the infamous
Unite The Right rally

in Charlottesville, Virginia...

Shields up! Hey! Hey! Hey!

...where anti-racism protestor
Heather Heyer was killed by

a Hitler-obsessed 20-year-old.

The tragic outcome and the
evident extremism of the event

led to the disintegration of
the so-called alt-right.

Many younger members regrouped
under Nick's leadership.

I'm Louis. How do you do?
Louis? Nice to meet you.

Are you part of the cause?
Er, yes, sir, absolutely.

How did you first find out about
Nick and America First?

Well, you know, there was
a lot of confusion in, kind of,

the right-wing political space
at the time and there were some very

nasty people, you know, kind of,
involved in different movements,

different groups, and Nick was one
of the only people who was, kind of,

identifying what these guys were
doing wrong and how we could

build something that was, like,
infinitely better, you know?

What did you see, Nick,
that was, as you saw it,

being done incorrectly?

I went to Charlottesville
to protest the removal of

the Robert E Lee statue.

I went to Charlottesville
to protest mass immigration.

Then you get there and you see
people throwing up a Roman salute,

and, you know, you see a Nazi flag,
and it's, like,

"Well, this isn't really
what I signed up for."

And all these people are,
like, total freaks.

They don't like America.
They're not Christian.

So, I mean, what the hell
are we really doing here?

So, America First kind of emerged
from that moment of confusion of,

where does the internet
right wing go after Trump

and after Charlottesville?

We're almost ready for a test.
OK, great.

Getting our projectors set up.

Wow, look at that.

Hey, Steven. This is Louis Theroux,
are you familiar?

Yeah, nice to meet you.
How are you doing? Nice to meet you.

Yeah, likewise. BBC, right?
That's it, yeah. Very cool.

This guy's a documentarian, too.

You are, too?
Are you here filming as well?

Yeah, we're going to be doing
a documentary. About Nick? Yeah.

Who is yours for?

It's for America First. For me.

So, you're funding it. Mm-hm.

Very cool.

That'll be nice, cos then
you can decide what goes in

and what doesn't go in.
That's right, yeah.

HE LAUGHS

What's going on, Junior?

Are you going to AfPac, too?

HE LAUGHS
"Yes.

How are you doing? Can we say hi?
I'm Louis from the BBC.

Nice to meet you.

Are you part of America First
as well?

Oh, OK. No problem.
Thank you. Cute baby.

I was curious to speak
to a female... Yes.

...member of the tribe
because, so far,

mainly been seeing guys around.
Yeah, it's all guys.

I mean, we try to,
as best as we can,

keep women out of the inner circle.

Women, when they get involved in
these dissident political movements,

they tend to be a total disaster
because this is a high-pressure,

extremely high-pressure environment.

Women tend to crack under
the pressure and they tend to

cause friction within the group.

Is it your view that women,
really, their role is

in the home, rather than in
the workplace? Yeah, 100%.

Women have been convinced
that it's dignified to

abandon your children, I mean,
from their womb literally,

to go work in an office, you know,
to go work for a corporation.

How sick is that?

WWomen... should still have
the right to vote, right?

Mm, I mean, I don't think so,

but that's probably not going
away any time soon.

That's pretty fringe, isn't it?

Thinking women maybe shouldn't
have the right to vote? Yeah.

But, I mean, look,
the society's broken.

So, people that are in
the mainstream are, you know,

they're participating in a
totally broken system, you know?

So, it's like, if the
society's totally destroyed,

wouldn't it be the people on the
fringes that are...

...would have the antidote?

Whatever side of the fringe,

but wouldn't it be
the people on the outside?

Cos the people on the inside are
fucking everything up, you know?

For lack of a better word.

That's how I see it.

To his young fans, Nick is an icon.

Many of them have come up
socialising via online video games,

immersed in the
culture of the internet.

How would you characterise
what Nick is doing?

Is he on the rise, do you think?

He has become, in only four years,
the most successful

dissident political movement
in modern history.

And he has the capability to get
thousands of young people to show up

in any state at a moment's notice.

How is he doing that?

He's in that gaming and meme
culture, right, and he uses

the same type of ironic jokes that
they do, so that's how he's able

to attract the younger crowd.

You seem young, are you at
university at the moment? I am.

You're a student? That's correct.

It's important to get young people
politically engaged to control

not only the direction that the
country is headed as a whole, but

especially the direction that the
conservative movement is headed in.

Are you a gamer? Is that part
of what's going on as well?

I think that's generally something
that would fit into the personality

of a lot of the attendees of
this conference, I think, you know,

we generally like to game a little
bit of, you know, Fortnite,

Call of Duty, here and there. Sure.

How did you connect with Nick?
Used to play Fortnite together.

Er... You and Nick? Yeah. For real?
It's the new golf course.

Through Trump and through politics
and stuff, we had similar ideas

and stuff, and we just, kind of,
became friends over the internet,

over Twitter.

Alongside his gamer following,

Nick has also made in-roads in
the political establishment.

Among the attendees was
former congressman Steve King.

One of the things that Nick and
America First have been

criticised for is being racist,
right?

I mean, he's accused of
being a white supremacist

and an anti-Semitic?

What we believe is that
we are created by God

and all of us created in His image.

And, once you accept that,

then there's no room
for any racism whatsoever.

And the interaction I've had with
the young people that are here -

this is the energy core that will
put America back on the rails again,

because so much of her has run off
the rails in the last years.

The event was sold out
with around 300 attendees

and thousands more watching
live online -

a young underground bringing the
taboo culture of the darker parts

of the internet into the real world.

