Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes said he regrets many of his past remarks and accepts at least some amount of responsibility after being banned by multiple social media platforms in recent months.
“I do bear … responsibility,” McInnes told ABC reporter Paula Faris during an interview with “Nightline.” “I’m not guilt free in this. There’s culpability there. I shouldn’t have said, you know, violence solves everything or something like that without making the context clear and I regret saying things like that.”
McInnes made clear that he was not apologizing, but punted on whether he would take back any of his past rhetoric if he could.
On Monday, YouTube banned McInnes, who is also a co-founder of Vice Media. He has also been booted from Facebook and Twitter for terms-of-service violations connected to his group and past comments he has made online. A hosting gig at CRTV vanished as well after the company merged with Glenn Beck’s TheBlaze to form BlazeTV.
“I have a swarm of Social Justice Warrior bees surrounding me and attacking all my platforms. After BlazeTV, I figured I’d go to YouTube but they got that too,” McInnes told TheWrap this week. “I’ve been 100% de-platformed and can no longer defend myself when people make up lies or take jokes out of context.”
The “Nightline” piece also managed to ask a few rare questions to McInnes’ wife, former publicist Emily Jendrisak, who said she was happy that her husband was being forced out of the spotlight.
“This is impending on the peace for my opportunity to raise my kids,” said Jendrisak. “I was raised in a liberal household. I am a die-hard Democrat. So your politics having evolved this way in the last few years has been a challenge, but I respect anyone’s right to have their opinion.”
Various organizations and experts have classified the Proud Boys as an extremist group, something McInnes has always steadfastly denied. He nevertheless formally stepped down as head of the organization after several members were arrested following a brawl with Antifa protesters outside New York’s Manhattan Metropolitan Republican Club in October.