White nationalist Richard Spencer gleefully compared himself to a hurricane, as the University of Florida prepares for a 2:30 pm speech Thursday by the fiery racist whose appearance is expected to spark widespread protests that officials fear could turn violent.
Spencer told CNN that he was "flattered" by the turmoil he has created in Florida, where Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency on Monday and state and local police prepared for a clash between white supremacists and "Antifa" anarchists.
"I'm up there with hurricanes and invading armies and zombie apocalypses," he said, laughing. "I think that's the best way to look at it," Spencer said.
Spencer called himself "Hurricane Ricardo," giving himself an insensitive nickname more than a month after Hurricane Irma devastated vast swaths of the Sunshine State, killing more than a dozen people in a nursing homes and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in property damages.
Mitch Emerson, an organizer of protests planned today, told BuzzFeed that, if there is a clash between Spencer's supporters and opponents, "there are a lot more of us than them."
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