CHEERING

CHANTING: Nick! Nick! Nick!
Nick! Nick! Nick!

When I see what's going on
in the country,

I don't want to listen to some
of these five-hour podcasts

about policy making.

I want to get in front of
somebody and say,

"It's America First, bitch!"

CHEERING

America is a Christian nation.

CHEERING

If America ceases to retain that
English cultural framework

and the influence of
European civilisation,

if it loses its white
demographic core

and if it loses its faith
in Jesus Christ,

then this is not America any more.

CHEERING

And I know some people aren't
going to like me saying this...

I'm sure you all are going
to love what I'm about to say,

but people watching
at home are not -

some of them are not going to
like this. It's controversial.

Which, really, it's true,

but it's something that
you can't say any more.

White people founded this country.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

This country wouldn't exist
without white people!

CHEERING CONTINUES

And white people are
done being bullied!

CHANTING: America First!
America First! America First!

America First! America First!
America First! America First!

America First!

It was shocking to
hear Nick's vision,

using lies and distortions to
promote an ethos of white identity

and racial division.

The following day,
Nick released a tweet

to show that one of
his speakers had been

a sitting Congressman,
Arizona's Paul Gosar.

Outside of its annual AfPac
get-together,

Nick's movement exists largely as
an online community

sharing ideas via message boards,

in-jokes and livestreams.

They're storming
the Capitol right now? Really?

Dude, I'm at the Capitol.

One of Nick's closest associates is
a self-described internet troll

named Anthime Gionet,

better known as Baked Alaska.

They're storming the building!
They've reached the building!

Other side? Everyone, patriots,
let's go!

Other side of the building!

Baked Alaska was at the US Capitol
on January 6th 2021,

where he livestreamed himself
from a Congressional office.

Erm, hello? Hello, US Senate?

Yes, we have a fraudulent election
I would like to report.

Yeah, we need to get our boy
Donald J Trump into office.

We've got over 10,000 people
live, watching. Let's go!

CHEERING

CHANTING: America First!
America First! America First!

He specialises in
confrontational livestreams...

Whoa! Don't punch my bros.

...and was facing a case
of assault using pepper spray.

Fuck you, dude.

I'd arranged to meet at his house on
the outskirts of Phoenix, Arizona.

Knowing of his fondness
for provoking those he views

as political enemies,

I would be attempting to
maintain my composure.

Hi. Are we at the right place?
Yes, you are.

How do you do? I'm Louis.
Hey, my name's Nick.

May I come in? Yes.

Hi, Steve. How are you doing?
Good. How are you, Louis?

Nice to see you.

How are you doing? Shall I call
you Baked or Tim or...?

You can call me Baked, yeah. Baked
is all right? How are you doing?

Now, I've already clocked that we're
being filmed. Yes.

I thought that might happen

and it's kind of part of what
makes this interesting, right?

Is it going out live? Uh, no.

So, is it just for your film?

Yeah. Well, we just don't trust
journalists, dude.

Like...
HE LAUGHS

Erm, journalists have been
my worst enemy. They suck.

How am I supposed to trust the media
when you have mainstream media

literally pushing out narratives
that I'm a neo-Nazi -

I'm not a Nazi, guys, of course -

calling me a racist, neo-Nazi, etc?

So how am I supposed to trust the
media?

Like, I... You seem like a cool guy.
Thank you.

You're still part of
the mainstream media, though.

You were at the Capitol
insurrection, right?

I wouldn't call it an insurrection.
What would you call it?

Uh, Capitol riots. At the riots.

An insurrection would be something
that people planned.

Hey, look, there were people there
that did some dumb shit.

I wasn't violent.
I didn't vandalise anything.

I am very right-wing, obviously,
and I believe in, you know,

America First, but don't...

I want nothing to do with any
sort of violence. I'm not...

You do consider yourself
very right-wing?

Yes. That is fair.

Far-right?

I mean...

...would say probably, yeah.

Like, people will say far-right
as, like, a smear,

and I used to be like,
"No, no, no, I'm not far-right!"

But, I mean, I just don't really
care that much any more.

Baked had grown up a child of
Christian missionaries in Alaska

and pursued a career doing viral
journalism in Los Angeles.

Later, he'd created memes and
performed social media stunts

in support of Trump
and the far right.

Even your haters would describe you
as a social media genius

or a social media innovator.

Yeah, I agree.
Do you think that's true? Oh, yeah.

I mean, I worked for Buzzfeed
as their social media strategist.

Which is a pretty liberal,

kind of more celebrity-focused
outfit, right?

Yep. Yeah, very liberal.

You were at Charlottesville.

You were chanting,
"You will not replace us."

I believe white people should
stand up for themselves,

but I'm not, like,
a white supremacist

or nationalist or anything like
that.

I don't only want to be around
white people. I think...

I would like to be around a majority
of white people,

similar to how our nation was
founded.

It was about, like, 75, 80%.

I think that's fine because I want
our country to stay homogeneous.

But the ones who weren't white
were in chains.

Well, 1-1 don't support slavery,
So...

This is the living room
where I watch my America First...

Why have we got Nick Fuentes
up there?

That's my favourite show. I was
watching it before you guys came in.

For real? Yeah.

Nick is the most genius political
mind I've ever come across.

In what way?

Erm, he just speaks exactly how it
is from the heart

and he doesn't care if
something's going to

be seen as politically incorrect
or anything like that.

He just truly speaks the truth.

He's only 22 and he's, like...

I'm ready for him to be President.

