“Stop the Steal” organizer Ali Alexander’s pre-January 6 calls for violence: “We've got to punch the left in the nose.” “You must fight. … They will kill us.”

Alexander also said he spoke with Kimberly Guilfoyle the night before the pro-Trump insurrection

Written by Eric Hananoki

Published

Ali Alexander during a media appearance

Before the deadly January 6 attack at the Capitol, “Stop the Steal” organizer Ali Alexander told right-wing media audiences that they should be afraid because their enemies want to enslave them, put them in “gulags,” or “kill” them. He also offered purported solutions, telling followers that they have “to punch the left in the nose,” “do brave acts,” “fight,” and “have vengeance if we have traitors.”  

Alexander is a right-wing grifter and Trump ally who has gained prominence because of his role in helping organize the rally that led up to the January 6 pro-Trump insurrection. Since the deadly attack, he has repeatedly pushed violent and incendiary rhetoric. 

In a since-deleted video on Periscope, Alexander said that he organized the January 6 rally with help from Republican Reps. Andy Biggs (AZ), Mo Brooks (AL), and Paul Gosar (AZ). The Washington Post reported that “spokesmen for Biggs and Brooks denied that the congressmen had helped Alexander organize a rally on Jan. 6. Gosar did not respond to requests for comment.” 

Media Matters has documented how Alexander has recently used social media sites to organize and gain money. 

In a previously unreported interview, Alexander said that on January 5, he communicated with senior Trump official, Donald Trump Jr. girlfriend, and former Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle. He said on the morning of January 6 -- shortly before the pro-Trump riot -- on Breitbart News Daily: “The president's mood is he's in fighter mode and today will determine which Republicans are going to suffer his wrath going forward. That's the mood that he's in. In fact, I got a call last night from Kimberly Guilfoyle and none of us are stopping.” 

The Daily Beast’s Will Sommer documented numerous instances in which Alexander “repeatedly raised the prospect of using violence in the weeks ahead of Jan. 6,” including on social media and in speeches. 

Media Matters reviewed numerous media appearances by Ali Alexander in the weeks before the January 6 attack and found additional examples of the “Stop the Steal” organizer using violent rhetoric to  rile up his followers to action. Here are five examples. 

Alexander: “We've got to punch the left in the nose and we've got to stop being nice about it.” Alexander made the following remarks on the December 23, 2020, edition of The Pro America Report with Ed Martin on KCBQ in San Diego. Martin is a pro-Trump commentator who was on the Catholics for Trump advisory board for the president’s failed reelection campaign. 

Ali Alexander on The Pro America Report with Ed Martin

From the December 23, 2020, edition of KCBQ's The Pro America Report with Ed Martin

ALI ALEXANDER: What we need more than anything right now is we need fighters. We absolutely need fighters. We need to tool the government against the institutions that are leading to our persecution, and they hope to have gulags for us. I mean, this is no exaggeration. The hour is now. So I would say is encourage the fighters, support the fighters, become a fighter yourself by taking time off of work or giving paid time off to your employees to participate in these acts of protest. We don't do events with Stop the Steal. We do protests. We're petitioning our government to do certain actions that we expect of them. It's in our social contract. We should have trust in a legitimate government, and our government's not acting legitimate. So I would say the thing for me is -- to fight, you know, and when you get exhausted to get up again and keep fighting, you know? That's the only way that we teach the other side. You know, you teach a bully to stop hitting you by punching him in the nose. We've got to punch the left in the nose and we've got to stop being nice about it.

Alexander: “We must do brave acts. … I will prepare for a poor outcome and we will have vengeance if we have traitors.” Alexander made his remarks during an appearance on Focus Talk, which airs on the pro-Trump Epoch Media Group television network NTD (New Tang Dynasty). Video of his interview appeared on YouTube on December 30. 

From a December 30 video of Focus Talk posted to Epoch Media Group's NTD YouTube channel

ALI ALEXANDER: Yes, it's — we are in a fight of good versus evil, of light versus the darkness and a global order over sovereign citizens. That is the fight before us. And a lot of us thought, well, this fight was coming decades later. It is here now and we must do brave acts and -- but I will tell you this: What I have found and what I read about in the good book and the history of the greatest countries is that when a small minority does the right thing, the majority's hearts and minds are moved and the bureaucrats and the politicians react to that. And so I believe that they're one in the same. I believe that this is a metaphysical fight and we are channeling all energy in heaven and on earth towards a favorable outcome. I intend on winning and I will not leave room for doubt. But I will prepare for a poor outcome and we will have vengeance if we have traitors. 

Alexander: “You must fight now. … it's going to kill many, many — billions more if we let them … They will kill us.” Alexander also made the following remarks on NTD’s Focus Talk: 

From a December 30 video of Focus Talk posted to Epoch Media Group's NTD YouTube channel

ALI ALEXANDER: If you do not stand up and fight now, you are signing your road and your ticket to serfdom. And -- so you must fight now. And it's inconvenient and it has caught us by surprise. But it won't take a majority of the American public. It may take 10 million of us. Because the system needs slaves. They don't want to kill us. They need slaves. 

…

We are creatures who crave creativity and expression and individualism. And that's what liberty is about. The idea that we can all do our own thing together in their system. They don't even know this. It has killed a hundred million people in a century, a hundred million people. And it's going to kill many, many — billions more if we let them go through this year or this next year with their plans, with their agenda. And so I would say stand up now or you're already on your way to the gulags. There are many Jews that marched to the camps thinking that they were just camps, not knowing that they were death camps. We cannot march to these camps, whether they're digital, whether they are physical or whether they're just taking our rights and our liberties and our churches. We cannot. We cannot march to their ghetto. They will kill us.

Alexander: “I think we can do it peacefully. Heaven forbid it has to go further.” Alexander said the following on NTD’s Focus Talk:

From a December 30 video of Focus Talk posted to Epoch Media Group's NTD YouTube channel

ALI ALEXANDER: The people are stronger than the government. The people are stronger than the tyrants. And I know that. And if I have to act as a sacrifice, my energy, my emotions, my life, my money, whatever, I will give that so that my brothers and my sisters, children of God, can wake up and fight tyrants because I think we can do it peacefully. Heaven forbid it has to go further. But these are our rights endowed at our creating moment. 

Alexander: “It is evil. It is corrupt. … It's at least sedition. I'll say that. ... We’ve got to put bodies in the streets and make the American oligarchs scared of what we’ll do.” Alexander gave an interview to internet commentator Sean Lin. It appears that the interview occurred at the November 14 “Million MAGA March.”

A November 14, 2020, interview of Ali Alexander by Sean Lin

ALI ALEXANDER: This is truly systematic and systemic cheating and it is unique. It is evil. It is corrupt. It is in league with some of our worst enemies that are painted as people that we need to appease, like Beijing, China, the Communist Party, and we don't need to appease them. And so we really, really, really have to fight this now. We can't wait for next year or reforms or anything like that. This isn’t basic corruption. There's a coup going on. And worse, our mainstream media has partnered with authoritarian forces and violent thugs in the streets. This is a perfect situation of good versus evil. 

SEAN LIN: Do you think it’s treason -- you said more than just a coup?  

ALEXANDER: It's at least sedition. I'll say that. I’ll at least say that. 

...

ALI ALEXANDER: If you're sitting on the couch, if you're just tweeting, we're gonna -- the republic's gonna die. Everyone has to sign up for an email at StoptheSteal.us and get involved. We’ve got to put bodies in the streets and make the American oligarchs scared of what we’ll do.