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Posobiec has been praised by President Trump

ATLANTA 鈥� The Southern Poverty Law Center鈥檚 Hatewatch today released the first two installments of an investigative series into the background of One America News Network (OANN) host Jack Posobiec, who has collaborated with white supremacists, neo-fascists and antisemites for years, while producing propaganda that President Trump and his inner circle have publicly embraced, the investigation found.聽

The series explores Posobiec鈥檚 ties to far-right extremists, not only in the United States, but in Europe. The first article in the series examines how Posobiec rose from blogging about 鈥淕ame of Thrones鈥� under a pseudonym to linking up with white supremacists like Richard Spencer and a neo-Nazi who endorsed terrorism. It also looks at how Posobiec used Twitter to target Jewish journalists with antisemtic hate and promote the now-infamous 鈥淧izzagate鈥� disinformation campaign during a six-month period where he described himself as 鈥渇mr CBS News鈥� in his Twitter bio.

鈥淛ack Posobiec鈥檚 extensive ties to white supremacists should serve as a wake-up call for anyone who hasn鈥檛 made the connection between Trump鈥檚 MAGA movement and hate,鈥� said Michael Edison Hayden, senior investigative reporter for the Southern Poverty Law Center and author of the series. 鈥淧resident Trump singled out Posobiec with praise telling him to 鈥榢eep up the good work鈥� and used his spin to whitewash extremist violence in this country. One America News Network hired Posobiec, either without looking into his ties to white supremacists or without caring about them. It鈥檚 an absolute disgrace for our country that people like this are embraced by the president.鈥澛�

This investigation documents how in July 2016, Posobiec connected with far-right figures like Spencer. He introduced himself as a white nationalist sympathizer and described himself as someone 鈥渢ightly connected鈥� to the Trump campaign when he attended the Republican National Convention (RNC) while working for Citizens for Trump 鈥� a 501(c)(4) with ties to longtime political operative Roger Stone.聽

During the convention, Mike Cernovich, a pro-Trump internet personality, hosted an event at a bar outside of the RNC, where it was reported that, Posobiec, male supremacist Roosh V, Spencer, Peter Brimelow of the white nationalist VDARE and Nathan Damigo, founder of white nationalist group Identity Evropa (now known as American Identity Movement), were among those in attendance. Posobiec continued to correspond and interact with Spencer after the event, making a reference in private text messages to the white supremacist author Harold Covington.

Posobiec described himself as 鈥渇mr CBS News鈥� in his Twitter bio while appearing to cover news events, like press conferences. CBS News and two affiliates where he lived told Hayden that he never worked there. During the time Posobiec presented himself as 鈥渇mr CBS News鈥�, he was promoting disinformation campaigns like 鈥淧izzagate,鈥� a lie that suggested Democratic Party officials were running a child sex dungeon out of a Washington, D.C., restaurant.

Additionally, the extreme far-right collective Anti-Com, whose membership crosses over with neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division, claimed to be in private contact with Posobiec during the planning of a pro-Steve Bannon rally outside the White House in 2017.聽

The second piece examines Posobiec鈥檚 Twitter account and analyzes how the social media company allowed him to weaponize his platform to promote hate and mislead the public without consequences.聽

An analysis of his Twitter account showed:

• Posobiec used Twitter to post Periscope videos mocking the Holocaust.
• Posobiec not only spread fake news campaigns like 鈥淧izzagate,鈥� but other false or misleading stories as well.
• The investigation verified a series of tweets in which Posobiec used the 鈥�1488鈥� meme, which is a combination of digits popularly used by white supremacists 鈥� 14 represents the infamous 鈥�14 Words,鈥� a mantra about securing 鈥渁 future for white children,鈥� and 88 represents 鈥淗eil Hitler.鈥�
• Posobiec posted tweets appearing to endorse white vigilantism in response to antiracist demonstrations in June 2020.

When Twitter was shown documentation of his past tweets that would violate its terms of service, the social media company told Hayden that Posobiec, who is on pace to reach 1 million Twitter followers by the end of the year, is not 鈥渃urrently鈥� in violation of its policies.聽

The first two installments of the series can be read here.