Former President Donald Trump.
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Several top Republican officials have condemed Trump for meeting with white nationalist Nick Fuentes.
Trump recently had dinner with Fuentes and Kanye West, who has also made anti-Semitic comments.
Insider is keeping a running tally of top Republicans who condemn the former president.
Several GOP leaders, including some potential 2024 rivals, are explicitly condemning embattled former President Donald Trump for meeting with avowed white supremacist Nick Fuentes. But their scorching statements remain the exception so far for the GOP’s reaction to Trump’s latest scandal.
Trump has claimed that he has no idea who Fuentes was. He has claimed that he tried to give rapper Kanye West, who was also at the dinner, advice. West, who prefers going by Ye, has made a number of antisemitic comments in recent months, which led multiple companies, including Adidas, to break ties with him. The trio had dinner at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort last week.
“Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, was asking me for advice concerning some of his difficulties, in particular having to do with his business. We also discussed, to a lesser extent, politics, where I told him he should definitely not run for President …,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social. Trump added that West “expressed no anti-Semitism” during the dinner.
Fuentes, a 24-year-old known as a white nationalist, has long history of blatantly racist and anti-Semitic comments. He was also the cause of a previous uproar when far-right Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona spoke at a conference of a Fuentes-founded organization. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy called their attendance “unacceptable.”
Here’s the list of Republicans who have condemned Trump thus far:
Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana:
“President Trump hosting racist antisemites for dinner encourages other racist antisemites,” Cassidy wrote on Twitter. “These attitudes are immoral and should not be entertained. This is not the Republican Party.”
—U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (@SenBillCassidy) November 28, 2022
Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel:
Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel did not mention Trump specifically while rejecting Fuentes’ ideology. “As I had repeatedly said, white supremacy, neo-Nazism, hate speech and bigotry are disgusting and do not have a home in the Republican Party,” she said in a prepared statement.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson:
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for a leader that’s setting an example for the country or the party to meet with [an] avowed racist or antisemite,” Hutchinson told CNN on Sunday. Hutchinson, a two-term governor who will soon be leaving office. He has said he is “very seriously” considering a 2024 presidential campaign.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie:
“This is just another example of an awful lack of judgment from Donald Trump, which, combined with his past poor judgments, make him an untenable general election candidate for the Republican Party in 2024,” the one-time Trump ally and likely 2024 presidential contender told The New York Times.
—Chris Christie (@GovChristie) November 26, 2022
Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming:
“First, @RepMTG and now, @realDonaldTrump hanging around with this anti-Semitic, pro-Putin, white supremacist. This isn’t complicated. It’s indefensible,” Cheney, the top Republican on the House January 6 committee, wrote on Twitter.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois:
“The brown shirts shouldn’t intimidate you,” Kinzinger, the only other Republican on the January 6 committee, wrote on Twitter. “They are all incels with no self esteem. Hey @GOPLeader, @RepMTG had spent some time with Nick here, how does that sit with you? You cool with holocaust denial etc? Probably right?”