Like, 1 know, 100%
Nick's going to be President.

You can clip that. You know.

Steven, how are we doing for
your documentary?

Are you getting what you need?
I guess so.

Mainstream media's viewed as the
enemy.

Of course, yeah.

You know, type in "Louis Theroux",

and the first thing that comes up
is, like,

"Louis Theroux is a neo-Nazi"
or, you know, whatever.

It's not nice for that
to come up as the first results.

Does it say that on Wikipedia?
Yeah, look here.

"Tim Gionet, more commonly
known as Baked Alaska,

"is an American neo-Nazi,
anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist."

You've tweeted that Jews control
the media.

Yeah, I did that.

You can see how that would
be, erm, anti-Semitic?

I think anti-Semitic is sort of
like a made-up term.

Like, I think Jewish people think
they can't be criticised.

If you said, "White people suck,"

that's literally an
acceptable phrase

in today's society in America, OK?

If I said, "Jews suck,"

"Oh, my gosh!
Oh, you're anti-Semitic!"

I don't think any group
of people should get a free pass.

I disagree with that.
What do you disagree with?

Well, the idea that the same rules
should apply to all races, like,

where historically white people
have been in power.

You know, a lot of it is to do with
how power sits.

If you're doing comedy
or people are getting roasted,

I think you should be able
to use any means necessary.

I mean, this is a great song.
Have you seen this one?

# One more time, oh, one more time

# 1| just want to make fun of
a liberal and I'll feel fine

# One more time, one more time

# I didn't do nothing
but I'lUL pay the crime

# Twitter is fucking gay

# Twitter is fucking gay

# Twitter is fucking gay

# Twitter is fucking gay... #

CONTINUES ON VIDEO:
# Twitter is really gay

# Oh, yeah, fucking gay... #

Yeah!

I made this when I got banned
from Twitter.

BAKED LAUGHS

# One more time

# I didn't do nothing
but I'lUL pay the crime

# I didn't do nothing
but I'lUL pay the crime. #

I... I don't think I had heard that
one before.

Nice. I'm glad I got to show that
to you.

Do you remember what it was that
got you kicked off Twitter?

I mean, dude, these days you don't
really have to say much.

And I think I said something like,
"Ban all Muslims from the US."

And then...
You wrote that on Twitter?

Yeah. Why? Cos it was funny.

I don't support any immigration.

You know, we can't have an unlimited
amount of people here.

But if you want to
ban all immigration,

why did you mention
Muslims specifically?

It was responding to
Trump's immigration ban

because a lot of the Muslims
are higher risk for,

you know, terrorist attacks,
some shit like that.

But that, you could see that was

a kind of divisive and
provocative statement.

Yeah, of course.

That's why I tweeted it.

It was a puzzling formula -
playing at being racist

while also being racist

and accusing critics of
lacking a sense of humour.

The master of this approach
was, of course, Nick.

Since I'd last seen him,
I'd dug further into his broadcasts.

His agenda was white nationalist
in all but name...

The people that are coming to
replace us in our own country,

you think they really like
white people?

They really care about white people?

They want to kill you.
They want to see you dead.

...putting white racial interests
above all else...

Stop acting like black women.

Black women are fucking obnoxious.

...and harbouring a particular
animosity towards Jewish people.

They will protect against hatred
for everything

except for Christianity,

whiteness and
right-wing political views.

Everything else is protected.

If you're short, dumb,
ugly, retarded,

if you're in a wheelchair, if you're
black, if you're Muslim, Jewish,

if you're Jewish,
if you're a Zionist,

if you're Jewish,
if you're in a wheelchair,

if you're Jewish,
it's all protected.

Following on from our
encounter in Florida,

we'd arranged to meet in
his hometown of Chicago.

I was curious to find out how a
disturbing figure like Nick

was cutting through to a large and
growing audience

of impressionable young men.

In the past, a voice like yours
would've had to come up through

a TV network or some kind of
news outlet, right? Right, right.

But you built your voice and your
platform using social media -

would that be correct?

So, I mean, I basically have
a very intuitive sense, as all

Generation Z do on social media,

smartphones and
the information ecosystem.

You know the mechanics of it are
pretty straightforward, you know?

I mean, you create content,
you share it,

you hope that people notice it,
and that they'll, uh...

...you know,
that's what social media is.

At that time then, you were
a YouTuber, in a sense.

I was, I was a YouTuber.

Like PewDiePie.
Yeah! I am like PewDiePie!

You dropped out of college.

Were your parents pushing back
at all?

Thinking like, "What's Nick doing?

"He's just in the basement
recording, like, home-made videos."

Yeah, and that's... They pushed me.

They said, you know,
"What are you going to do?

"You've got to get a job
or go to school.

"You've got to have a plan."

And I told them, "Why don't you just
give me one year

"to explore this, and if it works
out, then I'll keep doing it,

"and if it doesn't work out,
then I'll abandon it

"and I'll get a job or I'll go back
to school.”

And... And it worked out.

Nice day for it.

Usually, I would have the top down.
Get a little ice cream.

You see, I'm a simple guy.
Am I a sick guy?

Did someone say you were
a sick guy?

Yeah! People... Well, I mean,
they imply it.

Hate monger. Yeah. I'm not a hate...
I'm a love monger.

I'm out here mongering love.

NICK LAUGHS

In one of the pieces of footage
I'd come across,

Nick had talked about our meeting
in Florida and his impression of me.

Alexander says,
"What's Louis Theroux like?

"Is he doing a documentary
with you?" He is.

You know, he has the same problem
that all journalists do -

he's pretentious, you know?

