In one of its most timely episodes to date, 20/20 on ABC tonight profiles the recent rise of hate groups sweeping America — including conversations with far-right leaders Richard Spencer and Matthew Heimbach.
The episode airs less than a week after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, left three dead and 19 injured when things turned violent.
It comes at the end of a six-month investigation where the 20/20 team followed several extremist groups across the US, including several based on hate and intolerance.
The episode sees 20/20 correspondent Tom Llamas interview National Policy Institute president Spencer and Heimbach, chairman of the Traditionalist Worker Party, formerly the White Student Union.
Cameras also follow them at a series of highly charged rallies and events.
At one point Spencer is filmed telling Anti-Fascist (Antifa) member Lacy MacAuley: “You’re not going to stop us, because you don’t matter.” She replies: “Yes, we will stop you.”
The 20/20 episode: Fractured America: Extremism in the Streets, also features groups on the far-left including Antifa and Anarchism who aim to stop hate speech and regularly disrupt white-nationalist events.
Critics say they are restricting free speech through their actions, and some of their members also resort to violence. Antifa members MacAuley and Daryle Lamont Jenkins are also interviewed to give their take on what they stand for.
The white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville last week end resulted in the deaths of counter-protester Heather Heyer, who was killed when a car rammed into a group of people, and state police officers Lieutenant H. Jay Cullen and Trooper Berke M.M. Bates, who died in a helicopter crash responding to the protests.
20/20 airs tonight at 10/9c on ABC.