The Daily Beast Podcast - Fuentes: ‘I Totally See Myself Accidentally Killing My Wife’

Episode Date: May 5, 2024

Proud incel and misogynist Nick Fuentes disgustingly detailed how he would do it. Luckily for everyone, he remains desperately single. Plus! Academy, Emmy, and Peabody Award winning filmmakers, Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine, talk to Andy Levy about their chilling new documentary, The Sixth, which details six very personal and harrowing accounts from some of those people who lived through the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, I'm Andy Levy, former Fox News and CNN-HLN guy and current cable news conscientious objector. I'm a former libertarian who now sits comfortably on the left. Hi, I'm Danielle Moody, former educator and recovering lobbyist. But today, I'm an unapologetic, woke commentator on America's threats to democracy. And I'm producer Jesse Kedinan, and I'm here to make sure things don't go too far off the rails. We're here to have fun, smart conversations with some of the most knowledgeable and entertaining people in politics, media, and beyond. Our goal is to try and make sense of our current crazy world, our new abnormal, and hopefully even make you laugh through the tears.

Welcome back to another bonus episode of The New Abnormal, and we thank you so much for being here. Today we're joined by Academy Award Emmy MP Bardi Award-winning filmmakers Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine to talk about their latest documentary for 824, the 6th. But first, let's have some fun. Are you guys ready to listen to some clips? Clips? Clip me. This podcast has long warned about the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, and there's

reason. Here we have a Heritage Foundation official who, if I'm being honest, I couldn't find their name, but they say that they are an official from it who's going to take part in staffing Trump's White House and their plans, well, I don't think they're going to be very popular with the American people. I work for the Heritage Foundation on their project 2025, which is in charge of staffing, the next administration should Trump win? You know, there are things that have, that has, have made it, I don't want to say this, but like banning pornography.

Right? Like that has created such a culture of like hyper-sexualization in men where they don't want to settle down, where they think they'd have a variety where they, like, if that happened, people would naturally be like, oh, I want this woman and, you know,

like that sort of thing, like it's probably radical. And people like, what? This guy's trying to ban porn. You know, it's like, all right, right, I'm just saying. Popular stuff. We do know that all of the, top states that have the highest number of viewers for porn are in red states, right? They know that, right? They might not know it, but as somebody who regularly talks to Pornhub's publicist, she does

always remind me of that. Yeah. They're like in all of the places that I'm assuming are on Mike Johnson's travel itinerary. Columbia University? The fact that they think that this is going to play, like in a good way for them. Okay, go ahead. Go ban porn. Create more in cells. I love this for you. Yeah, the problem is you ban porn and the insoles have no outlet.

No, well, I was going to say something that we cannot put. So I'm going to keep it in my mouth. It seems to happen on this Sunday show a lot. I don't get why. You know, what they're always saying, Mr. Trump is a populist and he's just doing what the people want. This is another one of those really. good examples of what bullshit that is. Yeah. Also, this is

coming from the man that slept with a porn star. Two. Cheated on his wife. Multiple. But yes, it's porn is the problem. All right. Well, as with Megga goes, the bullshit never ends. And here we have pathetic Senator

J.D. Vance of Ohio being nailed pretty hard by Caitlin Collins of seated ed for his usual bullshit. But you can't police people for being anti-Israel or pro-Israel. you can police people for violating the law, and we have seen some of that with some of these protests. Okay, so you agree that people who break in and vandalize a building should be prosecuted? Exactly.

Okay, I'm just checking, because you did help raise money for people who did so on January 6th, which was impeding an official proceeding, breaking into a building that they weren't allowed to be in, and vandalizing the Capitol. Well, Caitlin, I know that this is the obsession of the national media to talk about what happened two years ago, years ago on January the 6th. It's not an obsession. I'm just seeing if it's a double standard. No, let me, no, let me answer the question, Caitlin. I mean, look, here's been my basic argument about January the 6th. If you beat up a cop, of course, you deserve to go to prison. If you violated the law, you should suffer the consequences. But there are people who protested on January the

