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The Republican Jewish Coalition called out a GOP student group on Monday for inviting Nick Fuentes, a prominent white supremacist and Holocaust denier, to speak at an upcoming conference.
“This is terrible,” tweeted Adam Kwasman, a former Arizona state legislator and co-leader of the RJC’s Arizona chapter. The national RJC also registered its disapproval.
The University of Arizona College Republicans United is a conservative political club that has been described as far-right extremist by other Republican groups on campus. It is hosting its second annual national convention on July 30 in Prescott, Arizona.
Fuentes gained a following in 2017 as the host of a live streamed podcast called “America First with Nicholas J. Fuentes.” He espouses a wide range of extreme views, including opposing women’s voting rights, denying the Holocaust, and comparing killing Jews to making cookies. Fuentes attended the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville in 2017, where marchers chanted, “Jews will not replace us.”
He was originally banned from Twitter in July 2021 for repeated violations of rules against hate speech and was banned again after starting a new account shortly after Elon Musk’s acquisition of the platform.
Matt Brooks, RJC’s chief executive, said on Twitter Republicans “must have a zero tolerance policy regarding platforming white nationalists.” Kwasman said Monday afternoon that party officials and state lawmakers “are getting to the bottom of what is going on” and investigating the matter.
The group has invited white supremacist speakers before. Last September they hosted Jared Taylor, the longtime editor of American Renaissance, a white supremacist journal and companion website, who has ties with neo-Nazis.
Rep. Paul Gosar, a far-right Republican from Arizona who has faced backlash for his association with white nationalists, was a featured guest at an event hosted by the group last year. Gosar himself attended several conferences organized by Fuentes and employs staffers who are ardent followers of Fuentes. These connections led a group of Jewish first-year lawmakers to call on House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to censure Gosar.
Former President Donald Trump also came under fire for dining last year with Fuentes and Kanye West, the rapper who changed his name to Ye and who has spewed antisemitic conspiracies.
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This article was originally published on the Forward.
