
 
 
 
 Christopher Cantwell, one of the primary subjects of VICE News' viral documentary on the Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville and a prominent Alt-Right media personality, sobbed in a personal YouTube video after he says a warrant was issued for his arrest. 
 
 
 
 I called the Charlottesville Police Department... and I said, ‘I have been told that there’s a warrant out for my arrest.’ They said that they wouldn’t confirm it but that I could find this out if I wanted to go a local magistrate or something. 
 
 
 
 He goes on to tearfully admit to committing violence during the rally, but claims it was self-defense: 
 
 
 
 If I have to go to jail today, it won't be the first time...I don't want to, I don't think I should...I've been engaged in violence... and I've done nothing to hide that, but it was done in defense of myself and others. 
 
 The video first appeared on YouTube on Saturday, seemingly hours after footage was shot by VICE of him advocating violence against counter-protesters. 
 
 
 
 Ironically, Cantwell ranted in the documentary about segregating white people from other races because he believes white people aren't prone to crime and violence. Cantwell was also interviewed on Sunday by VICE, and did not bring up any warrant for his arrest. 
 
 The phone number that Cantwell lists in the video and on his website appears to be disconnected or unavailable at this time. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Update, August 16th , 4:59 pm: After this piece was published, Cantwell contacted us by phone in response to a media request. Cantwell now denies that there is an actual warrant out for his arrest, but instead says that he believes that the Charlottesville PD has a "list of people to round up," an assertion he makes based on conversations with an unnamed "higher up government official." 
 
 Cantwell says the video was originally posted in a Facebook livestream, but that his account has been disabled. According to Cantwell, his Paypal, Instagram and other internet accounts have also been shut down. 
 
 When asked if he stood by his statements in the Vice Documentary, Cantwell said yes, but "I don't want violence, I want a more peaceful society." Cantwell went on to say that "I'm willing to use violence to stop" those who disrupt peace (minorities). 
 
 Cantwell maintained his belief in the theory that car attacker James Alex Fields Jr. acted in self-defense, but said that non-provoked attacks are not part of his ideology. He denied any association or personal knowledge of Fields Jr. 
 
 When asked about his reaction to President Trump's press conference yesterday, Cantwell said "he did a pretty good job," specifically mentioning his appeal to the idea that liberals would eventually want to destroy statues of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. 
 
 While Cantwell said he doesn't fully support Trump because he believes Trump "doesn't agree with us on the racial stuff," he said that Trump will "prevent us from falling to communism," and that "we have interests that overlap because we want to save the country." 
 
 
 
 Update, August 31, 1:18 PM: In an interview with The Daily Beast from prison, Cantwell said he was in solitary confinement for his own safety, and was arrested for illegally using pepper spray to attack two counter-protesters. 
 
 
 
 
 
 ||||| Christopher Cantwell is a prominent white supremacist featured in Vice Media’s report on the violence in Charlottesville, Charlottesville: Race and Terror. He’s also seen in a viral video crying and worrying about being arrested. On August 23, authorities confirmed that he turned himself in. 
 
 On August 17, Catnwell wrote on his website that he’s in an “undisclosed location just outside of Virginia, preparing to turn myself in to the University of Virginia police.” Authorities told CNN on August 23 that Cantwell surrendered to police. 
 
 The 36-year-old Cantwell, who runs a podcast called Radical Agenda, is heard sharing his anti-Semitic and racist views in the Vice film, even telling reporter Elle Reve that he doesn’t think President Donald Trump is racist enough because he allowed his daughter Ivanka Trump to marry the Jewish Jared Kushner. “I don’t think that you can feel about race the way I do and watch that Kushner bastard walk around with the beautiful girl,” Cantwell said. 
 
 Here’s what you need to know about Cantwell. 
 
 1. Cantwell Turned Himself Into University of Virginia Police on August 23 
 
 Since the Vice report went viral, another video with Cantwell is gaining attention on the web. In it, he’s seen crying after learning that police have issued a warrant for his arrest. “I’m terrified, I’m afraid you’re going to kill me, I really am,” he says in the video. 
 