6th who have had the complete weight of the Justice Department thrown at them when, at worst, they're accused of misdemeanors. Now, again, there are people who are accused of worst offenses, and that's a problem. But you can't have Black Lives Matter protesters who rioted and vandalized goes free when you have people who are actually peacefully protesting on January the 6th who have the book thrown at

then that's the double standard that I'm most worried about. Yeah, I don't think there's an obsession with January 6th, but it is a legitimate question. And given what you just said there, and as Trump is getting closer to, you know, as he's a presumptive Republican nominee, he has said he would pardon, it's considered a blanket pardon for everyone

on January 6th. Are you saying that that shouldn't happen? People who beat up cops should be excluded from that? Well, I think what President Trump has said, and of course he can speak for himself, but I pay attention, pretty close attention to what he says. And I think what the president has said is that people who have this double standard applied to them should be pardoned. It's amazing that he can speak with his tongue all up in knots like that. Yeah. I thought you were going to go somewhere else with that. No. Their hypocrisy and bullshit knows no bounds. Oh, something that. happened three years ago, you mean for the first time in our nation's history that the capital

was breached by a bunch of rioters that built a fucking gallows on the steps of the Capitol building and called for the hanging of the vice president of the United States. You mean those peaceful protesters, the ones that defecated in the halls of our institution, you mean those peaceful, go fuck yourself. I swear, Jesse, at the end of every week, you know, at the end of every week, you want to do this to me. And I fall for it. for it every time. Yeah, this was going to be a nice little Sunday. Yeah, it was always going to be.

And then Jesse Cannon showed up with his clips. We're about the ones where we do it in the summer where I actually do show up with the nice ones. So, yeah. I would just say, you know, just give me a few more weeks of torture. I feel like that never happens. I feel like you always say. He's always promising a vacation.

Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. Well, you know, tight ship around here. All right. Here we have Carrie Lake on Tim Poole's Indian Fest of a podcast where thought goes to die. A lot is made for how Trump never tries to expand his electorate, but here we have Kerry doing what she does best. And, oh boy.

You know, Ian's selling his house for $250,000. And you come over from California and you go, I've got a ton of cash. I'm just going to offer you $275. Arizonaans can't do that. They're trying to put. So all the Californians are buying. if the house prices keep going up, up, up. And we really need to build a wall between Arizona and California.

I'm just joking. But we have the Californians come. Oh, my God. Well, I'm glad she laughed at the joke. Yeah, it wasn't good. Always sign of a good joke when you laugh at yourself. Yeah, and always a sign that you're not an insane person when you have to make it clear that you're joking when you say something insane.

Let's build a wall between California. Yeah, okay, got it. California might be fine with that, actually. No, Arizona is pretty blue these days. You could already, you know. I'm just joking. I think, if anything, like, you know, Palm Springs wants to steal some of their valor as the place where people go where they have bad allergies.

Like, you know, I just keep being told to keep going to Arizona. I'm like, I'm good. Thank you. No, Arizona is very nice, actually. All right. So I unfortunately have to do some follow up here. Last week, we played very disturbing clip from Incelkig, Nick Fuentes, the white nationalist who had dinner with... Oh, I thought this was going to be the Lara Trump follow-up.

No, no. From Nick Fuentes, the white nationalist who had dinner with Donald Trump and has had Paul Gosar and Marjorie Taylor Green, both sitting congresspeople at his events. Well, last week, I had to put a trigger warning on his domestic violence rant. Well, right after that, we somehow got an even worse clip from him of that. and I have to yet again give a trigger warning because this is pretty horrible, but we have to look at who Trump hangs out with and who will possibly be in his administration since these people keep cropping up. Totally see myself accidentally killing my wife because I just get mad.

You know, we'll be like years into the marriage. I'm going to be like angry about something. It's going to be a little bit too hot in the house. I'm going to be one of those days where I haven't slept all night. I haven't eaten in a day. So I'm like in the worst possible mood. And she's going to say something and I'm going to just accidentally kill her. I'm just going to hit her and she's going to hit her head on the counter and she's just going to like die.

