Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes says he is quitting right wing group FBI labels 'extremist'

Gavin McInnes, the founder of the far right wing Proud Boys group, said he was quitting – a day it was revealed the FBI had listed it as an “extremist organisation with ties to white nationalism”.

In a video posted to YouTube, Mr McInnes, also a founder member of Vice Media, said he was “officially disassociating” himself from the Proud Boys “in all capacities, forever”. He said he was doing to help the legal problems confronting several members charged after attacking demonstrators in New York, who were protesting a speech he was delivering.

“I was told to use the term “stepping down” but I refused because that makes no sense. I was never the leader, only the founder. Although, the media will likely say, ‘Gavin McInnes Steps Down as Leader of Extremist Hate Group Proud Boys’ because that’s how they roll,” he said.

“I do this reluctantly because I see it as the greatest fraternal organisation in the world but rumours and lies and bad journalism has made its way to the court system and the NYC9....are facing serious charges.”

The 48-year-old, described by the New York Times as a “Brooklyn hipster turned far-right provocateur”, established the Proud Boys in 2016, claiming it was “a fraternal organisation” interested in defending so-called western values. “This movement is normal people trying to live their lives getting attacked by mentally ill lunatics,” he said.

He has denied it is extremist or violent, even though he has a record of making racist, misogynistic and otherwise offensive remarks. He has used a racial slur to describe African American senator Cory Booker, said he admits he is Islamophobic, and has insulted foreign cultures from India to Australia.

The group has also repeatedly been associated with violent attacks, including against anti-fascist protesters. Members of the group allegedly took part in last summer’s far right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where one protester was killed. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have blocked the organisation.

More recently, around half-a-dozen members of the group have been charged after clashing with anti-fascist protesters following a speech Mr McInnes delivered on October 12 at the Metropolitan Republican Club, on New York’s Upper East Side.

The announcement by Mr McInnes, who could not be contacted on Thursday, came just days after it was reported that FBI considered the group “extremist organisation with ties to white nationalism”.

Documents obtained by the Guardian and the watchdog group Property of the People, were part of an internal affairs investigation into a sheriff’s department in Washington state’s Clark county. It followed the revelation by the The Columbian newspaper that a member of the department had ties to the right wing group. The former Clark county deputy, was fired last July after at the newspaper published photograph of her wearing a “Proud Boys Girls” sweatshirt.

“The FBI has warned local law enforcement agencies that the Proud Boys are actively recruiting in the Pacific Northwest and that some Proud Boy members have contributed to the recent escalation of violence at political rallies held on college campuses, and in cities like Charlottesville, Virginia; Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington,” the document added.

The Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC), an Alabama-based watchdog group, has described the the organisation as both “extremist” and a “hate group”.

“Their disavowals of bigotry are belied by their actions: rank-and-file Proud Boys and leaders regularly spout white nationalist memes and maintain affiliations with known extremists,” the SPLC says of the group. “They are known for anti-Muslim and misogynistic rhetoric. Proud Boys have appeared alongside other hate groups at extremist gatherings like the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville.”