Here's a little piece of advice.

To be a good investigator,
you gotta be humble. OK?

We may talk about Jewish power
and we may talk about black crime,

but that doesn't mean that, you
know,

I wake up every day animated
by racial hatred.

You know, I mean, that's just
retarded, frankly. So...

And pretentious liberal journalists
either are, you know,

too arrogant to understand that,

they think they know it all
or whatever,

or they don't even care
and they just have their own agenda.

They've got their world view.

It was almost a little
bit disappointing,

it was almost
a little bit disappointing.

It's your parents' place,
am I right? Yes.

Are your parents around?
No, no, they're not around.

Back at his parents' house,
where he lives,

recording his streams
from the basement,

I decided to challenge him on
his comments.

I saw the monologue
you did about me.

Yeah, I did do a monologue
about you!

I just want you to know that
I fundamentally disagree

with what you promote
and with what you stand for.

But I'm here because I'm curious
about you. Right.

Does that make sense? Totally.

You disagree with what I stand for.

I disagree with what you stand for.

But I tend to operate
with people in good faith.

I wonder if it's helpful just to
almost, like,

put the cards on the table,
in a way, right? Sure.

Because you've been characterised
as white nationalist, right? Right.

Repeatedly? Sometimes, you come near
to embracing the term.

And all through so much of your
commentary is an idea of, like,

white racial identity as being
core to your belief system.

I've not advocated on my show for
a whites-only nation

or for ethnic cleansing,
or for this idea that

non-whites cannot participate
in American identity or America.

What you do think is that
America should be majority white?

Yes. Yes.

I saw a video of you, it looked like
an undercover recording.

It was!
I know what you're talking about.

Where you said...
Someone said, "Do you think

"mixed-race relationships
are like bestiality?"

And your reply was,
"Well, they're both degenerate.”

Ha, yeah.

This was, like, four years ago,
it was a private conversation.

But, you know, I was playing devil's
advocate about this idea that

interracial relationships are
totally like the best idea.

I happen to be very old school,
I'm very traditional.

It's not a value that I have
that that's a good thing

or even necessarily something
that's appropriate.

It's not a bigoted thing,

it's not a white nationalist thing
or a hateful thing,

which is, which is...

You give people a lot of ammo,
though.

You were talking about gay people
getting married. Uh-huh.

And your line was like, "I don't
want them getting married."

And other people say,
"I don't care what you do,

"as long as you do it in
your bedroom,"

and you said, "I don't even want you
doing it in your bedroom." Yeah!

I think it's gross what goes
on there.

And, erm, no, I don't think
they should be doing it.

Some people... Cos conservatives...

You were less careful on
that one. That was interesting.

What do you mean less careful?
Well, there was no irony.

There was less of a twinkle in your
eye when you said that just now.

Well, I mean, look,
I make a lot of jokes online,

I am ironic a lot of the time,

but people can discern
my real views.

I'm Catholic. The Catholic view is
we want to live in a decent,

virtuous society where people
are not doing immoral,

you know, gravely sinful things.

You have expressed a degree
of sympathy or even common cause

with avowed white nationalists.

Well, I don't understand
the hang-up on,

"So, why are you not
a white nationalist?

"So, aren't you
a white nationalist?"

I mean, why are you so interested
in that in particular?

Categorising me as that thing?
That to me is...

Because that's the most prohibited
part of your beliefs.

What makes you
Nicholas ] Fuentes... Right? Right.

...is the fact that
there's a racial component.

Right... Right?

Even the right wing of the Trumpers.

What makes you different from them

is that you talk about
Jewish power... Right.

Right? Alleged Jewish power.

...and black crime,

and that you were talking about
white, specifically white identity.

I want America to work,
I believe in America.

We've just got to stop immigration -
that's all.

Can we watch you doing your show?
Yes.

Nick told me his streams,
hosted on his own website,

reaches as many as
10,000 live viewers a night.

Good evening, everybody.
You're watching America First.

My name is Nicholas ] Fuentes,

we have a great show
for you tonight.

Very excited to be back with you,
here tonight on Monday.

Seems like Israel Palestine...

Though he is technically banned
from most social media companies,

clips from his show often go viral

and are seen by millions
across different platforms.

When you go out there and you say,

"I don't care about
the browning of America,"

and you say that there's going to
be no consequences from that,

that people are interchangeable,
well, you're lying.

He said he makes up to $4,000
per show

from people who pay him to
respond to their messages,

and that the donations have made him
a millionaire.

Good Morning Trump asks if women
can even be funny, though?

No. They can't be.

And often when they're funny,
they're unintentionally funny.

The real question is,
can women be intentionally funny?

Uh, the answer is no, but...

After nearly three hours
of nonstop streaming,

close to midnight,
Nick wrapped things up.

As always, I'm Nicolas ) Fuentes.

Thank you for watching
and I'll see you tomorrow.

Until then,
have a great rest of your evening.

OK. Whoa. Did you enjoy that?

Uh... Well, it's more enjoyable in
the first hour.

Baked Alaska thinks you're
going to be President one day.

Oh, yeah? Eh, I don't know about
that, but...

...maybe.

You'd like to be. I would, I would.

I'm not going to lie, but...
NICK LAUGHS

Who wouldn't be?
Who wouldn't want to?

I wouldn't want to. No? No.

Nick's political aims are supported
by many in far-right circles.

The neo-Nazi Daily Stormer website
has repeatedly endorsed his strategy

of pushing a more PR-friendly brand
of white nationalism.