And then it's over. You know, then people always say you need to get, you don't have to get married because you need to dedicate all your time to this. It's like, forget about that. The real problem is I'm going to get married. I'm going to accidentally kill my wife. And then I'm going to be in jail forever. And that's going to be the problem. And then I can never run the movement.

You know, she's going to say something. I'm going to lose control. I'm going to blast her. And no, I'm kidding. Kidding, kidding, kidding, kidding, kidding, kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. These are just jokes.

I would never put my hand on anyone. I'm a lover. I don't attack people. But, you know, women do piss me off a lot. I'm pretty sure that the kidding part was that he would ever get fucking married. And I'm pretty sure that the kidding part is the fact that any woman would come within a fucking six feet, 10 feet, whatever protective boundaries are 100 feet in those restraining orders. Like, disgusting, despicable. Nothing about that was funny. Nothing about that should have been on

air. And my God, like women date these people. Well, not him. Well, not him. Well, not him. Well, not him. You know, but... It's giving Robert Durst and the Jicks. I was going to say, I mean, there are women who write to men in prison who would listen to this and be like, no thanks. Yeah. Oh, and I have great news. Elon Musk just announced he's letting Nick Fuentes back on Twitter because, of course.

Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine are Academy, Emmy, and Peabody Award-winning filmmakers, and their latest documentary, The Sixth, which is absolutely harrowing, available to buy on May 3rd, and they join me now. Thanks for being here, guys. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks for having. I'm excited to talk about the film with you guys. So before we get into the film itself, let me start with the most basic question. What made the two of you want to make this documentary?

When and why did you decide your next film was going to be about January 6th? Ironically, we were making a film with 824 about the peaceful transition of power. And that day was supposed to be Trump's last speech, probably. So we thought this would be a good day. To film that, we heard some rumblings that something might happen. So we sent a crew down there and we started getting texts from our cinematographer. Look, this is getting crazy. Things are getting crazy.

I'm going to follow them. We lost contact with him for a little bit. We were kind of monitoring things from here. There were tweets about pipe bombs. There were tweets about people with weapons. It started to escalate quite quickly. And Washington, D.C. is our home. I'm fourth generation Washingtonians.

This is a very personal thing that started happening and the fear and the, I don't know it was anger at that time, but just being very upset that our city, this was happening in our city and our home. The capital is not just a monument. This is our home. Washington, D.C. is a place where people live and work every day. And we know people that work at the Capitol. So we were getting quite concerned.

And when we got the footage back, we started looking at it. And we immediately just said, we need to make a film about this. this is where we live. And then also to A24's credit, we called them that day, pretty much that evening and said, we want to pivot. And they were like, okay, let's do it. We believe in what you guys are saying. So that was, that was pretty great. And I think I'd argue that for anyone that lives in D.C., this film and Jan 6 hits different in the same way that 9-11 hits different for people who live in New York. Or also in the areas where other planes went down, right? It's personal. It affected your life. We're parents, we're filmmakers, we're part of a community. We, you know, it was our

kids that we were trying to make sure they were getting because you just didn't know what was going to happen. And I think that's also, we're very drawn to telling stories through a personal narrative. And so it made so much sense to us to have it feel very much like, here are people that came to work that day and what happened to them. There's been so much conjecture and everything about even the basic facts of that day. And we really felt strongly committed to making a film that felt very human and more witness. And it's six people's perspective. And we want as many people to see this as possible.

And they can decide how they think about it at the end. I also find it hopeful, actually, because you're so glad that people did their jobs that day. And the hope we find is that they're continuing to do their job. And that is part of the story of Jan 6, I think, that needs to be celebrated. And that's the hopeful part, if you can find help in them. Andrew and I together have been over 42 countries around the world. And some of our films and some of the places we've filmed them are places where they have coups are places where, you know, if you're running for president against the president

of the country, you can be thrown in jail and accused of being gay and brutalized in jail until the election is done. And there are places where you have people on the corners with AK-47s. You come to the airport. People have their tanks at the airport. These are countries that, you know, we go and we film in. And I'm always happy to come home to the United States because, you know, we don't have that. And I feel really lucky that we don't have that and that we have certain freedoms in this country.