 “I want to be peaceful, I want to be law-abiding, okay? That was the whole entire point of this,” Cantwell says. “And I’m watching CNN talk about this as violent, white nationalist protest — we have done everything in our power to keep this peaceful. We are trying to make this peaceful, we are trying to be law-abiding.” 
 
 However, in the Vice report, Cantwell, who helped organize the “Unite the Right,” is seen carrying weapons. At the end of the report, Reeve catches up with Cantwell in a hotel room after Heather Heyer‘s death. He’s seen readying a cache of weapons, including pistols and assault rifles. 
 
 “These people want violence and the right is just meeting market demands,” Cantwell says in the last line of the Vice report. 
 
 In an interview with The Sentinel Source, Cantwell called the counter-protesters in Charlottesville “communist agitators.” 
 
 “I condemn in the strongest possible terms the communist agitators who attacked us over and over and over again,” he told The Sentinel. “And I think that my men showed extraordinary restraint out there because we were heavily armed, and not a shot was fired. They are very lucky that only one person died in those riots.” 
 
 Cantwell has since expanded upon his vital “crying” video, writing that he’s hiding in an “undisclosed location” outside of Virginia and plans on turning himself in to the University of Virginia Police. 
 
 “I was informed by the FBI that there is a warrant for my arrest there, presumably for the brawl which followed the torch march from Friday night,” Cantwell wrote. “I was uncertain if this warrant was real, since I had only heard it as a rumor until the FBI confirmed it last night. Right now I am seeking an attorney, and a trustworthy person nearby to hold onto my property. Once I have those things straightened out, I’ll be on my way to surrender myself.” 
 
 Cantwell has also been posting frequent updates on his Gab.ai and Minds.com accounts. 
 
 Cantwell also wrote that his video has been taken out of context by “communist propaganda networks.” 
 
 “I only defended myself and others at University of Virginia. I have not initiated force against anyone,” he wrote. “At University of Virginia, I specifically demanded from our security that they coordinate with law enforcement, and law enforcement specifically said they would remove our opposition from our path before the march, to avoid exactly the scenario I am now about to be arrested for.” 
 
 Cantwell confirmed that his YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts have all been closed. He also wrote that PayPal, the “most important part of my financial life,” has shut him out. 
 
 On August 23, University of Virginia police confirmed that he turned himself in. The warrants for his arrest stemmed from an incident during the torch-lit march on August 11, the night before the deadly rally. He was charged with a count of malicious bodily injury by means of a caustic substance and two felony counts of illegal use of teargas. 
 
 “I thought that spraying that guy was the least damaging thing I could do,” Cantwell told the New York Times. “In my left hand I had a flashlight. My other option, other than the pepper spray, was to break this guy’s teeth. O.K.? And I didn’t want to do that. I just wanted him to not hurt me.” 
 
 “He sprayed basically the whole group,” activist Emily Gorcenski, who filed the report against Cantwell on August 12 that led to his arrest, told the Times. “The whole thing was scary. I was targeted by people wearing swastika pins. It was terrifying.” 
 
 2. Facebook Banned Cantwell’s Instagram & Facebook Accounts After the Vice Report 
 
 Facebook spokeswoman Ruchika Budhraja confirmed to the Associated Press that Cantwell’s Facebook and Instagram pages have all been banned. His twitter account was also suspended. 
 
 Cantwell confirmed that on his website, ChristopherCantwell.com. “If you’re not on my mailing list, our communications are at the discretion of left wing lunatics,” reads a statement on his site. 
 
 Cantwell also posted the full three-hour audio of his interview with Vice Media. He also posted another essay called “Cantwell Says Lay Low,” where he tells his readers that he doesn’t “want to lose anyone in vain.” Instead, he fears there will be a war if someone shoots at them and they retaliate. 
 
 “I’m not saying I wouldn’t take that bullet. I’m not saying that you should not be ready to take that bullet. That bullet isn’t the bullet that I am worried about,” Cantwell writes. “My fear is this. If someone shoots at our guys, it will start a war. Our men will fire back, and we will do far more damage than the communists have done to date. We will end many lives, before military and law enforcement move in on us and end ours. Riots will erupt from coast to coast. The political instability that will follow could endanger the presidency and the nation.” 
 
