The Face of The White Christian Nationalist Arizona Republican Party (Better Luck Next Time, Wendy)

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At the start of this week Politico did a half-ass job of reporting on our white supremacist insurrectionist Rep. Paul Gosar. Paul Gosar is finally speaking out about that video he sent to a white nationalist-organized event. He’s blaming it on a staff error.

Gosar finally speaks: Rep. Paul Gosar is blaming his video appearance last month at a white nationalist-organized conference on his staff. The Arizona Republican also says he’s done with event organizer Nick Fuentes, a far-right fringe figure who’s trafficked in racist and antisemitic rhetoric.

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Gosar’s denial — among the first public remarks he’s given on the matter — comes nearly a month after the furor over his appearance at Fuentes’ event consumed the House GOP. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Gosar both appeared at Fuentes’ America First Political Action Conference. Greene spoke in person, while Gosar’s office sent in a video.

What he’s saying: “It wasn’t supposed to go to Nick’s group,” Gosar told POLITICO, noting that a staffer “misconstrued” directions from his chief of staff. The tape was intended to go to other groups as a general “welcome video,” he added.

“We’re kind of short-handed,” he said. “And there was miscommunication.”

Shrugging it off: He dismissed the idea that a video of him speaking constituted a form of involvement in the Fuentes-organized conference, which he spoke in person at in 2021.

The video “just basically said ‘welcome to the Miami area. Have a great conference. The United States is at a crisis point,’” Gosar said. He added that the groups “authorized” to receive the video included American Principles and Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), not America First.

(Both CPAC and America First took place in Orlando, not Miami.)

And about that meeting? House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy had said he would meet with both Gosar and Greene to discuss their controversial involvement in the event. But Gosar dismissed that idea when asked Friday: “Why would I?” McCarthy has met with Greene — while she herself didn’t say as much, the GOP leader said she would not attend again.

Gosar said he sent the video to McCarthy and explained what happened, adding: “So there is nothing there.”

Greene has argued that she didn’t know who Fuentes was before agreeing to appear at his event. And Gosar made a similar claim on Friday, arguing that Fuentes is misleading his followers.

He and Greene “didn’t know anything about the group” before speaking in person at America First in their appearances a year apart, Gosar said.

“The young people that were being misled by somebody — we should be trying to mentor, trying to change them. I’ve given up … on dealing with Nick. Nick’s got a problem with his mouth.”

But but but: The first results when you Google Fuentes’ name identify him as a white nationalist who has compared baking cookies to the Holocaust’s mass murder of Jews, among other incendiary and discriminatory statements.

Keep in mind: Gosar and Greene have lost the benefit of the doubt with many GOP colleagues this Congress, as some talk publicly and privately about how their Fuentes ties have hurt the party. So even fellow Republicans are likely to be skeptical about Gosar’s assertions that it was a staff error.

Let’s just say that this did not sit well with Arizona reporters who know better.

Our white supremacist insurrectionist Rep. Paul Gosar is ending the week with another scandal.

The Washington Post reports, Paul Gosar’s office denies role in far-right event after group publicized it:

In bright blue and red letters, Rep. Paul A. Gosar is billed as a “featured guest” on a promotion for a far-right group’s April 20 event in his home state [Note that it also featured state Sen. Warren Petersen.]

Over the weekend, the Arizona Republican shared details for the American Populist Union mixer on his Instagram account, according to the Arizona Mirror, which first reported on the event. But in emails to The Washington Post, Gosar’s office denied that the congressman will be participating.

“I never approved this event and have never spoken to this group,” Rory McShane, Gosar’s campaign consultant, told The Post. “The only event we have that day is a farm tour.”

When asked about Gosar apparently sharing the details on Instagram, McShane said: “I don’t know, but I didn’t approve it.”

The ticketed event in Tempe is hosted by the American Populist Union, a group the Anti-Defamation League says “champions anti-immigration and anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments and regards the modern GOP as a corrupt, globalist conservative establishment.” The nonprofit organization with mostly college-aged members, according to the ADL, is “Groyper-esque” — a reference to a white supremacist group.

The American Populist Union has promoted a takeover of the Republican Party on its website and praised foreign populist strongmen such as Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Twitter.

After Gosar’s office denied his involvement in the group’s event, the American Populist Union’s chief operating officer, CJ Trapeur, said in a statement to The Post that “there seems to be a misunderstanding and scheduling conflict” with the congressman’s office.

Gosar was billed to appear alongside John Doyle, a host of a YouTube channel called “Heck Off, Commie!” In his show, Doyle has often decried President Biden’s election as “fraudulent” and said liberalism is connected to satanism.

Doyle, whom the ADL calls “a prominent figure of the American Populist Union,” has over 330,000 subscribers on YouTube — a platform in which he has made racist, misogynist and antisemitic remarks, Insider reported. He claimed women should not be allowed to vote and that Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement had “terrible legacies.”

Trapeur, in his statement, denied reports that the American Populist Union has white nationalist ties. He also disputed claims that the group scheduled its event on April 20 to coincide with Adolf Hitler’s birthday — a date often commemorated by neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups, according to the ADL.

“The 20th was simply due to venue pricing and availability,” Trapeur said.

Gosar’s expected presence at the event brought a new wave of backlash after the congressman made a video appearance at a February conference organized by Nicholas Fuentes, a white-nationalist activist who attended the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. Fuentes has inspired a large following of people who deem themselves the “Groyper Army.” With an active online presence, the “America First”-aligned group caters to a growing number of young Republicans edging further to the right.

