Republicans blast Trump over dinner with Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes: ‘I am appalled’

Republicans blasted former President Trump over his dinner with embattled rapper Kanye West and antisemite and White nationalist Nick Fuentes.

Trump had dinner with Fuentes, a Holocaust denier, final week alongside West, sparking backlash from a number of GOP lawmakers and organizations for assembly with the younger antisemite that claims to be a conservative activist.

Republicans have by and huge steered away from immediately criticizing the previous president’s dinner with Fuentes, who is essentially considered as a political pariah outdoors of the Trump wing of the GOP, however a number of celebration members have spoken out on the dinner.

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“I’m appalled,” Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., advised reporters on Sunday.

Bacon is the Republican co-chair of the Caucus for the Development of Torah Values with Democrat Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar.

Louisiana Republican Senator Invoice Cassidy tweeted that Trump “internet hosting racist antisemites for dinner encourages different racist antisemites.”

“These attitudes are immoral and shouldn’t be entertained,” Cassidy wrote. “This isn’t the Republican Social gathering.”

Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., who is predicted to take the mantle of the Home Oversight Committee chairman come January, criticized the assembly in a Sunday Meet the Press interview.

“He actually wants higher judgment in who he dines with,” Comer mentioned. “I do know he’s issued an announcement and mentioned he didn’t know who these individuals had been, however, at any price, my focus goes to be investigating the present administration as the subsequent chairman of the Home Oversight Committee and attempt to get a deal with on the huge quantity of waste, fraud, and abuse in our federal authorities.”

When pressed on if he would condemn the dinner, Comer mentioned he wouldn’t take a gathering with both Fuentes or West however stopped in need of a condemnation of the dinner.

Texas GOP Rep. Chip Roy’s workplace pointed to the congressman’s pointed February feedback in direction of Fuentes after two of his colleagues spoke at an occasion the younger purported antisemite hosted.

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, blasted Fuentes in February as “an a–hole.”
(Kevin Dietsch/Getty Pictures)

“Nick Fuentes is an a–hole.” Roy mentioned. The congressman added he was “annoyed by colleagues who’ve chosen to affiliate on this state of affairs.”

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie blasted Trump over the assembly, as did Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, who mentioned it was “very troubling” the previous president had dinner with “avowed racist.”

“You could possibly have unintended conferences. Issues like that occur. This was not an unintended assembly. It was a set-up dinner with Kanye,” Hutchinson mentioned. “You need to disavow it. It is so simple as that.”

“That is simply one other instance of an terrible lack of judgment from Donald Trump,” Christie mentioned.

Antisemitism watchdogs and different Jewish teams have additionally weighed in on the controversy with Liora Rez, govt director of grassroots watchdog StopAntiSemitism, took goal on the Republican silence on the dinner.

Fuentes ceaselessly claims his antisemitic remarks are ironic to whitewash his feedback.
(Zach Roberts/Getty Pictures)

“Ignoring antisemitism when handy is abhorrent; it should at all times be uncovered, condemned, and prevented no matter political allegiance,” Rez mentioned.

“The deafening silence emanating from GOP leaders relating to former President Trump’s assembly with two antisemites, Nick Fuentes and Kanye West, is scary,” she continued. “Why are main Republicans silent now, once they beforehand loudly condemned antisemitic rhetoric yielded by Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib?”

Rez mentioned that “Kanye West is presently one in all three finalists in StopAntisemitism’s ‘Antisemite of the 12 months’ vote” and that 1000’s “of Individuals have already solid their vote, and the dishonorable winner will probably be introduced on December eleventh.”

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“We’re decided to carry these antisemites accountable and to immediate penalties for his or her harmful habits,” Rez added. “Politicians on either side of the aisle ought to do the identical with out hesitation.”

The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) condemned each Fuentes and West in an announcement.

“We strongly condemn the virulent antisemitism of Kanye West and Nick Fuentes and name on all political leaders to reject their messages of hate and refuse to fulfill with them,” the RJC mentioned.

Republican Nationwide Committee (RNC) chairwoman Ronna McDaniel condemned antisemitism and “bigotry” in an announcement but in addition stopped in need of condemning the dinner.

