Arizona republican lawmaker Paul Gosar, who has some of the most extreme conservative views in Congress, is planning to attend a fundraising event in Phoenix organized by white nationalist Nick Fuentes. Fuentes is a prominent figure in the white nationalist community, having attended the deadly 2017 rally in Charlottesville, and who in February described the January 6 Capitol Insurrection as “Awesome.” He has also been banned by YouTube for repeatedly violating rules against hate speech.
Fuentes announced the fundraiser on Telegram, a social media app popular with conservatives. No date or location for the event has been revealed.
The question many people is, why is a sitting member of Congress taking part in a fundraising event with a man known to support hate speech? This won’t even be Gosar’s first time attending a function put on by Fuentes. He skipped a vote on the COVID relief bill in February, blaming it on the ongoing health emergency, to attend Fuentes’ America First Political Action Conference.
in a tweet Monday night, Gosar confirmed his involvement with the event and tried to make it seem like it was no big deal.
Gosar’s political views are so extreme, his own family disowned him and endorsed the democratic challenger running against him in 2018. The sixth-term congressman once accused billionaire George Soros, who survived the Holocaust as a child, of working with the Nazis. He also voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election results, continues to downplay the events of January 6, and voted against awarding gold medals to the Capitol Police Officers who protected Congress that day.
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, the 2nd-ranking House Republican, was asked about Gosar’s latest involvement with white nationalists on Tuesday. CNN’s Manu Raju tweeted about the exchange:
If Scalise’s evasive answer sounded familiar, that’s because it was a revival of a tried-and-true GOP response.
