Last updated on March 1st, 2021 at 04:41 am
Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) said at CPAC on Saturday that he’s totally not a racist, despite the fact that he spoke at an event that was organized by a pro-insurrection white supremacist.
Gosar said “white racism” is “not appropriate” and that he denounces it.
Rep. Gosar begins his CPAC talk by attempting to distance himself from white nationalist Nick Fuentes’ AFPAC conference, where he spoke last night. pic.twitter.com/1JNgIowY5A
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— Zachary Petrizzo (@ZTPetrizzo) February 27, 2021
But as The Washington Post reported on Saturday, Gosar’s comments come hours after he appeared at a “far-right conference whose organizer spoke approvingly of the Capitol insurrection while delivering a white-nationalist speech.”
The report notes that Rep. Gosar was the only elected official to take part in the event, but it should have raised a million red flags when former lawmaker and current racist Steve King (R-IA) took the stage to speak before Gosar.
Gosar even proudly posed for a picture with King and Nick Fuentes, the white supremacist who organized the event.
Here is Cong Paul Gosar (R-AZ) and ex-Cong Steve King (R-IA) proudly posing with white supremacist, Holocaust denier and Jan 6 insurrectionist Nick Fuentes at his white supremacist AFPAC event yesterday. @GOPLeader @HouseGOP pic.twitter.com/7Eti7yn9Ss
— Politics1.com (@Politics1com) February 27, 2021
More from The Washington Post:
Gosar was the only elected official to attend the Friday event, speaking after former congressman Steve King (R-Iowa), who lost a 2020 primary after party leaders abandoned him over a string of white-nationalist remarks.
…
Fuentes, appearing after Gosar, accused Black Lives Matter activists of wanting to create “a new racial caste system in this country, with Whites at the bottom,†adding that the country would cease to be America without a White majority.
“If America ceases to retain that English cultural framework and the influence of European civilization, if it loses its White demographic core and if it loses its faith in Jesus Christ, then this is not America anymore,†he said.
This is the Trump era Republican Party
For decades, the Republican Party has been winking and nodding at the most racist elements of American society – all for the purpose of winning elections and maintaining power.
When Donald Trump entered the scene, the dog whistle was quickly traded in for a loud bull horn used to blare racist rhetoric and further divide the country.
Lawmakers like Paul Gosar can issue half-hearted apologies or clarifications when they get busted showing their true colors, but it doesn’t change the fact that this is the Republican Party in the Trump era.
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Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
