Florida neo-Nazi rally turns violent, governor’s and press secretary’s responses spark outrage

Public outcry emerged after a gathering of neo-Nazi demonstraters in suburban Orlando, held two days after International Holocaust Rememberance Day, resulted in assault and accusations of conspiracy against the Democratic Party. 

Key Players

The National Socialist Movement (NSM), a Florida based neo-Nazi group that has been active since the 1960s, organized the rally. It has participants scattered across the country but has seen core membership fall to a few dozen people over the past several years.

Burt Colucci, the leader of NSM since 2019, is a resident of Kissimmee, an Orlando suburb, and has been arrested in the past for antisemitic and racially motivated threats. 

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) accused Democrats of using the rally as a political ploy to “smear” him. 

Christina Pushaw, press secretary for DeSantis, tweeted and later deleted a statement questioning whether the neo-Nazi demonstrators had been organized by Democratic staffers. 

Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin is the spiritual leader of Temple Israel in Palm Beach and is a columnist for Religion News Service. He called on DeSantis to condemn Pushaw’s comments.

Sheriff John Mina leads the sheriff’s office for Orange County, where the rally took place. 

The Florida chapter of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an organization dedicated to fighting antisemitism, condemned the rally and called out DeSantis and Pushaw on Twitter.

David Newstat, a University of Central Florida student, was attacked by the neo-Nazi demonstrators.

Further Details

NSM organized two separate antisemitic rallies in Orlando over a weekend in late January 2022. On Jan. 29, demonstrators wore Nazi insignia, waved flags with swastikas, and yelled antisemitic slurs at passersby from an intersection near the University of Central Florida, per ClickOrlando. The next day, they repeated their actions from a highway overpass.

That Saturday, Newstat drove past the demonstrators and shouted to them through his open car window that their hatred was not welcome, Fox 35 Orlando reported. Immediately, Newstat said, neo-Nazis began to surround the car, shouting antisemitic slurs after seeing an Israeli flag on his license plate. 

“I’m trying to go to the store, to Target, and I’m coming back home, and I’m being berated by Nazis,” Newstat told Fox 35. “My grandfather was a survivor. Other members of my family were survivors of the Holocaust and migrated to the U.S. after. It’s very sad to see people like this can be so ignorant and can have so much hatred built up in their hearts.”

According to the Orlando Sentinel, affidavits from the sheriff’s office and social media videos corroborate Newstat’s accusation that the self-proclaimed neo-Nazis spat on, pepper-sprayed, repeatedly punched, and pushed him to the ground. His cell phone was also stolen and “damaged beyond repair.” 

On Jan. 31, 2022, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles reported that Highway Patrol troopers and sheriff’s deputies had “immediately disbanded” the Sunday gathering over the highway. “​​It is against the law to obstruct highway traffic or hang signs on the overpasses and violators will be prosecuted,” the department tweeted.

According to NBC WESH 2, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office released a statement saying it “deplores hate speech in any form,” but acknowledged “people have the First Amendment right to demonstrate.”

“I am aware of the anti-Semitic demonstration in Orange County,” Sheriff John Mina tweeted. “I along with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office deplore any type of hate speech. This hatred has no place in our society. Any reports of criminal activity will be thoroughly investigated.”

The incident came soon after hundreds of antisemitic flyers had been distributed to homes in Miami Beach and Surfside, two South Florida cities with large Jewish populations, The Associated Press reported.

Outcomes

Political controversy arises

On the evening of Jan. 30, 2022, Pushaw tweeted, “Do we even know if they are Nazis? Or is this a student like the ‘white nationalists’ who crashed the Youngkin rally in Charlottesville pretending to be Dem staffers?” 

The tweet, which has since been deleted, was rebuked by multiple individuals and organizations. “The very idea that the governor’s press representative [suggested] such Neo-Nazis were fake is reprehensible,” Salkin told POLITICO. “This is the time for the public to be aware of the dangers of antisemitic extremism and not to traffic in the denial of that extremism.”

“We are alarmed that [Pushaw] would first give cover to antisemites rather than immediately and forcefully condemning their revolting, hate-filled rally and assault,” the ADL of Florida tweeted. “We expect any public official, especially a voice for [DeSantis], to address the fears of the Jewish community thoughtfully — not with this troubling and careless approach.”

The ADL of Florida has condemned Pushaw for antisemitic comments in the past. The group called her out in November 2021 for comments implying that the Republic of Georgia’s COVID-19 vaccination policies were linked to the Rothschild family, a common antisemitic conspiracy theory.

Pushaw later tweeted that she “should not have commented on [the rallies] in a way that sounded flippant or dismissive.”

Lawmakers respond

On Jan. 31, 2022, DeSantis commented on the weekend rallies at a press conference, calling the backlash an effort by Democrats to “smear me as if I had something to do with that” and said “we’re not playing their game,” POLITICO reported. DeSantis also called the protesters “jackasses” and said law enforcement would take action.

Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.), a former Floida Republican governor who is a candidate for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2022, criticized DeSantis’ response.

“By downplaying the seriousness of Nazi-led protests, [DeSantis] gives political aid and comfort to the most extreme fringes, whose views are antithetical to Floridians, hateful & harmful to our Jewish friends & family,” Crist tweeted. “He’s playing a dangerous game.”

Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, another candidate for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, spoke out against DeSantis as well. “I am horrified but not surprised that Governor DeSantis has yet to condemn this weekend’s hateful Nazi demonstrations in Orlando,” Fried said in a press release.

Several other political figures, including Orlando’s Democratic Mayor Buddy Dyer, U.S. Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.), U.S. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), and Florida state Reps. Anna V. Eskamani (D) and Chris Sprowls (R) condemned the neo-Nazi rally. 

State Rep. Carlos G. Smith (D), speaking on “The Rachel Maddow Show,” encouraged viewers to donate to the Holocast Memorial Resource & Education Center of Florida.

Arrests made

On Feb. 4, 2022, Mina’s office announced it had arrested the three men who allegedly attacked Newstat: Colucci; Joshua Terrell of Bedford, Indiana; and Jason Brown of Cape Canaveral, Florida.Colucci and Terrell were charged with battery evidencing prejudice. Normally a first-degree misdemeanor charge, it was upgraded in this case to a third-degree felony under Florida’s hate crime law, according to the Sentinel. Brown was arrested for grand theft.