Alt-Right Spokesman Richard Spencer Talks About How Powerful Hate Can Be

On Tuesday, thousands of angry protesters swarmed outside the conference room on Texas A&M’s College Station campus where white nationalist Richard Spencer was speaking, CNN reports. The talk at Texas A&M was just one of many that Spencer, who helped launch the alt-right movement, has been holding across the country.

While his controversial views have been propped up by the populist movement that helped elect Donald Trump, most of the 400 people in the Texas A&M audience were there protesting, suggesting that his support isn’t as strong as the media makes it out to be.

On last night’s episode of VICE News Tonight, Elle Reeve sat down with Spencer in Washington, DC, to talk about the protesters (who he likes to call “smelly disgusting freaks”), the role that 4chan played in the alt-right movement, and how powerful hate can be.

“What we’ve been able to do is leverage ourselves because of the power of our ideas,” Spencer says. “We’re the ones people want to talk to. We’re the ones people fear, and that shows our power.”

Watch the clip above and check out the full episode of VICE News Tonight for free online now. VICE News Tonight airs every weeknight at 7:30 PM on HBO.