Ali Alexander
Ali Alexander | |
---|---|
Born | Ali Abdul-Razaq Akbar 1984 or 1985 (age 38–39) |
Education | |
Occupation | Activist |
Known for | Organizer of Stop the Steal |
Political party | Republican |
Movement |
Ali Alexander (born Ali Abdul-Razaq Akbar
Early life
Alexander was born in 1984 or 1985, one of two children born to a Christian
According to Alexander, he attended Criswell College, a Southern Baptist institution of higher learning in Dallas, planning to become a minister, before transferring to the University of North Texas. Alexander later said in an interview, "I discovered I really can't do this whole college thing."[15]
Alexander went by his birth name until he renamed himself "Ali Alexander" partway through his career as an activist.[4][16]
Alexander was convicted of felony property theft and credit card abuse charges in 2007 and 2008.[16][17][18]
Activism
Alexander has been variously described as a Republican operative,[19] far-right personality,[1] right-wing provocateur,[20] and part of the New Right. The New York Observer wrote in 2018 that Alexander "has a history of dog whistling to the nationalist wing of the MAGA movement".[18] Alexander has worked with other far-right personalities including Alex Jones, Roger Stone, Jacob Wohl, and Laura Loomer.[17]
Alexander emerged in right-wing politics around the same time as the
Later, he renamed himself Ali Alexander and became an outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump.[16]
Alexander worked as an advisor for the
Social media
Alexander is a familiar social media personality among American conservatives. In early 2019, he was known for his livestream videos published via
In February 2021, on a Trovo livestream, Alexander began soliciting donations to build a "MAGA mega-city" and another planned community in South America called the "City of Alexander".[27][28] He also stated he would organize further Stop the Steal rallies and that he was creating "tools of creation and tools of chaos".[28] He also called for the abolition of the free press, labeling them "systems that control us," and challenged law enforcement to combat if they attempted to arrest him.[28]
Deplatforming
Alexander was briefly banned from Twitter in January 2019, which he said was because he had tweeted at Representative
KXAS-TV reported that after Alexander had been banned by PayPal, he continued to earn money through the Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo. In a campaign titled "Protection and Team for Ali Alexander", he raised more than $30,000 over the days following the Capitol riot. KXAS-TV reported that the site had also been used by extremists including members of the Proud Boys to raise money to travel to Washington, D.C., on January 6. GiveSendGo later temporarily suspended Alexander's account after a payment processor used by GiveSendGo refused to process payments for Alexander. Although GiveSendGo restored Alexander's account, they said that the processor's refusal to provide services might result in Alexander being permanently banned from their platform.[15]
Promotion of conspiracy theories
Alexander is a conspiracy theorist,
Ilhan Omar and Kamala Harris
In February 2019, Alexander arranged for himself and two fellow conspiracy theorists, Jacob Wohl and Laura Loomer, to travel to
In August 2019, Alexander gained media attention for what The Washington Post said had been described as a "birther-like" campaign against then-Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. That month, he tweeted Harris was "not an American Black", further claiming that "I'm so sick of people robbing American Blacks (like myself) of our history. It's disgusting".[44] Donald Trump Jr. retweeted the claim, then deleted it.[26] In The New York Times, Katie Rogers and Maggie Haberman characterized Alexander's tweet as having "falsely claimed Senator Kamala Harris was not black enough to be discussing the plight of black Americans".[clarification needed][45]
Stop the Steal
In 2020, Alexander founded
According to
January 6 attack
Alexander was among the people who encouraged Trump supporters to rally outside the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021, the day of the Electoral College vote count.[13] Alexander named his rally the "Wild Protest" after Trump tweeted that protests during vote counting "will be wild". The rally was one of at least four pro-Trump rallies planned for that date and location.[13] He planned the rally with Caroline Wren, a former Trump campaign fundraiser, who had been hired by Publix supermarkets heiress Julie Jenkins Fancelli to manage her donation of $300,000 of the approximate total of $500,000 spent on the event.[9]
Alexander announced in several livestreams in December 2020 that he had also organized his rally with Representative Andy Biggs, as well as Representatives Paul Gosar and Mo Brooks.[49] In one livestream on Periscope, Alexander said, "We four schemed up of putting maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting."[50][51] Before January 6, Alexander self-identified as an "official originator" of the rally;[16] he was later identified as a "founder" of Wild Protest[52] and the probable creator of a since-deactivated website devoted to the event.[53] He reportedly encouraged attendees of the Wild Protest, which occurred amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Washington, D.C., not to wear face masks.[52]
The Daily Beast reported that "Alexander led a host of activists in ratcheting up the rhetoric" before January 6, and that Alexander's posts "grew more menacing" as the date approached.[16] Alexander tweeted on December 7, 2020, that he would "give [his] life for this fight", a tweet that was retweeted by the Arizona Republican Party with the addition, "He is. Are you?"[16][54][51] ProPublica identified a December 23 Parler post of Alexander's, in which he wrote "If D.C. escalates ... so do we", as "one of scores of social media posts welcoming violence" before the attack.[55]