But his main constituency has been
online gamers,

incels and so-called irony bros.

As soon as I saw Nick from
the beginning, I was like,

"This guy's... This guy's a fucking
winner, dude.

"Like, this guy's a fucking winner

"and he's going to do what it takes
to win," you know?

One of those who leant
early enthusiastic support

in his home-made streaming show
was a gamer named Matt Evans,

better known as Beardson Beardly.

A friend and political ally
of Nick's,

they discussed the need for a less
off-putting, more optical version

of white nationalism in
freewheeling online conversations.

NICK FUENTES: We're having a lot of
success politically,

the message is getting out,
we're waking people up.

People are talking about
ending democracy.

Now is not the time
to be fucking around

and to be caught off guard
because we want to be nice.

Well, you know what?

Sabotaging the white race and
sabotaging our movement isn't nice.

I'd met him briefly at AfPac.

Since then, candid footage from
an anonymous source

had been posted online showing him
leaving the event in Nick's car

and delivering what looked very much
like a Nazi salute.

Another grainy image suggested
it might not be by mistake.

Beardson lives in
a small town in Western Kentucky.

You got that off the internet?

Yeah. Yeah, I got it off of that.

How much did they charge you
for that?

It was only, like, 12 bucks.

12 bucks? I thought it'd be
more than that. No.

BEARDSON LAUGHS

A plain T-shirt cost more
than that. I know.

It must take value off it, having
my face on it.

How are you doing?
I'm doing all right.

Thank you for having us.
Yeah, no problem.

So, like, why do you...? Like, why
the hell do you want to talk to me?

Well, cos you were at AfPac
and you...

They call you a general
in the movement.

They call you Nick's general.

One of his trusted lieutenants.
I don't know about that, but...

This is so weird talking to you

with three faces of me staring back.
BEARDSON LAUGHS

We're trying to get a sense of
the movement -

so-called dissident right, whatever
you want to call

that thing that you're a part of,

that used to be called
white nationalism,

but I guess that's not a term
that's in favour any more.

No, I mean, that's... I'm not
a white nationalist or anything.

I mean... You kind of have
to say that, right, to be optical?

No, I'm not, I'm not even
a political guy. Really?

No, I'm a gamer, dude.
I play video games.

Is that the line you're taking?

Cos it is a political movement.

Like, the Nick's outfit is
explicitly political.

Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure.
I'm just friends with the guy.

Can we... Are we all right to go in?
Yeah, yeah. Thank you.

This is your new place,
you just moved in?

Literally just three hours ago,
picked up the keys to this place.

Oh, OK.

How would you characterise
what you do? A comedian.

You're kind of a troll,
could we say?

Uh, yeah, yeah.

Uh, I mean, as far as like, I don't
know, my vague political beliefs

or whatever, I mean,
I'm a punk rock kid. You know?

I look at whatever is
anti-authoritarian,

I've always been a guy that goes
against the grain.

You know, making edgy jokes on the
internet is punk rock,

you know what I mean?

But we're not going
to be silly about it

and pretend that there's
no racial dimension

to what you're involved in.

Well, yeah, I mean, of course.
Like, you have to...

...I mean, you have to be honest
about it

and have a conversation about it

but it's not some, like,
racial hatred, you know?

But that's the way it always comes
across, right?

Any time you even bring up the idea
of race

or if you talk about racial division
in this country,

then obviously it must mean that you
hate all the other races.

That's the way that it's perceived
every single time,

and that's not true.

So, how was AfPac?

It was fun. The speeches were cool,
I guess.

Can I get something out of the way?
Yeah, bud. OK.

So, on the day,
on the last day I was there,

you were leaving with Nick in
a car. Yeah.

And you did a Nazi salute.

Oh, I didn't mean to.
I was just trying to wave.

But it was quite clearly
a Nazi salute.

It wasn't a Nazi salute, dude.
Shall we...? Can we look at it?

I mean... Look, if I...
It was an accident, if it was.

I mean, I was just trying to do like
a, like a... You know, one of those.

Have you seen it?
Yeah, it looked kind of bad.

I'll be honest with you,
it did look bad.

Dude, I'm not a Nazi, man.
Like, this is...

If this is what it's going to be,
like, I'm not going to...

No, but we've got to...

I mean, I would look like a chump if
I didn't bring it up, right?

Wouldn't 1? I mean... I think you
look like a chump bringing it up.

Do you really think I'm a Nazi?
Do I think you're...?

See, look right there. You see how
I'm going like that?

Like a military salute.

That one. But you did it twice.

You were at an event whose entire
kind of raison d'etre

really is to say, "Hey, you know
what? We're not the alt-right.

"We don't want anything to do
with those guys." Yeah.

"We don't want swastikas.

"We don't want any of that Hitler
esoteric." Right.

You know, in a sense you had
one job. Right.

And you failed
cos you did a two Nazi salutes.

I did not do a Nazi salute.

Well, it looked like... You know
that word - "optics". Yeah.

That term of, like... Oh, yeah, I'm
very familiar with the term optics.

Yeah. You know what else
I'm familiar with?

Is the term, erm... bad journalism.

You should get the fuck
out of my house.

I'm not in your house.
Yeah. Well, you can leave.

Cos I don't want...
This interview's done.

Can we de-escalate, please?
No. No. Are you sitting there...?

You gonna sit there
and say I'm doing a Nazi salute?

I asked you if you were.
Here's your mic.

It was quite evident
it looked like one.

Get the fuck out of my house.
Are you kidding me?

When did you lose your sense
of humour?

When did you lose your sense
of integrity?

