By at least one measure, Christopher Cantwell, a self-described white nationalist, said he believed his decision to be interviewed in a Vice News report had “worked out magnificently.”

The documentary has been viewed more than 44 million times since it aired Aug. 14.

In it, Cantwell is shown calling for an “ethno-state” and saying that the death of a 32-year-old woman who was killed protesting a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Aug. 12 was justified, adding, “I think that a lot more people are going to die before we’re done here.”

A week after the broadcast, Cantwell has emerged as a high-profile activist for the so-called alt-right. In that sense, he said in interviews, it is a victory because he drew the scorn of liberals.


“The first thing you’ve got to understand is my job is to shock people,” Cantwell, 36, said in the first of two telephone interviews Friday and Saturday.

But in many other ways, his actions and the public exposure have upended his life.

Since the rally in Charlottesville, the prospect of an arrest has loomed over Cantwell, who posted a video Aug. 12 in which he choked back tears.

He gave a phone number that he said the authorities could use to contact him, and he said that since then, his voicemail has been “recording death threats faster than I can listen to them.”

Officials at the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office of Albemarle County in Charlottesville said Monday morning that four warrants had been issued for Cantwell’s arrest. The office referred questions about the nature of the charges to the University of Virginia Police Department. A spokesman at the department did not respond to requests for comment Friday, Saturday and Monday.

The Boston Globe reported Thursday that the warrants were related to the “illegal use of gases, and injury by caustic agent or explosive.”

In interviews Friday and Saturday, Cantwell said that if he were to face such charges, he believed they are connected to an episode he said was photographed by a journalist.


The image, he said, shows “that I’m pepper-spraying a guy straight in his face as he’s coming toward me.”

“I thought that spraying that guy was the least damaging thing I could do,” he added. “In my left hand I had a flashlight. My other option, other than the pepper spray, was to break this guy’s teeth. OK? And I didn’t want to do that. I just wanted him to not hurt me.”

Cantwell, who lives in New Hampshire and hosts a podcast, said he had read The Globe report but had not spoken with authorities in Virginia. He said he would turn himself in immediately if necessary.

“I don’t think I did anything wrong, and I’m looking forward to my day in court,” he said Friday.

On Monday, he said in an email he was contacting his lawyer.

The violence erupted in Charlottesville ostensibly over the planned removal of a statue of a Confederate general there.

Charlottesville police arrested at least two people in connection with the rally and unrest. The Virginia State Police said it made at least three arrests, and the University of Virginia said its Police Department arrested at least one person at an Aug. 11 demonstration.

Cantwell rose to prominence days later when Vice News aired its report recapping what happened. The reporter, Elle Reeve, was embedded with white nationalists, and the documentary allowed viewers to see things from their perspectives.

Cantwell was featured prominently in the report.

In it, he cites Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin and Tamir Rice — whose shooting deaths spurred a nationwide debate about criminal justice and racial profiling — as examples of a black person “behaving like a savage.” He also reprimanded President Donald Trump for “giving his daughter to a Jew.”


After the rally, he dumped at least four firearms and a knife onto a bed, the video shows. Several times throughout the Vice report, he made it clear that he and other members of the alt-right were capable of violence, saying during the rally that they would kill their opponents “if we have to.”

Yet in the video he recorded of himself the day of the rally, Cantwell said he was “terrified” and “afraid” the police would kill him.

On Saturday, he assailed people he said had inaccurately suggested he was scared about going to prison.

“The problem is that my country has descended to a point where your political opinions get you charged with felonies, and that’s what I’m upset about,” he said. “I get a little emotional about the fact that all this is going on, and now people want to throw me in prison because I want to save my race and nation.”

On Sunday, Cantwell posted a blog post with what he said might be the final episode of his audio show.

“Tomorrow I’m more than likely going to find myself in a cage facing decades in prison,” he wrote. “It is entirely possible that this will be the last time you hear from me.”

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Reporting was contributed by John Eligon, Frances Robles, Liam Stack and Vivian Wang. Susan Beachy contributed research.