During Thursday night’s final presidential debate, Democratic nominee Joe Biden called the far-right and neo-fascist all-male group the Proud Boys the “poor boys” while blasting President Donald Trump’s failure to condemn the group.
“He has made everything worse across the board,” Biden stated, railing against Trump’s record on race relations in the U.S. “He said about the poor boys, the last time we were on stage, he said ‘I tell them to stand down and stand ready.”
(Trump had previously, in the first presidential debate, failed to condemn the Proud Boys. Instead, the president told the group to “stand back and stand by.”)
“Come on. This guy is a dog whistle about as big as a foghorn,” Biden concluded.
Following Biden’s remarks, which some billed as a new nickname dolled out by Biden—although it just as easily could have been a gaffe—the far-right hate group took to Parler, a Twitter alternative, to express grievance over being called the “poor boys.”
“It’s PROUD BOYS Joe,” one Proud Boys Parler post stated. “Don’t act like you don’t know the name, bitch.”
Others online couldn’t tell if Biden had messed up or was mocking them. But either way, they were pleased a hate group was dunked on a national stage.