That's it? Yeah, that's it.

Yeah, you too. Bye-bye.

How about you go back to the UK and
sit on a fucking dick and spin?

How about that? Go fuck yourself.

Ejected by a surprisingly
thin-skinned troll,

what was most striking was that
someone who gave Nazi salutes

was also offended by being asked
about them.

But we weren't finished yet.

What's going on, my dudes?

Beardson was about to hit back
on his one-man streaming channel.

I wanted to go live to talk about my
latest experience that I just had.

Literally just had it just
a second ago.

And if you're watching this, Louis,
which I'm sure you probably are,

yeah, go fuck yourself.

You're a disingenuous hack.

Oh, hey, I'm getting
a phone call right now.

I'm getting a phone call. Hello?

Hey. I'm watching you.

Yeah? Are you? We were about to have
a conversation.

I asked you a straightforward
question.

How did you expect that
that would not come up?

Because it wasn't...
Cos you're the only person

that has ever once said that
to me about that.

I'm not dealing with this.

I'm not dealing with
your pretentiousness

and I'm not dealing
with your slander. OK?

You can either listen
to what I have to say,

or you can go fuck yourself.

Well, I understand
you're annoyed now.

Why don't you explain to me
what your views are?

Why don't you explain to me how
you're a total fucking scumbag?

How 'bout that? I'm not dumb.
I'm not an idiot, Louis.

You're not goading
a fucking interview out of me.

You are a piece of shit
and I don't like you.

Listen, you're involved in a
movement that's been characterised

by its enemies as white nationalist.
I..

Here, here, Louis.
Go fuck yourself.

I have nothing left to say to you.
Eat shit. Bye-bye.

DISCONNECTED TONE

Guess what, Louis?
My country is better than yours,

my friends are cooler than you,

I'm cooler than you,
I'm tougher than you.

I'm smarter, I'm stronger.

I'm really the total package.
And you're weak.

And you suck. Go fuck yourself.

Beardson's machismo seemed
symptomatic of America First

and the far-right male persona
generally.

Given the pervasive misogyny of
the movement,

I was curious to meet a woman in any
way connected with America First.

Hello, Nick Fuentes, this is
Dr Milfy. How are you doing today?

NICK LAUGHS

I'm doing all right.
How are you doing?

Brittany Venti is a sometime friend
of Nick Fuentes

and Beardson Beardly.

They see racism and they're like,
"Oh, my God, that's so gross.”

She too was raised on the internet,

gravitating to the darker areas
of the web.

She'd also been at Charlottesville
with Baked Alaska.

Out here with Brittany Venti.
What up, fam?

In her online videos, she plays the
role of a gamer girl who trolls

her mainly male audience
for donations.

Like, it's not my fault that
I deserve money more than you,

it's not my fault that
someone likes me more than you.

Lately, Brittany had fallen out
with Nick Fuentes and his team,

she said due to some jokes she made
about them online.

That's fine.
I'm OK with being hated.

I'm always hated.
It makes no difference to me.

What do I have to lose by telling
the truth?

I'd arranged to see her at her home
in New York.

Hello. I'm Louis. How do you do?
I'm good.

May I come in?

So, this is where you do your work?
Yes.

And you've got a kind of
pink-purple MAGA hat up there.

Are you a Trump fan?
I like the fact that he trolls.

That's my favourite part about him.

He lowered taxes and he's kind of
like, erm, provocative.

Kind of like how my style is.
It reminds me of that.

You don't mind getting
a pink mug, do you?

I like a pink mug. OK.
That's very progressive.

I was curious how Brittany had got
involved in

the far right in the first place
and where she stood with it now.

You were at Charlottesville, right,
when they were chanting, erm,

"You will not replace us,"”
and "Jews will not replace us"?

I didn't even know fully the details
about Charlottesville.

I was told a few days ahead of time
by a friend, like,

"You need to go to this event,
you need to go to this event."

But what about the message

and the whole "Jews will not
replace us" chant?

I assumed that they were
just joking,

like, saying it, like,
tongue-in-cheek.

Cos one person said it, and then
some people started saying it,

so that's why I say maybe
some people are joking about it.

I don't know. They weren't joking.

I mean, people say stuff that's,
like, anti-Semitic

but it's, like, tongue-in-cheek
sometimes.

So, like I said, the line of irony
sometimes gets a little bit blurry.

I think you should be able
to joke about most things

so long as it's not, like,
threatening to harm someone.

You were online very early, right?

Yeah. I didn't have any friends

and that's why I turned
to the internet for friendship.

Was there some sense in which you
were, like, finding

your community online?

Oh, definitely, for sure.

I thought it was so funny,

it was just so wild back then,
like the Wild West.

From being inside
the movement somewhat, right?

Which we could
say you were, right?

Yeah, I've seen... I've been
able to observe a lot of it.

What's your take on what, erm,
America First is about

and what Nick Fuentes is about?

Back in the day, I definitely
thought more of it was joking

than not, but then it became
not a joke.

Like, for example, when they say,
like, "Don't race mix,"

and you have to be like,
"None at all."

Like, that type of thing.

Or when it's like about how
all women are whores.

It's like, no, that's actually not
tongue-in-cheek

like I initially thought.

Cos I thought like, "Oh, well, like,
I'm not the modern woman,

"I definitely want a husband
and I'm conservative."

Like... there should be no reason
they have a problem with me,

but, no, it didn't matter,
not good enough.

So I realised that when I saw, like,
how horrible they were to me.

And by horrible, you mean...?

