A surge of tornados tore across a large swath of the country in April, carving a path of destruction. Over 200 tornados hit over 20 states, closely clustered in the last couple of weeks. And hurricane season is just around the corner.
Our story tonight is about what happens after these natural disasters. A pattern has emerged in recent years in which militias, conspiracists, and white supremacists show up to hard-hit communities — as they did last week in Texas — offering help. But they’ve been called disaster tourists who are out to sow doubt in government, soften their own image and gain followers.
September 2024. Hurricane Helene barreled through North Carolina with forces so powerful, it nearly wiped the town of Bat Cave off the map, lifting homes and toppling trees.
Sheriff Lowell Griffin: Imagine taking a box of toothpicks and dumpin’ ’em on your kitchen counter.
Sheriff Lowell Griffin faced a daunting rescue task.
Sheriff Lowell Griffin: We had already experienced days of heavy rain. And then the hurricane comes through.
Lesley Stahl: Like a triple whammy.
Sheriff Lowell Griffin: Yes, yes.
Then, another whammy: outsiders started pouring into North Carolina, including an influx of anti-government, far-right groups.
Sheriff Lowell Griffin: These folks that we’re talking about, they were in the minority. However that minority can create chaos. And that’s what we ran into.
Lesley Stahl: Did some of these outsiders launch their own rescue operations?
Sheriff Lowell Griffin: We had some folks wanting to act as a militia comin’ in to take over, to in their minds bring some sort of self-deployed law and order to the area.
Lesley Stahl: With weapons?
Sheriff Lowell Griffin: Yes, ma’am.
Lesley Stahl: So that’s like taking your time from the real rescue to deal with them?
Sheriff Lowell Griffin: It is. It is.
The sheriff himself didn’t see all the groups, but we know among those to show up were members of white nationalist group “Active Club.”
Robert Rundo: Going to a disaster relief is directly helping our people.
Lesley Stahl: You go in to help white people.
Robert Rundo: Yeah.
Robert Rundo co-founded Active Club in 2020 as a place for disgruntled, young white men to work out together, while sharing their ideology.
With nearly 90 chapters, it’s been described by watchdogs as one of the country’s fastest growing white supremacist networks, that are antisemitic, anti-immigrant, and anti-democracy. They also hold mixed martial arts tournaments.
Robert Rundo: We get together with the boys. We box, we travel.
Lesley Stahl: Do you think of it as fun?
Robert Rundo: Of course. You know, there’s fun in fascism.
“Fun in fascism?”
Robert Rundo: I’m a nationalist.
Lesley Stahl: What does that mean?
Robert Rundo: A nationalist?
Lesley Stahl: Yeah.
Robert Rundo: It means I put my people first.
Lesley Stahl: Would you say “white supremacist?”
Robert Rundo: No. I think that’s like a slander-ish term.
Lesley Stahl: But “My people” are white people. European white people.
Robert Rundo: Right. Andthere’s plenty of organizations that are geared towards other ethnic groups, right If we don’t look out for ourselves, who is?
Lesley Stahl: I know that your organization has gone to floods, fires, hurricanes. What if you came upon someone who wasn’t white, but is suffering because of the flood?
Robert Rundo: Like if there was, like, a guy in a fire, would I give him water? Yeah. I’d probably give him some water.
Lesley Stahl: When you go into these areas, are you recruiting?
Robert Rundo: We hand out flyers, you know. If somebody wants to contact us later, that’s fine. But just us showing up changes somebody’s opinion, someone’s mind so the next time when they put something out and they say “These evil guys,” they say “Wait a second. That’s the guy who came when my house was on fire and helped me out.”
Many of these outside groups want to build, as one of their posts states, “a pro-white parallel system.” One of the more prominent white supremacist groups that showed up in North Carolina was Patriot Front. They cut down trees and handed out bread.
But Freddy Cruz from the Western States Center, a hate-group watchdog, says these white nationalists go to disasters primarily to build a following.
Lesley Stahl: These people come in, they hand out water, they help clean up the debris. Whatever their ideology, they’re doing something positive, aren’t they?
Freddy Cruz: What we’re seeing is actually these groups will show up and generate a whole bunch of social media content. We’re dubbing it disaster tourism.
Lesley Stahl: And then they leave?
Freddy Cruz: That’s generally what we see.
That’s unlike veterans’ relief groups like Team Rubicon or religious organizations like Samaritans’ Purse that come in after disasters, coordinate with authorities, and stay a while.
Lesley Stahl: When you go into an area that’s distressed, do you coordinate in any way with the local law enforcement, with the sheriff?
Robert Rundo: Absolutely not. They would probably do everything they can to prevent us.
Lesley Stahl: What do you say to people who argue that you go in, the purpose is to have some video shot of you handing out some water and then you leave and the whole point was for– to get that video so that you could post it.
Robert Rundo: That kinda sounds like—what everyone does, right? That’s what a president.. that when he goes into a community they have the cameras there. So is that bottle of water actually being handed out? Absolutely it is. Does our guys actually care and feel for the people they’re helping out. Absolutely. Do we also video it and put it out there to show another side of us? Absolutely.
These extremist groups put out videos after floods, they put out videos during fires. They figured out that videos about natural disasters can reach a whole new large audience.
John Kelly: I think white nationalists are interested in natural disasters because everybody is interested in natural disasters.
John Kelly heads Graphika, a firm analyzing how content spreads online.