 3. Cantwell Was Involved in a Walmart Parking Lot Dispute Where Guns Were Out the Day Before the Charlottesville Rally 
 
 On the day before the Charlottesville rally, Cantwell was involved in a Walmart parking lot dispute where guns were drawn. NBC29 reported that the Albemarle County Police Department was investigating the incident, which happened at around 12:20 p.m. on August 11. 
 
 Police responded to a call that customers were worried about a group of people pointing guns in the parking lot. Cantwell, who was originally scheduled to speak at the Charlottesville rally, was at the scene. No one was arrested, since Cantwell and his group left without a fight. 
 
 “They were carrying weapons. Open carry, which is legal in Virginia with the weapon not concealed. They all checked out OK where they could carry a weapon,” Albemarle County Police Captain Tim Aylor told NBC29. 
 
 Cantwell has mentioned Walmart in the past on his website. In December 2013, he wrote about Kristopher Oswald, the Michigan employee fired by Walmat after helping a woman in a parking lot altercation in October 2013, under the headline “Walmart is promoting violence.” 
 
 In his interview with the Sentinel Source, Cantwell said his speech would have pushed for more unity in the alt-right movement. 
 
 4. Cantwell Ran for Congress in 2009 as a Libertarian, but a DWI Derailed His Campaign 
 
 Cantwell was featured by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a group that classifies hate groups. He told the site’s Hatewatch that he grew up in Stony Brook, New York on Long Island. He said his father was an air traffic controller who was fired by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 during layoffs. While his father struggled to find work throughout Cantwell’s teen years, he began running with “a bunch of rich assholes” at school, as he said. 
 
 When he was 19 years old, he pleaded guilty to charges of criminal possession of stolen property, possession of a weapon and driving while intoxicated. He spent four months in jail. 
 
 “I was involved in so much bullshit when I was a teenager, honestly, that like what I got caught for was the least of the shit I did,” Cantwell told Hatewatch. 
 
 In 2009, Cantwell tried his hand at politics. He ran as a Libertarian for Congress, but he had another DWI. Facing a possible felony charge, his campaign fell apart and he didn’t even make it on the ballot. He reached a plea deal in the DWI case and was sentenced to 45 days in jail. He told Hatewatch he was released after 28 days. 
 
 “As a member of the Libertarian Party, I was encouraged to run for political office,” Cantwell wrote in 2014. “I accepted this challenge, and in 2010 I ran as a Libertarian for the US House of Representatives in New York’s first congressional district. This endeavor taught me the lesson that all libertarians must at some point learn. That the institution of government, is so incredibly corrupt and dishonest, that no honest human being can simultaneously participate in it and maintain their integrity.” 
 
 In 2014, he delivered a speech to the Libertarian Party convention for Suffolk and Nassau Counties called “How The Libertarian Party Saved My Life,” in which he described his struggles with alcohol. 
 
 “I was just one alcoholic, on the verge of homelessness, facing trial for a felony. I was hardly capable of starting a revolution,” he said. “I had decided that I was going to be one of those guys, like Jerad Miller. I was just going to go out blasting and take as many of them with me as I could. But on some level I kind of knew that even this wouldn’t start the revolution. I was ready to die, I still am today, but I wanted it to be sort of meaningful, right?” 
 
 Cantwell later alienated himself from the Libertarian Party by advocating for violence. 
 
 By 2014, Cantwell had built a following as an online right-wing shock jock with his Radical Agenda show. He charges at least $5 a month for access to his “premium content.” 
 
 5. Cantwell Was Featured in a 2014 ‘Colbert Report’ as a Member of the ‘Free Keene Squad’ 
 
 The Vice report wasn’t the first time Cantwell, who now lives in Keene, New Hampshire, was featured on national television. In 2014, he was in a “Difference Makers” story on Stephen Colbert’s The Colbert Report. At the time, he was a member of a grouo the hist called the “Free Keene Squad.” 
 
 The segment featured Cantwell and two other men and their practice of “Robin Hood-ing.” They were seen saving people from paying parking tickets by paying the parking meters when people forget to. They also harassed the meter attendants. Cantwell didn’t get much screen time in the clip, but he did tell Colbert’s crew, “I find that when I carry a gun, people are very unlikely to hit me.” 
 