Alexander was scheduled to speak on January 5 at Freedom Plaza, just west of the White House.[56][19] The Guardian named Alexander as among the people active in inciting the crowd outside the Capitol on January 6, leading chants of "victory or death".[57] At 4:30 p.m. on January 6, about two hours after rioters entered the Capitol building, Alexander posted a video of himself looking out on a crowd outside the Capitol, in which he said, "I don't disavow this. I do not denounce this."[13][16][58] He also said in the video that most of the people at the Capitol had been peaceful, and he applauded those who didn't enter the building.[13]
After the attack on the Capitol, Alexander said he did not support what had happened,[59] and that he wished people had not entered, or even approached, the Capitol building.[13] The Daily Beast reported that Alexander had gone into hiding after the attack, and taken down a website promoting his rally.[16] In September 2021, a hack of the internet services company Epik revealed that the day after the Capitol attack, Alexander had worked to hide his ties to over 100 domains, many of which were related to "Stop the Steal".[60] Twitter banned Alexander's personal account and a Stop the Steal account on January 10. Alexander was banned from PayPal, Venmo, and Patreon following the riot, and permanently banned from Facebook and Instagram.[29][30] According to Reuters, Alexander continued to post "violent rhetoric" online following the attack.[61] On a February 2021 livestream, Alexander said he would "meet on the battlefield" any law enforcement that attempted to arrest him.[28] According to a February 20 Washington Post report, Alexander was among several far-right people under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department for possible ties to and influence on those who were physically involved in the riot at the Capitol.[62] On October 7, the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack issued a subpoena requesting records and testimony from Alexander.[63]
Post–January 6
After January 6, a Biggs spokesperson said Biggs had had no connection with Alexander; Biggs himself later said that Alexander had exaggerated Biggs' and other members' involvement.[16][51] A Brooks spokesperson said Brooks had "no recollection of ever communicating in any way with whoever Ali Alexander is".[64]
Alexander said in April 2022 that he would cooperate with the Justice Department investigation into the attack, after receiving a subpoena from a federal grand jury that was investigating broad categories of people involved in Trump rallies prior to the attack. Alexander was close to longtime Trump associate Roger Stone, with whom he spoke about "logistics" and the "warring factions" of rally organizers prior to the attack. Alexander gave the
Sexual harassment allegations
In March 2023, Milo Yiannopoulos published interviews on his podcast describing Alexander's history of allegedly propositioning teenage boys for sex and soliciting nude photos and video from them.[67][68]
On April 14, Alexander issued a public apology.[69] In the written statement, Alexander said he had long been "battling with same-sex attraction", and that he had at times "been careless" and should have "qualified those coming up to me's [sic] identities" before engaging in what he characterized as "flirtatious banter".[67][70] "Nothing unlawful has occurred", he claimed.[68]
Alexander had allegedly offered one boy the chance to become politically connected and to meet Yiannopoulos in exchange for explicit material.
Personal life
Alexander identifies as Catholic, Black, and Arab.[5][22][71] As of November 2020[update], he lived in Texas.[4] Alexander has stated that he is bisexual and is "battling with same-sex attraction."[67]
References
- ^ a b c [3][5][6][7][8][9]
- ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved May 22, 2021.
- ^ a b c d e Hayden, Michael Edison (December 18, 2020). "Law Firm Tied to Far-Right Fringe Registers Stop the Steal LLC in Alabama". Hatewatch. Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on January 11, 2021. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
- ^ Bayou Brief. Archivedfrom the original on December 23, 2020. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
- ^ a b c d Petrizzo, Zachary (August 20, 2020). "A Trumpworld operative obsessed with Kamala Harris' background has a past he wouldn't want you to see". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on January 11, 2021. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
- ^ Heilweil, Rebecca (January 8, 2021). "How Trump's internet built and broadcast the Capitol insurrection". Vox. Archived from the original on January 11, 2021. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
- ^ from the original on January 13, 2021. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
- ^ a b Heilweil, Rebecca (January 8, 2021). "How Trump's internet built and broadcast the Capitol insurrection". Vox. Archived from the original on January 11, 2021. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
- ^ from the original on January 30, 2021. Retrieved January 31, 2021.
- ^ a b Conspiracy theorist[7][8]
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 16, 2021.. Retrieved May 16, 2021.
- Massie, Graeme (April 24, 2021). "Trump continues to push false claims of election fraud in weekend flurry of press releases". Yahoo!. Retrieved May 16, 2021.
- Watson, Kathryn (November 4, 2020). "Trump falsely claims he won election as millions of votes remain uncounted". CBS News. Retrieved May 16, 2021.
- Desiderio, Andrew; Caygle, Heather (February 2, 2021). "Trump doubles down on false election claim in impeachment response". MSN
External links
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- Ali Alexander at IMDb