Why did two Republican lawmakers appear at a conference organized by a Nazi sympathizer?
By Pesach Benson, United With Israel
Most of us could be excused for not being familiar with Nick Fuentes. Fuentes, a 23-year-old antisemite and Nazi-sympathizer is one of America’s rising voices of white supremacy.
But two U.S. Representatives, Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Paul Gosar (R-Az.) should have known better than to address the America First Political Action Conference in Orlando on Friday night. Organized by Fuentes, the event featured white supremacists and plenty of sympathy for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Addressing the conference, Fuentes echoed Iranian rhetoric by saying “the U.S. government has become the ‘Great Satan’ that many have called it.”
He then mocked reports comparing Putin to Hitler, saying “they say that’s not a good thing” before chuckling and adding “I shouldn’t have said that. What other way is there to say it, of course that’s a terrible comparison,” drawing audience laughter.
Taylor Greene addressed the conference in person while Gosar spoke by video link.
Gosar is certainly familiar with Fuentes. The Congressman drew a Jewish backlash for being the keynote speaker at the same conference last year.
The Republican Jewish Coalition blasted Gosar and Taylor Greene’s attendance. In a statement tweeted on Saturday night, the RJC said, “it is appalling and outrageous that a Member of Congress would share a platform with an individual who has actively spread antisemitic bile, mocked the Holocaust, and promoted dangerous anti-Israel conspiracy theories.”
“We also condemn Congressman Paul Gosar’s participation in the same event via video address after appearing in person last year. This has absolutely no place in the Republican Party, and RJC will actively oppose anyone who associates with Nick Fuentes, AFPAC, and their ilk.”
Fuentes has been kicked off a number of social media platforms for antisemitism and bigotry.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, Fuentes is on record saying he views social change as the “bastardized Jewish subversion of the American creed. The Founders never intended for America to be a refugee camp for nonwhite people.”
Of Jews, Fuentes has said, “I don’t see Jews as Europeans and I don’t see them as part of Western civilization, particularly because they are not Christians.”
He has used jokes to deny the Holocaust by comparing Jews killed in concentration camps to cookies in burnt in an oven.
Fuentes, who participated in the January 6 Capitol Hill insurrection, has been subpoenaed by the Congressional committee investigating the violence.
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wy.) who is on the committee, called out Taylor Greene and Gosar in a tweet.
“As Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene and Rep Paul Gosar speak at this white supremacist, anti-Semitic, pro-Putin event, silence by Republican Party leaders is deafening and enabling. All Americans should renounce this garbage and reject the Putin wing of the GOP now,” Cheney tweeted.
Defending her appearance at AFPAC, Taylor Greene told CBS News: “I went to talk to them about America First policies and I talked to them about what’s important for our country going forward.”
“Now, in regards to Russia, Putin is a murderer and he should never have invaded Ukraine. What he is doing is completely wrong. I stand with our Nato member allies and I’m completely against this war. Everything that he’s doing is wrong. He’s killing people over and over so I’m staunchly against it and I’m staunchly against Vladimir Putin and his invasion of Ukraine,” Taylor Greene added.
When asked if she endorsed Fuentes’s views, Taylor Greene claimed, “I don’t know what his views are.” When told that Fuentes is a white supremacist, Taylor Greene said, “I do not endorse those views.”
Taylor Greene has previously blamed California wildfires on Jewish space lasers, shared a video which claimed that “Zionist supremacists” are conspiring to flood Europe with migrants in order to replace the white populations there and compared mask mandates on Capitol Hill to the Holocaust.