Latest / Best of: Features / Online forum controlled by Nevada GOP House candidate contains slurs and Nazi talk, AP review finds

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Online forum controlled by Nevada GOP House candidate contains slurs and Nazi talk, AP review finds · Best of: Features

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  Online forum controlled by Nevada GOP House Candidate contains SLURS Nazi Talk,
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  the AP review finds. Written by Wisdom Howell and Brian Slodisco This
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  article is being read by an automated voice generated by Everlett. Washington,
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  the AP, long before running for Congress, Marty O'Donnell was an award
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  winning music composer for the popular Hallow video game franchise. His work
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  drew legions of fans to an online forum, which the Nevada Republican
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  has tried to turn into a galvanizing force as he tries to
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  unseat a Democrat in a Las Vegas area district that could held
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  decide house control. O'Donnell has served as the group's de facto leader,
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  referring to himself as its benevolent dictator, while tapping its members for
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  campaign cash and harnessing their enthusiasm in his bid. The campaign held
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  a two-day event for forum members this month at a casino that
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  included a video game tournament, panel discussions, and speeches. There is another
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  side, however, to what is known as The Mardi Army. An associated
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  press review of thousands of posts made on the forum between twenty
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  twenty two and twenty twenty six found racial slurs, minimizations of Nazi
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  Germany, and defenses of white nationalist conspiracy theories. It wasn't a couple
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  of crazies. The popular sentiment was Yes, slavery should be legal, said
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  Deacon Damron, a former group member who said O'Donnell banned him for
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  calling another user a dork. Many views espoused in the forum, which
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  is controlled by O'Donnell and his hand picked moderators, are at odds
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  with some of the values articulated by the candidate and his campaign.
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  For example, O'Donnell has staunchly defended Israel and condemned bigotry. In a
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  statement, campaign spokesman Keith Schipper
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  said O'Donnell has zero tolerance for hate in his forum. Since becoming
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  aware of the issue in the spring, the campaign dedicated a staffer
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  to monitor and, remove people that spew racist and antisemitic vitriol, Skipper
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  said. Unfortunately, some posts have been missed over the years. Skipper said
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  nearly two hundred users hate been banned, because of hateful rhetoric, including
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  many of the people flagged by the Associated Press. Marty's support of
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  Israel is unequivocal, and, as seen in various interviews and online posts,
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  he will not tolerate the rise of antisemitism In our country. Mardi
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  will continue to fight bigotry, disinformation, and hate toward Israel, because it
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  is the right and moral thing to do. O'Donnell, who is endorsed
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  by President Donald Trump, is running against four term Representative Susie Lee
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  in the november third section as Republicans look to hang on to
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  their razor thin majority. In a sign of how Republicans are triaging
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  their chances in a tough environment, they pulled back spending this week
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  in a handful of congressional races, including O'Donnell's. From hallow to emoji
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  slurs. Most of the chat group's comments concern video games and gaming
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  strategies. A section is reserved for questions about O'Donnell's work on Halo
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  Games. After O'Donnell announced his first run for Congress in 2024, when
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  he finished fourth in the party primary, some discussions centered around news
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  and policy. Many of the offensive and controversial remarks came in freewheeling
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  replies to otherwise anodyne comments about current prevents politics, or games. In
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  may twenty twenty two, for example, a member wrote We stand with
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  Marty. Others reacted to the post using letter emoji to spell out,
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  incorrectly, a racial slur for black people. More soon chimed in, using
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  emoji letters to invoke another anti black slur. Users were likely restricted
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  from properly spelling out such words because by design the platform prevents
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  emoji from being used more than once in reaction to a post.
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  During a January 2025 discussion concerning free speech, a forum member expressed
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  a desire to use a racial slur but refrained because that's not
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  they attention Marty wants. Damron, the former group member, and another former
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  user, said posters relied on coded language because more overt racist comments
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  were likely to draw scrutiny from moderators. The other user spoke on
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  condition of anonymity over fears of retaliation. The Mardi Army began as
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  a fan forum. The Marty Army began as an inside joke. Developers
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  of Hallow created the chatroom in two thousand one on a website
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  devoted to the game. The name they chose was meant to invoke
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  a club for rabid fans of the glam rock band KISS. O'Donnell
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  joined the chat group and assumed control of the forum. He relocated
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  it to Discord, a popular online platform. His candidate website contains a
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  link to the Discord chat group, which he has also publicised from
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  his account on the social media platform X. Hey all, if you'd
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  like to be part of my run for Congress, you can be
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  part of Marty's army, O'Donnell said in an ex post after he
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  launched his 2024 campaign. O'Donnell has stated repeatedly that users who espouse
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  racist or anti-Semitic views will be banned. He also threatened at times
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  to delete posts. The AP found some users who espoused Nazi sympathies
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  were kicked off the forum, But many of their posts remain. A
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  user suggested in March twenty twenty four that the Nazis did some
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  good things that were completely overshadowed by the terrible things they did.
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  Another that month asked, Was Hitler really an evil guy? Like aside
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  from the Holocaust, the user added, Did he really even do anything
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  wrong? In February, a third member posted Heil Hitler. O'Donnell said. He
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  wore a Mussolini mask. Current and historical fascist figures have also drawn
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  approval. O'Donnell wrote on the forum that he rejects fascism, but he
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  also shared a photo of himself wearing that he said was a
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  mask of Benito Mussolini, the Italian dictator and key Hitler ally, that
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  he wore to a Halloween party. O'Donnell's campaign denied he dressed up
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  as Mussolini. This mask was part of a scary Halloween costume nearly
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  two decades ago. It was not labeled a Mussolini mask when he
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  bought it, nor was he dressed up as Mussolini for the holiday,
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  Skipper said. He purchased it because it was the ugliest creepy mask
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  on the shelf. He jokingly referred to it as a Mussolini mask
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  years later because he realized it vaguely looked like Mussolini. O’Donnell stated
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  this year that he had been unaware of the resurgence of antisemitism.
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  He told a conservative news outlet in September that he thought that
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  antisemitism is something we don't have to worry about any more. I
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  guess it just went under the surface, and it has been percolating
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  there, he added in the interview with the Washington Reporter, which was
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  founded by Republican political strategists. O'Donnell made the comment after the news
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  site Jewish Insider reported that he hosted Charles Cornishdale, a far right
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  influencer with Nazi sympathies, on his own podcast, The
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  Marty O'Donnell Show. O'Donnell pledged to ban those who espouse anti-Semitism. In
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  the spring, O’Donnell’s warned users on the forum that, if there was
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  even a hint of antisemitism, the offending member would be instantly banned.
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  Users responded to his post with an emoji of an exaggerated nose
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  and goy, a sometimes disparaging Yiddish term for non Jews. Some anti
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  hate groups view the use of the nose emoji as anti Semitic,
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  while goy is a term that has been appropriated by those who
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  espouse anti Semitic views. Wendy Millillo, an associate professor of journalism at
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  American University, who researches extremist chat rooms, said such comments were clearly
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  coded anti Semitic hate speech. Melillo said other posts she reviewed were
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  more explicit. There is nothing coded, she said, about Heil Hitler. Some
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  members of the Marty Army are aware the Forum could pose a
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  liability. In 2024, a user wrote that O'Donnell's political career could face
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  trouble if someone does a vulnerability study and they find this server.