Thread by @letsgomathias

New: He was one of the most malevolent characters in DC on 1/6. The extent of his extremism has gone unreported, until now.

Meet Matthew Purse. He dressed as press to storm the Capitol & accost reporters. Now we know he runs a white nationalist site. huffpost.com/entry/matthew-…

Purse was arrested earlier this year on charges related to storming of the Capitol. He told the AP he was in the Capitol as “part of a legitimate news org,” which he declined to name. “The record will show I was not there in any illegal capacity,” he said huffpost.com/entry/matthew-…

Here is a picture of him in the Capitol on 1/6, per court docs. As you can see, he dressed up as press. huffpost.com/entry/matthew-…

But Purse was in fact one of the media's biggest tormentors on 1/6. Footage of him from that day is a lasting reminder of the vicious contempt for the press among the MAGA faithful on display at the Capitol, and at the heart of any fascist movement. huffpost.com/entry/matthew-…

Here, for example, is Purse accosting @giltamary, a reporter for channel 10 in Israel, with anti-Semitic slurs.

Note Purse mouthing "The Goyim know" at the end. That's a reference to a neo-Nazi meme which depicts Jews as evil puppet masters.

https://twitter.com/ranboker/status/1346933167987560450

And here he is accosting Danish reporter Lillian Kretz:

https://twitter.com/1600PennPooch/status/1413601176558387203

He also harassed a reporter from Baltimore', calling him “lugenpresse," which means “lying press” in German, a term most commonly used by the Nazis and Adolf Hitler to discredit reporters. It's been revived as a slur among the modern far right in Germany. huffpost.com/entry/matthew-…

And here's a vid of him giving a speech on the Capitol steps after the attack.

“First of all, mission accomplished, Patriots,” he said. “History has been made here today... You occupied the building! You caused them to stop what they were doing!"

https://twitter.com/DianthaSol/status/1413724790951759873

Purse's real ID was unknown for months after the insurrection. He had introduced himself as "Marc" throughout the day. Online sleuths took to calling him #MrExtraCreepy.

Then the sleuths — @SeditionSleuth, @ne0ndistraction — figured out he was Purse. huffpost.com/entry/matthew-…

More importantly, they figured out he was running a white nationalist website called Happening Center.

The site, which mostly hosted livestreams, embraces outright neo-Nazism and praises mass killers. huffpost.com/entry/matthew-…

Anyway, the story undercuts the revisionist right-wing narrative that the rioters were but a group of bumbling MAGA tourists, as opposed to what they were: the vanguard of a dangerous, racist mass movement hellbent on destroying democracy. Pls read: huffpost.com/entry/matthew-…