#1323 - Andy Ngo

Joe Rogan (0:03)

Hello, Andy.

Andy Ngo (0:04)

Hi, Mr. Rogan. Thanks for having me on.

Joe Rogan (0:06)

My pleasure. How are you doing, man? You're all healed up?

Andy Ngo (0:09)

The bruising and swelling has gone down, as you can see, but the more serious injury was to the brain.

Joe Rogan (0:16)

You have a serious injury to your brain?

Andy Ngo (0:17)

Yeah. Brain hemorrhage.

Joe Rogan (0:19)

What happened? From what?

Andy Ngo (0:20)

The mob beating. So they were-

Joe Rogan (0:22)

From getting hit in the head, you got a brain hemorrhage?

Andy Ngo (0:25)

Multiple times. Really? Contusions, yes. They were bashing me on the back of my head.

And to my eyes.

Joe Rogan (0:32)

But so how do you know you had brain hemorrhaging? And how were you able to just walk around?

Andy Ngo (0:37)

Well, I was taken to- I started losing my balance after the beating.

There was no police. I made it to the courthouse, sat down on the ground.

Ambulance was called. I had to walk back to the ambulance because streets were- I walked back to the police precinct in the direction of the mob. The medics that were associated with the Portland police let me know that I needed to walk in that direction. It was quite shocking because I had just been a victim of the mob beating, and then now they're telling me to walk back in the direction of the center precinct where the beating had happened.

Joe Rogan (1:11)

Did they not know that you had been beaten up?

Well, let's set this up for people who are new to this and don't understand what happened.

I've been aware of you because of- you had written for Quillette, right, and you had become one of these, for whatever reason, controversial online journalists. And you covered Antifa quite a bit, and you covered a lot of the radical left. You were in Portland, and what was the exact rally that was going on? What was it called? Did it have a name?

Andy Ngo (1:51)

It was something like Protect Portland, so it was organized by Rose City Antifa and its allies.

And by its allies, I'm referring to the local chapter of the Democratic Socialist America. It came out to support them in numbers.

Joe Rogan (2:06)

And what are they protecting Portland from?

Andy Ngo (2:09)

They allege fascists.

Joe Rogan (2:12)

Fascists, but just in general? I mean, is there a particular thing they're worried about?

Andy Ngo (2:17)

There were two right-wing events happening that day that they were counter-demonstrating against. There was one part of downtown, the Proud Boys were holding a flag-waving event that was completely peaceful.

Joe Rogan (2:33)

Flag-waving, American flag-waving?

Andy Ngo (2:35)

Correct. A lot of Portlanders found that provocative and a manifestation of fascistic violence. And in another part of downtown, there was a men's rights activist who was holding a rally.

It was titled for victims of domestic terrorism. It was an anti-antifa event.

Joe Rogan (2:58)

A men's rights activist?

Andy Ngo (3:03)

Yes.

Joe Rogan (3:03)

That was doing an anti-fascist or anti-antifa?

Andy Ngo (3:08)

Correct.

Joe Rogan (3:10)

Boy, seems like a whole lot to do about nothing. Flag waving and anti-antifa.

Andy Ngo (3:18)

Can I set the context for the city of Portland?

Joe Rogan (3:21)

It's a mess.

Andy Ngo (3:22)

You have listeners and viewers all over the world. Portland, Oregon is an extremely progressive city in the Pacific Northwest of the US. And I call it a political monoculture because really it's not just, you're more likely to find socialist, even socialists there than you would find like a regular Republican or conservative.

And within this sort of echo chamber of just leftist politics, it's become also a hotbed for far-left militancy. So Rose City Antifa is, you could call it like the local chapter movement of Antifa. It's one of the oldest in the country. It's very large in Portland. And they hold what you could call protests, but they're protests that always devolve into riots, where they essentially take over parts of downtown and attack people, attack their ideological opponents, and do it frequently with impunity. I mean, I wasn't the only one attacked that day. There were two other people who were bashed on the head and had very severe lacerations to the face and head.

You may recall the footage from October of last year, when there was an elderly driver who was attacked on the streets.

Joe Rogan (4:40)

Yeah, they were directing traffic.

Andy Ngo (4:42)

Exactly.

Joe Rogan (4:43)

And somehow or another, the mayor thought it was a good idea to let this take place. Is that the case? And they told the police to stand down. Is that true?