Miami GOP Chairman just caught leading Proud Boys in attack on Democratic campaign office
Yesterday, Miami GOP Chairman Nelson Diaz told me he never even heard of the Proud Boys, but the hate group’s own video proves otherwise.
The Miami-Dade Republican Party’s County Chairman led an angry mob of partisans, alongside the local leader of national hate group the Proud Boys, in an attack on a Democratic campaign office this week.
Miami GOP Chairman Nelson Diaz planned the event (image below) and local Congressman Carlos Curbelo publicized the protest heavily, before and after.
“This is beyond reprehensible and it must be condemned in the strongest of ways,” said Pelosi campaign spokesman Jorge Aguilar who attended the event.
“Anything short of it is simply an endorsement of their violent tactics,” he said.
A chaotic mob scene ensued as the Republican party leader and his followers spewed expletives at House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi while she entered a Democratic Congressional campaign office.
Ironically, Diaz and his followers demonstrated an utter lack of respect for private property to shout “communista” while trespassing in a narrow alleyway, before demanding entry to the Democratic event.
Video of the attack published by the far-right wing website “Big League Politics” was shot by Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Miami Proud Boys. He recorded the video of Diaz personally pounding on the side-door to Democratic nominee Donna Shalala’s campaign office. (video below)
Nelson Diaz returned my emailed request for comment by phone the day after the near riot and was unequivocal in blaming a local pro-Trump group for the trouble.
Chairman Diaz even told me that he never heard of the Proud Boys, even though the Miami New Times caught local GOP Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart posting a photo of himself with one candidate of the group’s members just two months ago.
But the video doesn’t lie, and it depicts Diaz only a few feet away from Miami Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio when he yelled:
“Open up! It’s some Proud Boys in here.”
Diaz can also be seen wearing his USA flag hat just a few feet from Tarrio in this tweeted Miami Herald video. The hate group leader is wearing the group’s distinctive black shirt with yellow trim.
The Proud Boys are a national street gang with numerous Republican connections one of whose members planned the Charlottesville riot which group members attended last summer. But they court a multi-racial membership based on their beliefs in religious hatred, bitter misogyny and Trump-ism whose members seek violent confrontation from coast to coast.
In just the last week, the Proud Boys violently attacked protesters alongside neo-Nazis in Manhattan after an event held at the GOP’s New York City clubhouse and The Oregonian reported on Monday that a march they co-organized in Portland included a team of rooftop snipers.
Diaz gave a tv interview to local news station CBS 4 in front of Shalala’s office, which visually confirms his role in the attack.
“I was on the other side of that door with the Capitol Police, helping to deadbolt the entrance from an angry mob. I’ve never seen anything like this in all of my years in Miami politics, or anywhere else for that matter,” said Ricky Junquera, Outreach Vice Chairman of the Miami-Dade County Democratic party who was literally on the other side of the door that Diaz was pounding.
The Proud Boys did nothing to hide their presence at the event
One member of their group who wasn’t otherwise identified with the group waving a custom “PB” flag, in a video provided by an anonymous bystander who recorded the scene in slow motion. (video embedded below)
“Carlos Curbelo has been silent about this incident and the participation of members of the Alt-Right Group Proud Boys,” says Democratic Congressional candidate Debbie Mucarsel-Powell. “That is shameful.”
“I will not be intimidated by an angry group of Republicans.”
“I’m tired of their disgusting tactics,” she said, “that they use to silence those of us who are fighting for more access to healthcare, a cleaner environment, safer schools and communities and common sense immigration reform.”
“Peacefully protesting is one thing, but what they were doing on the other side of that door was not peaceful. No volunteer should fear that kind of violence.” says Junquera, who himself began working for the Mucarsel-Powell campaign recently.
The Miami GOP Chair gave me an extensive phone interview about his protest, and he pointed out that an informal group of rabid Trump supporters supplemented his party’s executive committee members at the protest.
He forgot to mention being a personal member of that group
“The party sent out an email to members of the [Republican] executive committee. We just went there and protested,” Chairman Diaz told me by phone last night. “There were 50–60 people there. It was just a typical protest. Some Brigade 2506 members who are not party members were there.”
“The ‘Trump Club of Miami’ also made a Facebook post and called for the protest, they’re not affiliated with the Miami GOP,” Diaz continued, putting the blame on others last night, and pointing me to a page entitled Miami TRUMP Volunteers and citing their public event page.
“Out of 60 people there, I didn’t recognize half of them,” Nelson Diaz told me on the phone last night, but he stressed repeatedly that that group was not affiliated with the Miami Republican Executive Committee.
The Facebook event page’s guest list shows that the Miami GOP Chair both RSVP’d for the event, and attended.
Miami Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio went to Charlottesville personally last year during the massive hate rally with “tiki torch Nazis” that killed counter-protester Heather Heyer.
He identifies as Afro-Cuban and is part of a wave of non-white activists gravitating towards the hatred and violence preached by the group founded by Vice News co-founder Gavin McInnes.
While most of the group has been banned by Twitter, the @MiamiProudBoys handle touts itself as “the last PB account standing.”
Photos from that account confirm Tarrio’s identity, though they did not publish any images or videos from this week’s incident.
I asked Miami GOP Chairman about Congressman Diaz-Balart’s photo with a member of the Proud Boys, he explained that the shirt was difficult to distinguish as it parodied the label of Jack Daniels whiskey, but he had no explanation why the photo is still published.
When I asked Diaz if he or any of the Republican candidates paid or invited the Proud Boys, he denied it.
Instead, Nelson Diaz told me gravely that, “There are events that I don’t attend in person because I’ve gotten threats from my own side. It has gotten really dangerous.”
Diaz tried to deflect blame for the mob scene by claiming that Spanish language radio and television advertised the event, but I could not find any mention online of it which gave out the Coral Gables office address.
Diaz specfically cited the Spanish language media frenzy as a reason for the “protest” spiralling out of control resulting from remarks at a District 27 debate the night before, and presumably from Rep. Carlos Curbelo’s inflammatory press release before the event that turned it into the number one topic in Spanish language radio all day.
But the Republican Party’s top figures from Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) — who chairs the House Intelligence Committee — to Trump’s longest tenured political operative Roger Stone, and even Fox News’ prime time host Tucker Carlson are all cozying up to the hate group.
“People across our country and Miami are looking for leaders who will protect their health care from the endless Republican attacks,” said Pelosi’s spokesman Aguilar, “who will protect their Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security — who will stand up to Donald Trump’s authoritarian-like behavior, not emulate it.”
“If any part of that protest was sanctioned by the Miami GOP,” concluded Ricky Junquera, “then they should investigate and assure everyone that type of aggression is not acceptable to them either, and disavow any group or persons not representing the Miami GOP’s values.”
The Shalala campaign did not respond for comment when asked if they planned to file criminal trespass charges against Diaz, Tarrio and anyone else who could be identified trespassing on their campaign headquarters this week.
The Miami Herald reported on Twitter that the event was shut down less than thirty minutes after Diaz’s attempts to gain forced entry.
Video from Big League Politics shows Miami GOP Chairman attempting to break into Democratic campaign offices:
Street scene video shows Proud Boys waving their flag:
The Miami GOP’s protest plan:
