The Proud Boys will not wear their trademark black-and-yellow clothing during the January 6 rallies in support of President Trump, according to their chairman, Enrique Tarrio. Tarrio wrote on the niche social media site Parler that members of the group “will be incognito and we will spread across downtown DC in smaller teams. And who knows….we might dress in all BLACK for the occasion.”
The plan appears to be to look like people in antifascist groups and other counterprotesters. “Guess what, motherfuckers, we’re gonna look just like you,” Proud Boys bigwig Joe Biggs said in a video in which he wore a mask, put up the hood of his sweatshirt, and donned plastic Groucho Marx-style glasses.
The Proud Boys have frequently been at the center of violence during the last two gatherings of Trump fans in DC. Members of the group searched DC for people to fight or harass and ripped “Black Lives Matter” banners from downtown churches. Four Proud Boys were reportedly stabbed outside Harry’s Bar, a Proud Boys hangout in the Hotel Harrington, which announced this week that it will close on January 4, 5, and 6. In Tarrio’s post, which the Washington Times reported Tuesday and the research firm SITE alerted subscribers to on Wednesday, he wrote that he considered the hotel to have “fallen victim to to the fake news.”
There are now four planned rallies for Trump fans in DC on January 6, the day Congress will certify his loss to Joe Biden, the Washington Post reported Wednesday evening. Trump, who claims without evidence that he won the election, has encouraged his supporters to come to Washington that day, promising a “wild” day.
Here’s Tarrio’s post:
?????? The Washington Post for some reason believed that one of the many hotels we frequent was newsworthy. Because of this the hotel decided to close for 3 days. A hotel that prides itself with saying they haven’t closed their doors since it’s open in the 1920s. They have fallen victim to to the fake news. With @TheProudBoys you can see in real time the media machine do the globalists dirty work. The media is the ENEMY of the people. We had already stopped using the hotel as a hub 3 months ago. With the new ability I’ve being able to put 1000 boots on the ground we outgrew any single hotel. The ProudBoys will turn out in record numbers on Jan 6th but this time with a twist… We will not be wearing our traditional Black and Yellow. We will be incognito and we will spread across downtown DC in smaller teams. And who knows….we might dress in all BLACK for the occasion. The night calls for a BLACK tie event. 48 Laws of Power #3 #4 #14 #15 #17 #29 #37 #39 #48
— Enrique Tarrio NobleLead Tuesday, December 29, 2020
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