“As I had repeatedly mentioned, white supremacy, neo-Nazism, hate speech and bigotry are disgusting and shouldn’t have a house within the Republican Social gathering,” McDaniel mentioned.

Fuentes has a strong historical past of White supremacist and antisemitic feedback, typically claiming to be utilizing irony in an try to whitewash his rhetoric and protect himself from criticism.

Nonetheless, Fuentes admitted in a video that irony is “so vital” in his communications because it offers “numerous cowl and believable deniability for [his] views.”

Based on the Canary Mission, an antisemitism watchdog, Fuentes “has celebrated political violence, unfold racism and promoted White Nationalist ideology” and has “additionally unfold coronavirus antisemitism, pushed basic antisemitism, mocked the Holocaust and promoted anti-Israel conspiracy theories.”

Moreover, Fuentes is the founding father of the far-right Groyper Military — which was deemed a White supremacist group by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) — and has been banned on YouTube and different social media platforms.

A livestream clip of Fuentes showing to downplay or deny the extent of the Holocaust has circulated on-line. 

The clip reveals Fuentes answering a viewer query evaluating the systematic homicide of 6 million Jewish individuals within the Holocaust to baking cookies, whereas saying that 6 million “batches of cookies” couldn’t have been “baked” in 5 years..

“The maths doesn’t fairly appear so as to add up there, I don’t suppose you’d end in 6 million,” Fuentes continued.

The podcast host added he didn’t “purchase” the “6 million cookies” quantity earlier than claiming he’s an “irony bro” and the tirade was “all irony.” Fuentes later claimed the “cookies” feedback had been a “lampoon” to The Washington Put up.

Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ari., confronted backlash after scheduling a fundraiser with Fuentes.
((Picture by Jonathan Ernst-Pool/Getty Pictures))

Fuentes additionally defended his cookie feedback as a “humorous joke” in a November video and refused to “disavow” his phrases.

The podcast host additionally tweeted in October of final 12 months that his “favourite comedy routine” is when he’s grilled about his perception on “whether or not or not” 6 million Jews died within the Holocaust and if he felt regret about it “after which get crimson within the face and scream at me that I needs to be ashamed for being a imply particular person.”

Even within the face of his antisemitic rhetoric and Holocaust denial, some Republicans have opted to truly fundraise with Fuentes.

Arizona GOP Rep. Paul Gosar confronted backlash after scheduling a fundraiser with Fuentes. Gosar and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., each confronted condemnation in February for talking on the America First Political Motion Convention based by Fuentes. Greene downplayed talking on the convention, saying she did not know who the organizers had been.

“It wasn’t an alignment. It was to speak about getting everybody collectively to avoid wasting our nation,”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., talks as President Joe Biden delivers his first State of the Union deal with on March 1, 2022.
(AP Picture/J. Scott Applewhite, Pool, File)

After the backlash of the dinner, Trump deemed West, who modified his title to Ye, a “severely troubled man.”

“So I assist a severely troubled man, who simply occurs to be black, Ye (Kanye West), who has been decimated in his enterprise and nearly the whole lot else, and who has at all times been good to me, by permitting his request for a gathering at Mar-a-Lago, alone, in order that I may give him very a lot wanted ‘recommendation’,” Trump wrote in a message posted Saturday to his Fact Social account. “He reveals up with 3 individuals, two of which I didn’t know, the opposite a political one who I haven’t seen in years. I advised him don’t run for workplace, a complete waste of time, can’t win. Pretend Information went CRAZY!” 

A number of distinguished Jewish leaders, together with David Friedman, who served as Trump’s U.S. Ambassador to Israel from 2017-2021, have been crucial of the previous president for the assembly hosted at his Palm Seashore, Florida property.”

“To my pal Donald Trump, you’re higher than this. Even a social go to from an antisemite like Kanye West and human scum like Nick Fuentes is unacceptable,” Friedman said on Twitter. “I urge you to throw these bums out, disavow them and relegate them to the dustbin of historical past the place they belong.”

Fox Information Digital’s Danielle Wallace contributed reporting.