Right-wing commentator and pastor Jesse Lee Peterson joined a broadcast hosted by neo-Nazis yesterday and expressed his appreciation that the hosts were influencing young white men.
During a Nov. 6 stream on the website DLive, Peterson joined Robert Warren Ray, who is better known by his persona “Azzmador” on the neo-Nazi blog The Daily Stormer, and a person only identified as “Jimmy,” but whose voice sounds remarkably similar to Daily Stormer founder Andrew Anglin. During the appearance, Ray asked Peterson to elaborate on his frequent claims that black people in America lived better under Jim Crow laws--which enforced racial segregation in the American South, stripped African Americans of their rights, and enabled racial terrorism against African Americans--than they do today.
“Black people were not whining, complaining, and begging and blaming the white man. They were better off then than they are today because they had family and they treated everyone the way that they would like to be treated. And they knew that there were good and bad in all cultures,” Peterson told Ray.
Peterson insisted that Jim Crow laws would have been naturally reversed by a diverse group of “decent people” of different races, but that the civil rights movement “forced things to happen, and you can’t make anyone love you.” Peterson said the civil rights movement “should have never happened” and described it as a “big mistake.”
At the end of Peterson’s interview with the hosts, Peterson told them: “I’m really happy to know that there are other guys like you guys out there encouraging these young men to overcome anger and return to God, because their parents didn’t tell them that, and they’re not getting it in the schools. And especially with the young white males, I don’t want them to destroy themselves by being angry and doing the wrong thing because that’s a set-up from the children of the lie.”
“Children of the lie” is a term that Peterson often uses to describe people he believes are influenced by evil forces.
“I’m glad that the word is getting out that you can speak up, but don’t hate, because if you hate, you’re going to do something that you regret later, and we’re going to have a civil war, and they’re going to call you white supremacist and racist, and they’re going to make laws that destroy white men or anyone that stands up,” Peterson said.
Jimmy asked if Peterson believed there was not a political solution to the societal flaws they collectively perceived, to which Peterson agreed. After Peterson left the podcast, Jimmy praised Peterson for agreeing with him that “these young black men are a major problem” and suggested that the United States would need to have laws against “race-mixing.” Peterson, Jimmy said, “seems like the kind of guy we should be embracing if we’re looking for some kind of solution to the black problem.”
Peterson has long associated with extremists, both hosting them on his show and appearing on shows hosted by extremists. In January, he appeared on a white nationalist podcast and told the host that “unless white people take over, it’s over for America.”