Proud Boys Fight at G.O.P. Club Spurs Calls for Inquiry; Cuomo Blames Trump

By Ashley Southall and Tyler Pager
Oct. 14, 2018

A brawl outside a Republican club in Manhattan involving a far-right group and anti-fascist activists spurred calls for an investigation into the violence and whether the police acted properly in breaking it up. Some Democratic politicians, including Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, also criticized the club for inviting the head of the far-right group, the Proud Boys.

Mr. Cuomo on Sunday asked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation to look into the incident, and assigned a State Police hate crimes unit to assist with the New York Police Department investigation of the violence, which he linked to President Trump.

“This is Trump at his worst,” the governor said on a call with reporters. “It is wholly consistent with everything he has done since he started running for president.”

He added: “Once you unleash hate and division and you demonize differences, you lose control of it. You can’t target it. It’s lighting a match in a field of dry grass. The wind takes it and it just takes off.”

Mr. Cuomo and other Democratic politicians have criticized the leadership of the state Republican Party for inviting Gavin McInnes, a provocateur who founded the Proud Boys, to speak Friday evening at the club, where he performed a re-enactment of the murder of a Japanese socialist. At least two fights broke out as Mr. McInnes was leaving the event, and the police arrested three people and charged them with assaulting a 30-year-old man.

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