Michelle “Bombshell” McGee

This is the segment CNN aired regarding Jesse James’ affair with Michelle “Bombshell” McGee.

Notice that virtually nothing is said about Michelle McGee being a tattooed dysfunctional freak. Apparently that’s perfectly okay with media types. Marital infidelity is not particularly objectionable either. The only thing they are interested in and which they object to is that she once posed with a swastika armband and has the letters “W” & “P” tattooed on her calves.

I wish I could find the video clip, but as I remember it there was a slideshow with images of Michelle McGee decked out in her Nazi regalia running for much of the time that the guests were discussing her affair.

What really got my attention when I saw this was how out-of-place this comment by a Jewess district attorney was:

“…of course they`re going to claim first amendment, freedom of speech, we`re not doing anything wrong. You know when did we cross the line, you know from expression to you know a hate crime?”

This would be a fairly stupid comment even if it was coming from a layperson. Coming from a former district attorney it is preposterous. What the fuck does she mean by “claim[ing] freedom of speech”? McGee is doing nothing wrong – certainly nothing that would “cross the line..from freedom of expression to .. a hate crime”. But the implication here is that the exact opposite is true. As an attorney, it should be fairly clear that posing in Nazi fetishwear and tattooing oneself with “White power” symbols is no crime whatsoever. It’s not even close to being a crime. It is free speech. This Jewish DA sounds as if she regrets the fact that no one can prosecute this woman merely for posing for these pictures.

The transcript appears below:

PIRRO: Anyways, it`s great to have you all here tonight. I appreciate your input. Thanks, everyone. And I`m going to take a look at the fascination with Michelle “Bombshell” McGee and the in versioning interest in NAZI culture. Don`t go anywhere

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BEHAR: Welcome back. Joy`s still not here. After pictures of alleged Jesse James mistress Michelle “Bombshell” McGee decked out in Nazi garb and tattoos turned up TMZ, her father felt compelled to explain his daughter is not connected to a Nazi group. In an interview with FOX affiliate WJW.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DENNY MCGEE, MICHELLE MCGEE`S FATHER: I don`t know about my daughter having any Nazi or any relations with them at all. She`s always been a great kid. She`s a good mom to her kids. She`s a little crazy with the tattoos and stuff. But as far as the Nazi thing goes, that`s ridiculous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PIRRO: Good mom to her kids. Well maybe so, but the Nazi attire and tattoos are still offensive to many. So what`s behind this fascination with Nazi culture? And at one point does shock value become something more dangerous.

Joining me now to discuss this are T.J. Leyden, former NEO Nazi skinhead and founder of Straight Talk Consulting. And Rick Ross, cult expert and intervention specialist.

Now I`m going to talk first to T.J.. T.J. you may remember years ago you came to my office to talk about what was going on in some of these groups. Let`s say with Michelle “Bombshell” McGee here for a minute, does this woman not know that her wearing these swastikas and symbols are inflammatory or certainly speak to something extremely negative or is it just shock value on her part?

T.J. LEYDEN, FORMER SKINHEAD: I think for her, it might have been shock value. But the problem is her wearing those things, especially the certain things she had, the swastika arm band, SS dagger, leads credence to the white power movement. They`re going to use these things.

PIRRO: You think this woman lends credence to the movement? I mean really.

LEYDEN: I think she does. I mean the white supremacy movement over the year has gone from you know trying to be a little bit more wholesome to trying to be a little bit more edgy. You start seeing originally in some of their publications girls dressed more refine. Now girls are dressing like they do in Maxim. Sex sells and they`re going to use this as a tool to say through recruiting, hey, look it, we got big-time actresses of girls involved, you know, they`re going to try to tie this —

PIRRO: So basically saying we`re more main stream as if she`s main stream.

LEYDEN: Right.

PIRRO: So Rick, let me ask you this, what is the fascination on Google with this Nazi stuff? What is this all about and is there a rise in this stuff?

RICK ROSS, ROSS INSTITUTE OF NEW JERSEY: Well I think there`s an uptick, judge. I think in recent years with the election of Barack Obama and with the kind of polarization that we`ve experienced in our country, not to mention the economic downturn, that there has been a real resurgence in recruiting in these groups. I mean there are 25,000, 35,000 —

PIRRO: So you mean with the economy down, people just have more time so they go on line and look at this stuff? I mean they need something to believe in? Is this like pre World War II?

ROSS: Well not – not – I think it`s more like something to scapegoat. It`s a kind of blaming and scapegoating process where people are bitter, unemployed, things don`t look good. And then they try out you know the usual villains, the international conspiracy, and these themes that have, you know, resonated with these movements as a subculture for many years.

PIRRO: But what`s so scary about this is in addition to, you know, the meaning to so many people and when I prosecuted hate crimes as a D.A., you realized the enormous pain that people go through when they see things like swastikas. But there appears to be a sexual element to it. Is there a fetish here or?

