March 27, 2024, 4:04 AM UTC
A City Council member in Enid, Oklahoma, protected marching together with white nationalists in Virginia in 2017 at a public online forum Tuesday night where he was questioned about his connections to racist groups.
Judd Blevins, who deals with a recall election next week, decreased to offer information of his previous white nationalist advocacy. Inquired about the groups he was connected with, consisting of Identity Evropa, when among the biggest U.S. white nationalist companies, Blevins stated those groups no longer exist. He likewise protected his actions.
“If speaking up versus what was being done to this nation, what is continuing to be done to this nation, is a criminal offense, then I would happily plead guilty to that,” he stated.
Responding to a follow-up concern, Blevins, a previous Marine, stated the function of his previous advocacy was “the exact same concerns that got Donald Trump chosen in 2016: protecting America’s borders, reforming our legal migration system and honestly, pressing back on this anti-white hatred that is so typical in media and home entertainment.”
He stated he has actually never ever recognized as a white nationalist or a white supremacist.
Blevins won his seat representing Ward 1 on Enid’s six-member City Council in 2015. His ties to white nationalist companies– including his involvement in the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally in Virginia– had actually been openly reported however ended up being commonly understood in Enid just after his election, stimulating a project to unseat him.
Blevins’ opposition, Cheryl Patterson, straight resolved his white nationalist ties for the very first time at Tuesday’s online forum.
“It’s time to restore our track record,” stated Patterson, a granny, previous instructor and long time Republican.
Patterson detailed the risk she thinks Blevins positions to the city’s military base and future development.
“I fear that his current previous puts our Air Force base at danger and endangers our capability to hire organizations to Enid,” she stated. “There is no location for hate in Enid.”
Cheryl Patterson and Judd Blevins address concerns throughout the livestreamed public online forum Tuesday.City of Enid
While Blevins confessed to marching at Charlottesville– where he held a tiki torch together with guys who screamed “Jews will not change us!”– he stated his function was restricted to protecting statues of American soldiers. “It’s our history,” he stated. “It’s our heritage. It’s who we are.”
Pushed about whether he was sorry for marching in a rally where counterprotesters were beaten and a lady was eliminated, Blevins stated, “One day in Virginia 5 years earlier, or 7, is not truly appropriate to the next 3 years in Enid.”
Blevins reacted to numerous concerns about his white nationalist ties by stating he was “opposed to all types of racial hate and racial discrimination.”
Asked whether he would “condemn white nationalism, white supremacy, neo-Nazi beliefs and habits and alt-right activities and groups,” Blevins dug in, stating those problems weren’t a contemporary issue.