And we're not this kind of militarily ruled country that's always in fear. And I think that was the other part about January 6, which was difficult was, I mean, that day was difficult. but I have to say the inauguration afterwards, I've been to almost every inauguration growing up here and having the streets gated off, having tanks, having, you know, humvees with machine guns on them all on the corners. I think that's not what our country is about. I don't think those should be symbols of our country.

And I think that that's a very difficult thing. And that's not a symbol of my home. And I don't like that stuff in my home. I don't like my kids seeing it. I don't like it around. That was very disheartening to see all that. Yeah, for sure. And I want to get back to something you said, you talked about how the film is sort of,

it's centered around these six people who were intimately involved with that day and whom you interview for the film. And it's such a great group that you got because they all have different perspectives of what was going on that day. You have the D.C. Metropolitan Chief of Police, Robert Conti, and he is talking about tactical stuff and personnel deployments. You've got two of his officers, Daniel Hodges and Christina Lari. And they were on the ground.

in and around the Capitol that day. So they're talking about it from the boots on the ground perspective. You've got Mel Cole, who is a photographer, who was out there covering the rally and just saw some of the most insane shit imaginable. And you have Congressman Jamie Raskin, who obviously was on the House floor, and Erica Lowe, who is, was Deputy Communications Director for James Clyburn. And all six of those people, they just give you a different part of what was happening that day. Did you purposely seek out that kind of? diversity of perspective, or was it just, you know, it's just an excellent happenstance? No, I think the chemistry of who tells you the story in any film is critical.

And in this one, it especially was. It's really a love letter in some ways to public service. That was part of it. Every single person is serving the public by what they're trying to do that day. And that was really, really important. We wanted to make sure we had perspectives both inside the building and outside the Capitol. So you're in an also we wanted to be able to follow the day from 5 a.m. all the way through. So that really starts out on the ground near the ellipse, people arriving in town, talking about what they're thinking about, you know.

And so it's just how do you sort of build through a perspective. It's like passing the mic amongst many different people is really important. And I think it's also the racial diversity that was in the film is really important to us. I think the issue of race is not talked about in Jan 6 as much as it should. And I think that Mel D. Cole is the photographer that was in the crowd. He's black. He started, like came from like a hip-hop photography. And then when George Floyd was murdered, he decided to turn his lens on more,

a different kind of things that were going down in this country and started following MAGA rallies. And so he was just fascinated by the why of why these people are coming. coming to this and who they are. And that's what led him there that day. But his idea and his perspective and Erica Lowe's perspective and Chief Conti's perspective, as they're talking about the way the day came together, I think we really wanted to make sure that there was a full diversity of where people were coming from and some of the dynamics that not like everyone's thinking about or talking enough about. And they talk about Jan 6 or just political tension in this country overall.

There's a really great line towards the end that Mel D. Cole has, and he talks about how when everything was over and he was finally leaving and he got, I forget if it was a cab or an Uber, and he was so relieved that his driver was black. I don't remember the exact line, but he was basically like, I've had enough of white people for today. Yep. Yes, exactly. Yeah. And it was, it's probably the only comedic line, really, in the entire film. And it just, it was great in the premiere screening that we had earlier this week because the whole. whole house. The whole theater just erupted in a well-nated laugh, you know, and it was very funny. But his perspective is, I think, quite piercing and beautiful and really relevant to the telling of the story. And I think a lot of people give us a lot of feedback on how much they appreciated what he had to say in the film. Sean, I read a comment that you made to the Washington Post a few

months ago, you said, this film has probably been harder to get people to be a part of than any film we've worked on. So why was that? I think for multiple reasons. I think people were traumatized. People were trying to heal. This story was so covered by the press that everybody was trying to interview everyone and get a particular angle on it, that people were just done talking about it. I think also it's polarizing. Even within the police department, I think you hear Mike Phenone, you know, the very famous police officer. in our film as well. He talks about that having to, when he started talking about this,