Insulting, erm, harassing,

try to report you,
get your stuff taken down.

I think the worst thing I've seen is
the Beardson thing.

Have you seen that?
Yeah, I did see it once.

So, would you be comfortable
showing it to me?

Don't feel any pressure to do it.
Yeah. I mean...

You sure? Yeah.

Brittany, if I ever see you,
I'm going to rape you.

In person. And I'm married.

I'm going to fucking put my dick
in your fucking asshole.

I'm going to remove your pants,
I'm going to remove my pants,

I'm going to stick my dick in
your ass. I'm going to rape you.

Because you're such
a dumb fucking bitch

that you do not understand...

You have evolved yourself into
a community

that you do not understand.

And for that, you're going to get
anally raped. OK?

BEARDSON LAUGHS HYSTERICALLY

I mean, I get there's a sense of
humour with the obscenity of it,

like... but it doesn't make it OK
to say that,

because it's so, like, extremely
inappropriate and...

...disrespectful.

I feel like disrespectful's
too nice of a word.

I just think it's because
his buddies didn't like me,

so it's like, "Oh, you can't like
Brittany Venti, so got to turn."

I think that's what it is
because, like I said,

they have a problem with women

no matter what flavour of woman
you are.

The attacks on Brittany
by her former friends

seem to have opened her eyes to
the misogyny of the movement

she'd been part of.

But it was striking that she still
made light of the hatefulness

of the anti-Semitic chanting
in Charlottesville.

Experts increasingly view the
greatest terrorist threat in the US

as coming from the far right

and highlight the global reach
of the message.

It was after a 2019 attack
in Christchurch, New Zealand

in which 51 Muslims were killed by
a terrorist

steeped in the culture
of the internet

that Baked Alaska had released
a surprising video.

Today I want to talk to you guys
about the New Zealand shooting.

It was so obvious that this guy
was radicalised

by the alt-right and became
a right-wing extremist.

Everything he does is the 101
playbook for right-wing extremists,

and I know because I've hung around
these guys in the past.

We need to start educating people

the difference between
internet culture and reality

before things go way out of hand,
like they did in New Zealand.

But within months, he'd reverted
back to

his far-right positions, embracing
a full-time career

as a livestreaming internet troll.

Increasingly I'd wondered about
the danger of internet hate

translating into real-world harm.

With that in mind, I'd arranged
to meet him at Tampa, Florida

where he was streaming.

I was hoping to understand the dark
seduction of the online community,

knowing it would involve another
dose of highly upsetting content.

Shout out to my right-wing nuts.

Guys, we're going to have some fun
later tonight.

Don't miss it.

Louis, are you in the chat?

Louis! Louis!

Hey. Nice to see you. Yeah, nice to
see you. How's it going? Good.

We're live here, guys. Say hello!
Louis Theroux!

I told them we had
a special guest today.

And that was me?
That was you, yeah.

With Baked were two other
lower profile far-right streamers,

one going by Loulz, another Woozuh.

How's it going?

Nick and Baked's documentary-maker
friend Steven Martinez

was also along for the ride.

OK, so... You're on 300... You've
been streaming for three hours?

Yeah. And you've got 331... Yeah.
..people watching live.

Yeah. So...

And it's on YouTube?
Yeah, it's on YouTube.

I thought you'd been de-platformed
from YouTube. Yeah, I have.

So, how are you...? I just make
new channels all the time.

Wow!

AUTOMATED VOICE:
Doomersquidward sent $100, Yoba.

Let's go! Thank you so much!
Osevens in chat.

Doomersquidward, thank you, homey!

Baked's streams are
how he makes his income.

They involve him provoking
passers-by...

Step back, get the fuck out of here.

This is my production, not yours!

...spurred on by viewers who donate
money to play racist

or otherwise provocative music
and messages

on a speaker around his neck.

GERMAN MILITARY MUSIC PLAYS

Is this one of those German
military, what, marching songs? Yes.

With Nazi connotations?

Er, I think it's...

I don't know if it has
Nazi connotations.

It's just a nice German song,
you know?

I had the uncomfortable feeling my
presence was making him more money,

so I decided to keep in
the background as much as possible.

Hey, we got some Cubans out here?
No, Mexico.

Mexico? USA, baby! Yeah!

Guys, guys... Yeah, Trump 2024!

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!
Vote for Trump!

That was low-key racist. What was
racist? Calling us Cubans.

I asked, I asked...
DONATION NOTIFICATION TONE

No, you could have asked...
I asked, I said, "Are you Cuban?"

SONG BEGINS ON SPEAKER
I swear...

They're donating a bad song
right now, saying the N word.

Much of the content
played on Baked's speaker was

the most offensive racial language.

Chill. Please chill out with that,
please chill out with that.

They seem to enjoy playing
at best risque

and then sometimes outright
racist material. Is that fair? Yeah.

What's that about?

It's comedy, it's edgy humour,

they play whatever they can
to make us uncomfortable.

It's not a cross section of, like,
the broader society, is it?

Like, it's almost like
a self-selected community

of hard-right trolls.

Not everyone is right-wing, though.
It's not really...

But more than half of it has been
extreme racial abuse...

DONATION NOTIFICATION TONE
..or extreme racial content.

AUTOMATED VOICE: Anonymous sent $3.

Louis, basically we just hate fagets
and nigars.

It's not so much a right-wing
left-wing thing.

It's like a human versus sub-human
thing.

Oh, my God. You know?

Oh, man.

Erm, OK. Let's see...

The fact that it's so horrible,
like, what's coming in,

does it ever make you think
maybe you're doing something wrong?