 Cantwell has been at the center of other Keene controversies. For example, in May 2015, he sparked local concern by filming people he saw talking among themselves. The people asked him to stop filming, but he refused, claiming he was filming to prevent anyone from getting hurt. They charged at him, and he pulled his gun. NH1 reported that police arrived to calm down the situation and no one was hurt. 
 
 Cantwell has supported overthrowing the U.S. government and told the Southern Poverty Law Center that his goal is to “normalize racism.” There is also a 2014 essay on his website called “Violently Overthrow the Government.” 
 
 “I’m going to make a commercial enterprise out of saying things that people want to make illegal,” he told the Southern Poverty Law Center. “I’m going to make a whole f***ing bunch of money doing it. Anybody who gets in my way is going to find themselves in a very long list of people who regretted underestimating me.” ||||| FILE - In this May 16, 2012, file photo, the Facebook logo is displayed on an iPad in Philadelphia. Facebook told The Associated Press on Aug. 16, 2017, it has banned the Facebook and Instagram accounts... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this May 16, 2012, file photo, the Facebook logo is displayed on an iPad in Philadelphia. Facebook told The Associated Press on Aug. 16, 2017, it has banned the Facebook and Instagram accounts... (Associated Press) 
 
 MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) — Facebook has banned the Facebook and Instagram accounts of a white nationalist who attended the rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that ended in deadly violence. 
 
 Facebook spokeswoman Ruchika Budhraja tells The Associated Press that the profile pages of Christopher Cantwell have been removed as well as a page connected to his podcast. Cantwell was featured in a Vice News documentary about the rally and its aftermath. 
 
 Facebook has also removed at least eight pages connected to the white nationalist movement over what Budhraja says were violations on the company's polices on hate speech and organizations. 
 
 Cantwell, of Keene, New Hampshire, was listed on rally flyers and labeled an extremist by the Southern Poverty Law Center. A former information technology worker who moved to New Hampshire from New York in 2012, the 36-year-old Cantwell describes himself as a white nationalist and said he voted for President Donald Trump. He has a podcast and blog that promote his views. 
 
 Cantwell says Facebook shut down his account in an attempt to silence him for his views. He also said his PayPal account had been closed. The company wouldn't confirm that because it has a policy of not commenting on the status of accounts. 
 
 "I'm not surprised by almost any of this because the whole thing we are complaining about here is that we are trying to express our views, and everybody is going through extraordinary lengths to make sure we are not heard," Cantwell said in a phone interview from an undisclosed location. 
 
 "Frankly, whatever you think of my views, that is very scary to me," he said. "Facebook and Instagram is one thing but not being able to participate in the financial system because of your political opinions is something that, you know, people should worry about in America."
– One of the white nationalists who has gotten the most attention after last weekend's violence in Charlottesville is New Hampshire's Christopher Cantwell, thanks to his role in a Vice News documentary about the rally. But the attention isn't necessarily turning out to be a good thing for the 36-year-old. Facebook has banned his Facebook and Instagram accounts, and removed his profile pages and a page linked to a podcast he produces, reports the AP. A spokeswoman for Facebook says they violated the company's rules on hate speech. Cantwell also says his PayPal account has been shut down. "I'm not surprised by almost any of this because the whole thing we are complaining about here is that we are trying to express our views, and everybody is going through extraordinary lengths to make sure we are not heard," he says. Cantwell also is gaining notoriety over a YouTube video he posted after the rally in Charlottesville in which he fights back tears while talking about his fear that police want to arrest him and will kill him while doing so. He later clarified to Digg that there wasn't an actual warrant out for him. In the Vice video, Cantwell blames counter-protesters for the violence, though at one point, he says, "We’re not non-violent, we’ll f------ kill these people if we have to." After the death of Heather Heyer, he is seen with assault rifles and handguns in a hotel room, per a post at Heavy.com. "These people want violence and the right is just meeting market demands." Also in the video, he faults President Trump for condoning the marriage of Ivanka Trump to the Jewish Jared Kushner. “I don’t think that you can feel about race the way I do and watch that Kushner bastard walk around with the beautiful girl."