that people were getting upset with him in the department, fellow officers and things for talking about it, that officers aren't supposed to talk about stuff like this, supposed to keep it inside. And so I think there was a lot of pressure from different people. But I think it's traumatic. People just didn't want to talk about it. Even Mel, he basically, when I called him,

he was like, I don't want to talk about this. And it took like four meetings with him to get him to, like say, okay and even when he when he said okay it was he hadn't looked the moment we're filming and look at his photographs he hadn't looked at his photographs since the day so it was that traumatic that he didn't want to look back to his photos and then he did when we were he was editing someone we were filming him so that was hard we had one police officer who was scheduled for an interview who just didn't show up I don't blame them it's just so traumatic even Erica was very you know difficult for her you know to say yes I

even know this till our screening the other day where she said, you know, I was, I wasn't sure. I wasn't sure if I want to do this, but the fines promised me that they would tell this story the right way. And so I trusted, I thought it was time. You know, no one in her office would talk in that photo. And finally, she decided to, and she said, I'm so glad I did because it was handled, because it wasn't, it was about my story. And I think that's the hard part as people were really worried about people, us being able to retell really their story and their voice and not some other narrative. And it's just also, it's traumatic. It's super traumatic. I mean, it's so hard to relive. And I can't tell you the amount of people that were at Jan 6, that were at our

screening, that were crying, that we're shaking just because it's a really, it's really horrible event. Yeah. I mean, look, it's clear, you know, just from watching the movie that if not all six, a good number of them are, are very clearly suffering from PTSD. And, you know, you know, you you had Erica Lowe saying when footage of that day is played, I changed the channel and that she tries the best she can to block that day out. And you have Officer Hodges saying, when he sees footage from that day, it makes his heart race and he can feel his blood pressure shoot up. And I was, as he's saying that, I'm sitting here going, it's making me feel like that. And obviously, I wasn't there. My life wasn't in danger. I cannot even imagine the extent to which

he and the others are feeling this every time they think about it. Yeah, I think it was part, I mean, part of our goal. was to, I mean, we're emotional filmmakers. I think the facts are great. All our films are always factual. You learn things all the time. But I think we also really like when people share their emotions with us and how they're feeling at those moments. So I think that was really important. It was really important for us to try to capture, after talking these people on the phone and stuff, try to capture really and make you feel what they were going through that day, whether it was Erica locked behind a door and people are banging and she doesn't know what's going to happen, or it's

Hodges trapped in a doorway with like all these people screaming at him and ripping his mask off. Like to really viscerally feel what it's like to be right next to them, I think was our goal from the get-go. I mean, this is a, everybody says in the film, it was like an action movie, you know, and Mel says that. I got up there. I was like, fuck, this is like an action movie. What the hell is happening?

But it was. Like, if you're a director, like, you couldn't write a more intense action movie probably with all these different perspectives of people, you know, from all over. And I think that that was that was something that was really interesting. And I think, you know, I want to clarify. Like when I said facts are great, I don't mean that we're not factual. Sure. So I think we're really, we're really, this was exhausting.

And that's one thing that I, we give a shout out to our edit team all the time on this is one is that it feels like you're there. And it's done with a lot of different camera angles and footage that that was, we didn't pay any insurrectionist for any footage. It was all footage that was sourced. Fair use. And then the other part is that factually, it's just all correct. Every sound you hear, every frame you hear is of that time, of that second. So, you know, nobody's taking things out of context to make them more violent or make it feel more intense, you know, intense or emotional. And I think that that's something we're really proud of.

And then we're really proud of also like digging into some of the facts that weren't found that day. And that's really anger that really dug into the. especially that one about the National Guard. And to pick up on something that Shama's saying is like the emotional side and the human side, I think January 6 suffers from a subject that people tend to categorize and put into party and put into what side of the agenda you're on. And that colors the way people have empathy for what happened. And that's really what we're trying to break through that this was like,

a really traumatic moment for the humans involved. So yes, you understand that Erica is a congressional staffer and it works in Clyburn's office. But what you also understand is that her mom has Alzheimer's and she's the primary caretaker and what's going to happen to her mom if she doesn't come home. And Meldy Cole is a father and he has a little toddler at home waiting for him and that he's going to wonder, how would he feel if something happened to him that day? And And, you know, again and again. Jamie, who just lost his son, is worried about losing his other child, you know, like doesn't know where she is, is separated, like is terrified about this.