No, not really.

Because we live in a world where you
can't hear any of this language,

it's all extremely censored,

it's all, you know, so taboo and
so forbidden that to me, you know,

some of the stuff
I don't like to hear,

but, for the most part,
a lot of it's refreshing.

Woo! Let's go!

As the evening wore on, Baked did
more stunts with strangers,

his stream a queasy mix
of playfulness...

I just got a kiss on
the fucking lips!

...accompanied by racist messages
paid for by donors on his speaker.

AUTOMATED VOICE: Tell Louis
we hate the Star of David.

Sent $5.

Why are they playing this shit?

Oh, no, oh, no.

It seemed, in a way, a distillation
of the far-right internet impulse,

shock and of fence driven by
the whims of anonymous trolls

and an influencer looking
for clicks.

You don't know me.
You guys are fucking retards.

He knows. You're not the arbiter of
truth here, bitch. OK?

As we headed to a final location,
Baked talked unguardedly about me.

You know, they manipulate and act
like they're interested in me

as a streamer, but whenever I show
them good streams, they're like,

they just want to talk about,
like, race,

they want to talk about all
their buzz topics

to, like, make us look bad.

In the early hours of the morning,
I'd seen more than enough.

I decided to challenge Baked about
the potentially lethal consequences

of his far-right beliefs by using
his own words against him.

OK, let's finish this. OK. Yes.

In 2019, you said, erm,

you'd recently left the alt-right

and regretted ever contributing
anything to that culture. Mm-hm.

You said... What does this have to
do with livestreaming?

You said... I thought you
were interested in livestreaming?

I am. No, you're just interested in
your bullshit little agenda.

No, this is a quote from you.

"I was just a normal guy who liked
memes and I got radicalised."

No, that's bullshit. And then you
said about your alt-right career,

"It had been a pretty big disaster,
to be honest." No, no, no, no.

Your point was that in the aftermath
of 51 people being killed,

Muslim people at prayer in there...

I don't think it's got... I don't
support violence, yeah, Louis.

Can I make the bigger point, though,
which is that many people would see

the language of, you know,
racial division as

contributing to a climate
where violent acts flourish?

Right? You say it had been
a pretty big disaster.

No, here you go
with the manipulating again.

I'm giving you a quote
to respond to.

Here you go with
the manipulating again!

OK, so what's your point? No, no.

You say, "Oh, it's not a hit piece,
I want to know about streaming."”

You don't give a fuck
about streaming. This is part...

No, it's not. I told you, it's the
alt-right... No, you said...

No, you went straight to trying
to call, label me

and America First
as white nationalists,

light and all this dumb shit.

And it's just like everyone can see
through your fucking gay agenda.

Just... No, you're a piece of shit,
dude, I gave you a chance.

You're anti-Christian,
you're anti-white,

you're a fucking punk,

you're a lying piece of shit
and that's all you do.

I tried to give you a chance
to be real and genuine,

but you're not a real human being.
What...?

No, you're not capable of that,
Louis.

Why don't you apologise for
your fucking ancestors

from thousands of years ago,
cos you're white, Louis, aren't you?

Aren't you white? Yeah.

Oh, so why don't you apologise for
who you are?

Cos you're a disgrace.

Why am I a disgrace?
Cos you're white.

Apparently, we should be guilty,

we should feel terrible
for being white, right?

We can't have a majority
of white people

cos we'd have a great country
with low crime, God forbid that.

Why don't you just, erm...?

Isn't it all...

...like, isn't it basically
white nationalism?

Oh, wow, there we go,
there it comes out.

That's not offensive to you, is it?

It's just, you're a liar, I mean...

You are a white nationalist.
No, I'm not.

I think everyone should be able
to stand up for their culture.

That's my point. It's like why...

So you think it's got
a negative connotation, but...

It does, it does... in
a descriptive sense, it's accurate.

You promote white racial loyalty
and a white racial conscious. No.

White racial consciousness, yeah.
Yeah.

It's semantics in the end.

So, what do you think of
Baked Alaska,

now that you've hung out
with me for a couple of days?

I think you're obviously
a talented broadcaster and streamer,

and I also think that parts of
what you do

I find deeply poisonous, right?

And I think that, erm, it's
anti-Semitic and it's racist,

and that's what I think.

All right, I think we're good.

Yeah, I'm not
a white nationalist, dude. I got it.

You've got to get that out of your
head. Stop believing the lies.

Baked's political self-labelling
was, in the end, immaterial.

His record of racist, homophobic and
misogynistic views spoke for itself

in a vast digital catalogue
of the internet...

...elevating the interests of
white racial identity

above all else in America

and viewing it exclusively
as under threat.

NICK FUENTES: How can you
consider what's happening

right now in America as anything
other than a genocide

being perpetrated against
the white man?

And if you're one of those people

that says that being pro-white
is racist, is white supremacist,

white nationalist, guess what?

You're on the side
of white genocide.

In a world where everyone
can have their own platform,

it may have been inevitable that
the voices of the political fringe

would be more amplified and would
influence more people.

20 years ago, Nick Fuentes
would have been

an almost invisible figure.

We have been beat up
and betrayed and spit on

and stepped on for decades.

Now, thanks to the internet,
his message reaches young people

in homes around the world...

We're not going anywhere.

...his avowed aim to
undermine democracy

and advance the power of white men,

using irony to mask
an ambition that is deadly serious.

There is nothing that can stop
an idea whose time has come.

And America First,
the time has come now.

AUDIENCE: USA! USA! USA! USA!