White House condemns visit to Mar-a-Lago by white supremacist antisemite Fuentes

The White House on Sunday condemned a dinner hosted by former President Donald Trump and reportedly attended by white supremacist Nick Fuentes at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Nov. 22. Meanwhile, Republican congressional leaders and other high-profile Republicans have failed to comment on the event.

According to Axios, Fuentes was at Mar-a-Lago in the company of Trump’s invited guest, rapper Kanye West, who has recently been spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Trump said in a statement released later on Friday, “I didn’t know Nick Fuentes.”

White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement: “Bigotry, hate, and antisemitism have absolutely no place in America – including at Mar-A-Lago. Holocaust denial is repugnant and dangerous, and it must be forcefully condemned.”

High-profile Republican leaders have been silent on the issue. Neither Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell nor House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy have addressed the meeting with Fuentes.

Likely 2024 presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has not commented on Trump’s meeting with Fuentes, who In 2021 expressed support for a law backed by DeSantis to punish social media companies for banning the accounts of political candidates.

Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, another possible presidential contender, has also not commented on Fuentes’ and West’s visit.

Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker, who faces Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in a runoff election in Georgia that ends on Dec. 6, has not mentioned it either.

A pair of Republican House members who will not be returning to Congress in 2023, Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, are among the few Republicans who have directly criticized Trump for hosting Fuentes.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) later wrote: “President Trump hosting racist antisemites for dinner encourages other racist antisemites. These attitudes are immoral and should not be entertained,” and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) told reporters, “The president should never have had a meal or even a meeting with Nick Fuentes.”

Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel and the Republican Jewish Coalition released statements condemning bigotry in general but did not mention Trump.

Fuentes has made frequent verbal attacks on Jewish people and said of himself in February, “I’m just like Hitler.” He was present at the white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally in 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia, at which marchers chanted, “Jews will not replace us.”

Fuentes has for years been publicly aligned with prominent members of the Republican Party.

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) was a featured speaker at Fuentes’ America First Political Action Conference in 2021 and posed for photos with Fuentes before a planned fundraising event.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) spoke at Fuentes’ event in February, at which she said, “Everything this Congress does is evil.”

President Joe Biden has put his opposition to antisemitism and white supremacism front and center in his presidency.

When he launched his presidential campaign in 2019, Biden explicitly referenced the Charlottesville rally and Trump’s characterization of the participants as “very fine people” as a major motivation for his decision to run.

“I believe history will look back on four years of this president and all he embraces as an aberrant moment in time. But if we give Donald Trump eight years in the White House, he will forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation — who we are — and I cannot stand by and watch that happen,” Biden said.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.