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GOP Congressman Says He Doesn’t Know About Fundraiser with White Nationalist

An image of a flyer on social media appears to be advertising for a fundraiser with America First PAC, which is headed by Nick Fuentes. Fuentes questioned the official figure that six million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust in an October 2019 Twitter video.
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June 30, 2021
Rep. Paul Gosar, (R-AZ)(Photo by Bill Clark-Pool/Getty Images)

Representative Paul Gosar (R-AZ) is claiming that he isn’t aware of an upcoming fundraiser on his schedule with Nick Fuentes, who the Department of Justice has designated as a white nationalist.

An image of a flyer on social media appears to be advertising for a fundraiser with America First PAC, which is headed by Nick Fuentes, and the details would be announced on July 1. According to Canary Mission, Fuentes questioned the official figure that six million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust in an October 2019 Twitter video. Fuentes compared the Nazi gas chambers to cookies in an oven, and asked if you could bake six million cookies in 15 different ovens in five years. “The math doesn’t quite seem to add up there. I don’t think you’d result in 6 million, maybe 200 to 300,000 cookies.” Fuentes later defended his remarks as a “funny joke.”

 

Various Jewish groups called on Gosar to cancel the event and disavow Fuentes.

“This is reprehensible, @RepGosar,” the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) tweeted. “Your association with Fuentes, and this event are absolutely inexcusable. You must immediately cancel this event, apologize, and denounce antisemite and Holocaust-denier, Nick Fuentes.” The American Jewish Committee responded to the RJC with a clapping emoji.

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt also tweeted that Fuentes is a “proud white nationalist” who was “openly denying the atrocities of the Holocaust and doing so in sick fashion, with a smile on his face” with his cookie analogy. “An elected official should be actively speaking out against this hate, not actively supporting and emboldening it.”

 

In a June 28 tweet, Gosar wrote: “There are millions of Gen Z, Y and X conservatives. They believe in America First. They will not agree 100% on every issue. No group does. We will not let the left dictate our strategy, alliances and efforts. Ignore the left.” And in a June 29 Twitter thread, Gosar tweeted that he has “a 10 year history of support for Israel” and “will not accept the slander that I am anti-Semitic.” “America First is a broad movement. It does not include racial supremacists and never has. That is not a pass for accepting anti-white critical race theory. Just as racial supremacy has no place in America First, it has no place in our military, our schools or boardrooms.”

Also on June 29, Gosar told The Washington Post he didn’t have any knowledge of the upcoming event. “I have no idea what’s going on. That’s news to me. There’s no fundraiser scheduled on Friday.” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) also told the Post that Gosar told him that “it’s not real” and “he doesn’t have anything on his schedule.”

Gosar was the keynote speaker at an event held by Fuentes’ America First PAC in February; the next day, Gosar said he condemns “white racism,” according to the Post.

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