[T]ickets for this month’s American Populist Social range from $45 to $59.99. Organizers say more guests will be announced, and attendees will have “a chance to meet some of the best legislatures (that’s legislators, dumbass), best people running for office, and media personalities in the country!”

But so far, two of three billed speakers have distanced themselves from the event.

Arizona state Sen. Warren Petersen was also listed as a featured guest. However, the Republican lawmaker told the Arizona Mirror that he had “respectfully declined to speak” after realizing the gathering was hosted by an organization unfamiliar to him.

No worries, maybe Sen. Wendy Rogers will tag team in for him!

Hours after Gosar’s office disputed his involvement, the American Populist Union removed mentions of the congressman from its Eventbrite listing — though a tweet promoting his attendance remains on Twitter.

As The Post references, the Arizona Daily Mirror was the first to report this story. Paul Gosar promoted appearing at a white nationalist social gathering on Hitler’s birthday, but his campaign says he isn’t:

Prescott Republican Congressman Paul Gosar was listed as a “special guest” with the white nationalist American Populist Union at an event that will be on a date popular among white nationalists and Neo-Nazis: Hitler’s birthday.

The American Populist Social will be held in Tempe on April 20, a date revered by white supremacists and Neo-Nazis.

But Gosar’s campaign says he isn’t attending and it doesn’t know how he was listed as a guest of honor, even though Gosar promoted his scheduled appearance on social media.

Once again:

The American Populist Union is closely aligned with groypers, a group of white nationalists who strive for their ideas to become a part of the Republican mainstream and are largely followers of 23-year-old white nationalist Nick Fuentes. In 2021, Gosar was the first elected official to speak at Fuentes’ America First Political Action Conference in 2021. This year, the conference saw speeches by Gosar, Rogers and U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Earlier this month, Gosar said his March video message to attendees of AFPAC was the fault of a staffer who sent his video message to the wrong group. He distanced himself from Fuentes, telling Politico that the young Holocaust-denying racist  “has a problem with his mouth.”

Fuentes shared the story on the encrypted messaging app Telegram with the message “April Fool’s!” and later said in a livestream that he and Gosar will continue to “collaborate behind the scenes.”

American Populist Union has connections to Fuentes ideologically and through its members. The group hobnobbed with Arizona politicians in December when it held an event across the street from Turning Point USA that attracted a slew of fringe activists and groypers.

The other featured guest at the event, John Doyle, has allied with and promoted groypers, and he organized a “Stop the Steal” rally in Michigan with Fuentes. Doyle, a YouTube personality who runs a show called “Heck off Commie,” regularly advocates far-right ideology. He has said that Martin Luther King was “not a hero” and has claimed that liberalism is linked to satanism.

Doyle has also posted highly misogynistic content, such as saying that women shouldn’t be allowed to vote, and he once called for “low IQ offenders” to be executed in response to a story about a Black man committing a violent crime. Doyle, along with other members of APU, were also in attendance at the first 76Fest which was dubbed “Hitler Youth, without the Hitler” by one of its organizers.

Arizona state Sen. Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, is also listed as a featured guest, but he told the Arizona Mirror he is not attending.

“When they first contacted me, I thought it was a County Young Republican event,” Petersen said. “After I realized it was an organization I was unfamiliar with, I respectfully declined to speak.”

* * *

After this story was published, Gosar’s campaign consultant told the Arizona Mirror that the congressman would not be attending the white nationalist group’s event on April 20. Instead, he said Gosar had a “farm tour” scheduled for that day. Rory McShane said that American Populist Union never contacted Gosar or his campaign.

Note: It would be good if reporters show up to report on which “legislators” do speak at this “Hitler Youth Birthday Party” in Tempe. And be sure to take take lots of photos and video of who is in attendance for the Department of Justice Domestic Terrorism Unit and the FBI.

On April 2, Gosar promoted the American Populist Union event, and his appearance, in an Instagram story. McShane didn’t immediately respond to requests about what Gosar did that if he had no idea he was scheduled to attend it.

American Populist Union did not respond to requests for comment before this article was published. Several hours later, its chairman, Vince Dao, sent a statement denying any “ties or loyalties to white nationalism or Neo-Nazism,” and he said his team did not know it was planning an event on Hitler’s birthday.

“We chose the date April 20 based on venue pricing, availability, and logistics — and nothing more. Venues tend to be easier to acquire on weekdays, which is why we ended up with the date. Our team was not even aware that April 20 was Hitler’s birthday, and we were not intending to honor or acknowledge Hitler or Nazism in any way,” Dao said.

I call bullshit!





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1 thought on “The Face of The White Christian Nationalist Arizona Republican Party (Better Luck Next Time, Wendy)”

  1. SIDEBAR: Gossar’s animated snuff film never received the true condemnation it deserved. Perhaps this is because the pro-authoritarian party is so deplorable it’s difficult to keep up with their daily incitements, depravity, vicious and anti-American rhetoric; However, knowing that he is such an inspiration to the disturbed, violent, misogynistic young men in the age group and demographic of the most common perpetrators should at the very least be pointed out, as should the rising rate of violence against women — especially in the impoverished rural areas where the maga flags fly high and women and girls suffer the extreme consequences of the reprehensible party’s war on women.

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