Karen Aroesty, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said she was “trying to get sense of why he flew under the radar, and I’m not sure I have a great answer. What is a person who is elected into a position of power going to do with beliefs like this?”  

 

West did not apologize for his comments when contacted by the newspaper. 

 

“You guys want to make it an issue, you can go there, but I’m not going to comment on that,” he said. 

He later said, “I’m not running as a radio show host, I’m running for state representative. I’m sorry. I’m not going to have this discussion.”

“Pressed to clarify his Hitler comment, he questioned its validity until a reporter cited the date and time of the recording,” the newspaper reported. “West then said that he’d been taken out of context. He said that he believes all men are created equal, but not all ideologies are equal. Specifically, he said, he finds fault with Islam and Judaism.”

The Missouri Republican Party also issued a statement: “Steve West’s shocking and vile comments do not reflect the position of the Missouri Republican Party or indeed of any decent individual. West’s abhorrent rhetoric has absolutely no place in the Missouri Republican Party or anywhere. We wholeheartedly condemn his comments.”

On Islam, West has said, it “is a problem for America. … It is a political movement masquerading as religion and should not receive the benefits we provide religious institutions as well as access to our prisons” and “ Many parents and students don’t want to have to deal with alternative sex ed, and the LGBT clubs and staff at all the public high schools today.”

The comments were sent to the newspaper after the election. 

Still Aroesty said that there were enough earlier hints of bigoted beliefs to where voters should not have supported him.