John Kelly: There are very few things that bring the public’s attention to focus on one thing in unison. And natural disasters is one of those.
Lesley Stahl: These groups through natural disasters are trying to change their image. They trying to say, “we’re wholesome.”
John Kelly: That’s one of the things that characterizes the current groups, is that they’ve kind of decided to leave the more triggering iconography in the closet and try to appeal to a more mainstream audience. Not to do things that turn people off, the way that marching around with swastikas would turn people off.
Robert Rundo: A lot of mainstream media, how they depict us, they like to show a guy who’s in camo, trucker hat, maybe overweight, face tattoos, something like this. What I wanted to do was to create something positive for young guys like myself.
The more macho wholesome image, Robert Rundo thinks, gives young men permission to adopt his fascist philosophy. Another guy who appeals to young men is online influencer Dan Bilzerian – with nearly 30 million followers on Instagram. He peddles antisemitism:
Dan Bilzerian: I believe that Jewish supremacy is the greatest threat to America and I think it’s the greatest threat to the world today. I truly believe that.
Some of these ideas are seeping into mainstream politics: Bilzerian is running for Congress in Florida. In a group chat, young Republican leaders praised Hitler. And then there’s Nick Fuentes, the online hate-monger, who’s even more explicit:
Nick Fuentes: And I was thinking, what is it about Hitler that’s cool? Why does it tickle? Cause kids love Hitler. Kids love Hitler. Young men.
While more people are advocating these ideas in the open, the young men of Active Club hide their faces when they post pictures from natural disasters.
Rundo is their spokesman, even though he himself hasn’t gone to disasters. For the past few years – he was out of pocket, so-to-speak.
Lesley Stahl: Why were you in prison?
Robert Rundo: Which time?
Lesley Stahl: Oh, boy.
Robert Rundo: I was in prison twice.
The 36-year-old from New York was first incarcerated as a teen, for a gang fight.
Lesley Stahl: Did you stab somebody?
Robert Rundo: Allegedly. Well, yeah. You know?
Lesley Stahl: Yeah?
Robert Rundo: Well, he had a weapon too. It wasn’t like I just— you know, I just randomly showed up on somebody.
Lesley Stahl: And the second time?
Robert Rundo: The second time is for what I’m most known for.
In 2017, he got into a series of fights with anti-Trump protestors at rallies. That’s him pounding. and pounding. He was on the lam when he got this idea to launch a more clean-cut white pride group. But it’s just a new image.
Robert Rundo: We’re ultra-nationalists, far right, fascists. You know? I mean, I’ll lean a little bit into these terms, you know.
Lesley Stahl: Is your ultimate goal to turn America into a completely white Christian nation?
Robert Rundo: I would also add, like, a more militant nation as well. You know? Military rule.
Lesley Stahl: Like having a military person run the country?
Robert Rundo: Well, just, you know, again–
Lesley Stahl: And not have democracy?
Robert Rundo: –based more of– of– democracy.
Lesley Stahl: What did– what did you mean democracy? And like– it’s terrible?
Robert Rundo: Oh, because it’s just such a– It’s such a scam, “democracy.” I believe. It’s politicians that get lobbied, they never have the interest. Anything that’s important, do they ever ask us? No.
Lesley Stahl: But if you have a military – you’ll never decide anything. They’ll decide–
Robert Rundo: We don’t decide anything right now.
Going to natural disasters like Hurricane Helene also gives these groups an opportunity to slam the government.
Their videos claimed the government did a lousy job in the rescue, saying it was chaotic, clueless, and corrupt.
The criticisms got more outsiders to descend. These militiamen from Virginia came to clear houses.
Virginia militia: When the government fails, the people come together.
An Arizona vigilante conspiracist group, Veterans on Patrol, came to organize supplies, but according to law enforcement they created chaos and did more harm than good.
Sheriff Griffin in North Carolina says many of these disaster tourists spread conspiracies and misinformation to help their videos go viral.
Sheriff Lowell Griffin: The misinformation took a bad situation and actually complicated a bad, bad situation.
Lesley Stahl: But sheriff, they’re coming in because they think the government isn’t doing anything.
Sheriff Lowell Griffin: So what I would say, for all these outside folks that are really wanting to help, they need to get their information from official sources, and not from TikTok or Facebook or whatever the flavor of the day is with social media.
Lesley Stahl: What was some of the misinformation that was being spread?
Sheriff Lowell Griffin: That there were people that were still stranded, that there were bodies floating in the river. That FEMA was rationing supplies and seizing supplies. None of that was true.
FEMA – the federal agency on the ground at natural disasters – is a main target of these outside groups. During Helene, FEMA rescuers had to back away for a few days when there were fears that militias were coming to hunt them. Also, a wild rumor spread that the government actually created Hurricane Helene using weather monitoring towers as a weather weapon.
Sheriff Lowell Griffin: So, basically, the rumor was that, you know, the government controls the weather and that this was a direct attack on the area.
Lesley Stahl: Is this usual now in disasters, 1) that there are these false rumors, conspiracies being spread, and 2) that outside groups sort of stream in and make it more difficult for law enforcement?
Sheriff Lowell Griffin: So what I’m afraid of is from what I’ve seen, this will be the new normal.
Produced by Shachar Bar-On and Jinsol Jung. Broadcast associate, Aria Een. Edited by Joe Schanzer.