ROSS: Well you know, backing up to Jesse James and his whole biker subculture, I mean, he kind of cast himself as one of the 1 percenters that is the small minority of bikers that are the outlaw bikers. He claimed to have been related to Jesse James the outlaw. He claimed to have connections to hell`s angels, which kind of interconnects with some of these groups. You know with regards to Neo Nazi activities. The Arian Brotherhood in prison. So all of this kind of bubbles beneath the surface and I`m wondering what his attraction is to this woman and what her connection is to those same people.

PIRRO: Well let me ask you this T.J., you know, more broadly, and you obviously were at one point a skinhead.

LEYDEN: Yes.

PIRRO: And then what brought you from that kind of life to a life where you actually go out and talk about how wrong it is and what we can do to defend ourselves from that?

LEYDEN: Well it was my kids, my boys. I saw how my life was affecting them in the long-term. And I think if it wasn`t for my boys, I probably would have ended up in prison or you k now dead. The thing with this woman and I kind of get the connection with Jesse has some, you know, history when he was building bikes, he liked the way a lot of the early Hell`s Angels built their bikes. I don`t see the connection with the white supremacy movement. But with his girl and a lot of her tattoos, supposedly she has a swastika, it say WP on the back of her legs. She`s posing with this stuff —

PIRRO: Yes, I know what is – tell the viewers what the WP means. She has a W on one leg and a P on the other, what does that mean to someone like you?

LEYDEN: Well someone like me, when I was a white supremacist recruiter, that`s white power.

PIRRO: White power, absolutely.

LEYDEN: It`s straight up, straight out, very plain.

PIRRO: And that`s a tattoo, not just that swastika on her arm, that`s a tattoo on her body.

LEYDEN: Yes, it`s permanent.

PIRRO: Do you see a sexual component in this, T.J.? I mean you were a skinhead, how does it connect?

LEYDEN: Oh, it`s a very sexual component. The movement still has a lot of testosterone, young men and this is going to be appealing to them. I mean, you know, they like girls that are heavily tatted out, they like the whole thing, you know thing, she`s posing very provocative in some of these photos with a lot of the Nazi memorabilia. And I`m guaranteeing you this kind of attraction is going to push kids into the movement.

PIRRO: All right. Rick, let me ask you this, you`ve done interventions where families will call you and say we want to get our son, our daughter, whatever out of the movement. Can you succeed? Is this something you can do?

ROSS: Yes, I`ve done it many times. For example, as T.J. alluded to, there are a lot of young guys that are getting involved in this movement and it`s surprising how they are recruited within middle class neighborhoods, on school campuses. Tom Metzger of the White Aryan resistance made a major effort to kind of move in on the skinhead movement which is not necessarily racist and recruit young people. And many kinds – –

PIRRO: And the internet is an enormous lift for that whole thing.

LEYDEN: It is their number one tool?

ROSS: Yes.

PIRRO: Is it their number one tool? I remember, T.J., when you came to my office, you talked about the coloring books the world church, the creator and all those people to get kids involved in this kind of stuff. But you can get people out of this. T.J., how about you? Let me — I remember that there was talk that you were threatened as a result of kind of leaving the movement and then trying to be a voice against it.

LEYDEN: My life has been threatened from time to time, and I take precautions when it`s necessary. I`ve gotten 64 kids out of this lifestyle of White Supremacy since probably the last time we`ve met over the years.

PIRRO: Fantastic, that`s good.

LEYDEN: And we all work kind of together and the main thing is, this hurts. This hurts when we are making strides. This kind of stuff does not help. When a girl does this kind of stuff, whether she meant to be racist or she did not mean to be racist, whether her tattoos are racist or not, the White Supremacy movement will use this as a recruitment tool.

PIRRO: Exactly, exactly and of course they`re going to claim first amendment, freedom of speech, we`re not doing anything wrong. You know when did we cross the line, you know from expression to you know a hate crime.

ROSS: Well, you know, her picture looks like a recruitment poster and she has the freedom to tattoo her body as much as she likes.

LEYDEN: Yes.

ROSS: But they don`t have the freedom to hurt other people. For example, graffiti on synagogues, on grave stones, and some of the terrible things they`ve done.

PIRRO: And that stuff we prosecuted because that`s crossing the line. But unfortunately we don`t have a lot of time to talk about this. T.J., good to talk to you again.

LEYDEN: You too.

PIRRO: Rick, I appreciate you being here again. And we`ll be back in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

Also notice that no mention is made of how out-of-place this is within the WN movement. [You can see James Edwards’ thoughts on the matter here.] McGee looks like more of a biker chick than a serious WN to me. But there is no indication of this given during the interview, even though a reformed WN is given a great deal of airtime to comment on the significance of these photos. If you didn’t know any better you might think this is a typical white nationalist being discussed here.

Judging from how much air time they have given this matter, my impression is that this is exactly the impression CNN sought to convey. They want people to think that this is what a typical WN looks like.