Proud Boys celebrate after Trump's debate call-out

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The Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group, pledged allegiance to President Donald Trump on Tuesday night after he told the group to "stand back and stand by" during the evening's debate.

Many people on social media who identify with the group echoed that language, saying they were “standing down and standing by.” One known social media account for the group made “Stand back. Stand by” part of its new logo.

Trump was asked by debate moderator Chris Wallace to disavow white supremacy during a portion of the debate focused on race. Wallace asked if Trump would urge white supremacist groups that inflamed violence at nationwide protests to “stand down.”

Trump said to "give me a name" when asked to denounce a specific group, and former Vice President Joe Biden called out the Proud Boys. But Trump did not denounce any far-right or white supremacist groups, and then pivoted to talk about antifa.

"Proud Boys, stand back and stand by, but I'll tell you what, somebody's gotta do something about antifa and the left because this is not a right-wing problem. This is a left-wing problem," Trump said.

On the Proud Boys’ account on the social media app Telegram, the group appeared to take the statement as marching orders.

“Standing down and standing by sir,” the account wrote. The account then posted two videos of the answer, including one with the caption “God. Family. Brotherhood,” in which a man howled at the TV in response to Trump’s response.

Megan Squire, a computer science professor at Elon University who tracks online extremism, said that Trump giving the Proud Boys orders was their long-sought “fantasy."

“To say Proud Boys are energized by this is an understatement,” Squire said. “They were pro-Trump before this shout-out, and they are absolutely over the moon now. Their fantasy is to fight antifa in his defense, and he apparently just asked them to do just that.”

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