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Proud Boys celebrate Trump's 'historic' words with new logo and T-shirts, Internet slams POTUS: 'What a racist!'

Members of the far-right extremist group pledged allegiance to President Donald Trump after the first presidential debate and internet was abuzz with angry users

Once started as a joke, The Proud Boys — a far-right and neo-fascist organization — seems to have drawn national interest after President Donald Trump failed to condemn White supremacists at the First Presidential Debate held in Cleveland. During the debate, moderator Chris Wallace quizzed Trump: "Are you willing to condemn White supremacists and militia groups?" For a long time, he didn't straightaway answer the question.

"I would say almost everything I see is from the left-wing, not the right-wing," Trump responded. "I'm willing to do anything. I want to see peace." When pressed further, Trump said, "What do you want to call them? Give me a name. Give me a name?" Finally, he said, "Proud Boys — Stand back, stand by, but I'll tell you what, somebody's got to do something about Antifa and the left because this is not a right-wing problem... This is a left-wing problem." 

No sooner did he utter those words, the Internet erupted with tweets branding him an "embarrassment" to America. As per reports, Proud Boys is a group that is said to admit only men as members to engage in political violence. A self-described "Western chauvinist" organization, the group is considered a violent, nationalistic, Islamophobic, transphobic and misogynistic hate group, according to the Anti-Defamation League — a nonprofit organization that tracks extremist groups, an NBC report reads.

Members of the far-right extremist group pledged allegiance to Trump on September 29 night after the first presidential debate. If that wasn't enough, chatter on social media claims they have made "Stand back, Stand by" part of their new logo and are also planning to release T-shirts with that quote. As per The New York Times, many members could be seen celebrating online, calling his comments "historic". Some claimed to see a spike in “new recruits".

Sharing a screenshot of a conversation between Joe Biggs and Enrique Tarrio from social media app Telegram, The New York Times correspondent Mike Baker said, "The Proud Boys are ecstatic tonight about getting mentioned in the debate tonight. 'Trump basically said to go f**k them up! this makes me so happy,' writes one prominent Proud Boy." He then tweeted, "The Proud Boys are now sharing the group's logo with the president's words emblazoned like a slogan." Not just that, he also mentioned that "the Proud Boys are already selling a 'Standing By' T-shirt."

It soon sparked a barrage of comments on Twitter and people couldn't stop slamming Trump. University of Alabama Law Professor Joyce Alene said, "The President put the Proud Boys & probably other white supremacist groups on ready for the election. The question is, what will Bill Barr instruct his people to do if they show up at the polls? Can we rely on him to remove illegal intimidators from the polls & prosecute them?" Another tweet read: "Antifa and the Proud Boys are both political gangs for far left and the far right. White supremacy and racism are being misused to ignite emotions for fools to pick sides. #Proudboys #Debates2020." One even went on to say: "We're not afraid of pieces of s**t like The Proud Boys at our polls."

Another debate revolving around the KKK sparked on the micro-blogging site. One Twitter user wrote: "The KKK is not the right-wing equivalent of ANTIFA, the Proud Boys are. Trump told them to 'stand back and standby', which is far more concerning. The KKK is low hanging fruit. You should expect your President to condemn the groups that are more relevant today."

When one posted, "He's literally gonna make the KKK and Antifa, terrorist organizations. What a racist!" another replied, "The KKK isn't the most active hate group around today, it's groups like the Proud Boys. Telling them to stand by is the opposite of condemning them." Another went on to say, "You called out your Proud Boys tonight, proving your racist agenda. Biden was spot on when he referred to you as the worst president ever'."

Social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook have already stripped the Proud Boys of much of their online presence as the organization and as per a Slate report, while e-commerce site 1776 remains functional and sells Proud Boys T-shirts online, the payment processing company Square pulled its service from the site. A spokeswoman told the outlet: "Square does not tolerate our products or our platform being used for hate. When we determine accounts violate our terms of service, we take swift action."

Amid all the outrage, only time will tell if the Proud Boys will find any other vendor for support or not. 

MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) cannot independently verify the claims and does not support any opinions being made on the Internet.