These are all, it's like interesting. When I think about it, could you imagine this happening at like someone's place of work? Let's say this happened at FedEx or this happened at like, you know, I don't know, a big business or corporation. I mean, you know, that's what we're trying to say is like these people are just going to do their job. Yes, they're in the government. They're serving, but they're just going to do their job that day. They didn't prep for this.

They didn't expect it. In fact, Erica was really looking forward to it. Absolutely. And as you intimated, you know, Jamie Raskin brought his youngest daughter and his son-in-law, who was married to another daughter, with him that day. And so he, as you say, spends the whole time, you know, worried sick that something bad is going to happen to them. That's what I mean about being in other countries and things.

I mean, can you imagine, like, is our country going to go towards a direction where every time someone's elected or something happens and you're a country where you can bring your kid to work. You can bring your kid to the Capitol. I used to go to the Capitol as a kid all the time. Imagine like you can't do that anymore. You have to have bodyguards when you go there. You have to wear vests and things. I mean, what kind of country are we if that happens?

Yeah, absolutely. I kept thinking when, you know, after the movie was over, I kept thinking how shitty it is that the cathartic moment in the film is when more cops show up, many from other states, and start firing smoke and tear gas into the crowd and pushing them back from the Capitol building. And obviously, I don't mean it was shitty in the sense of your filmmaking. I mean that sort of given the history of the police in this country, I sort of, you don't want to feel good about watching cops do that. But in this case, I was like, I was sitting there going fucking finally.

Yeah. Yeah. I think the part of this story that I don't think people truly understood we didn't and we live here was that when we started researching exhaustively, minute by minute, what happened, at what point certain forces came into being and also interviewing our characters so closely, it became incredibly clear that had the Metropolitan Police Department of D.C. not stepped in the way they did, I think we would have had a very different outcome that day. I think that the tunnel in which they were bracing themselves where Officer Hodges had that

horrible thing happening, and Kristina Lurie is Baremason and like all those things, Those offices were brutally beaten and dragged out into the crowd for hours. None of that had the contingent of people that were outside that tunnel, which are the really militarized faction that had a lot of weaponry and bad things about, had they been able to get through that tunnel, I think, and get to the people inside, to get to the people serving government inside, I think you would have had a very scary outcome, even worse than what happened that day.

And I think that the National Guard was not what saved the Capitol that day. It was mainly local law enforcement and also local law informants for other states that came in that did that. And it literally saved our democracy. And I don't think people understand that. I think our film pushes that out there in a very clear way. And we wanted to become clear. I think men and women that aren't trained. to fight for hours and hours on end.

You know, it was interesting. Chief Conte says it to us, and he says it in the film, that, like, we're trained to arrest someone in five minutes, maybe 10 minutes. We're not trained to fight for hours. They're not trained for hand-to-hand combat for us. That's like military stuff. Absolutely. And they sat there and they did it.

And even Hodges, after he got hurt, you know, concussed and brutally hit in the head with a night stick, he put his helmet back on and he went back out. And so that's the kind of people that were there and that really kept people, other people from getting hurt and actually kind of saved our democracy. You know, that was the bright spot in a film that, as I was telling you, before we started recording,

there were a lot of times during the movie when I found myself feeling very murderous. But it was always, you know, thank God that there were people there who were willing to stand up and at harm to themselves, physical and mental, were willing to fight back. And, you know, I just want to say before we leave, This film, I think, should be required viewing in every high school in America. I think it is so important, particularly as we get further away from the day, and we see this getting spun by people like Donald Trump and others as something other than it was, and that somehow these rioters, traitors, were somehow heroes. This film does such a great job of just dispelling any notion that that has even the slightest relation to the truth.

And so I thank you both, Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine, for making this film. And the film is the sixth. It is available to buy on May 3rd. I could not encourage people to watch this more. It is so riveting and just so well done. Thank you both. Thanks so much. I really appreciate it.

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