Current or former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, facing a federal conspiracy indictment for his involvement in planning the Proud Boys’ participation in the Captiol riot, recently told House January 6th Committee investigators his hotel parking garage meeting with Oath Keeper leader Stewie Rhodes the day prior was an awkward spur of the moment forced by mutual contacts and that Tarrio would not have met with the one-eyed Nazi chieftain on his own, CBS News reports.
While rank-and-file members of the two far-right fascist groups did in fact get along with each other and coordinate prior to the insurrection, the Tarrio-Rhodes frenemyship had been going on for nearly two years, stemming from a 2019 incident in which Rhodes reneged on an agreement to transport Proud Boys members through Portland during one of the endless series of brawls there against Antifa and other leftist elements. Tarrio reportedly called them the “Oath Breakers” for stranding Proud Boys in the city without rides and backup. Rhodes had his own animosity for the Proud Boys as a whole for reasons unclear, though the article speculates that it could be that the Boys are a largely urban fascist street gang while the Keepers are a rural hick militia. Then there’s also that Tarrio isn’t white, and Rhodes probably just hates him for that.