Two GOP congressmen join Holocaust denier for fundraiser on a yacht
Internet troll and Holocaust denier Chuck Johnson joined Congressmen Matt Gaetz and Dana Rohrabacher for a fundraiser on a yacht off the California coast.
The Republican Party’s dalliance with anti-semitism is a disturbing trend with no end in sight. In the most recent incident, two Republican House members were joined by a notorious Holocaust denier at a fundraiser held on a yacht.
In late July 2018, Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) were spotted with famed internet troll and Holocaust denier Chuck Johnson on a yacht near Newport Beach, California, according to Mother Jones.
The event was a fundraiser for Gaetz held in Rohrabacher’s district, and Rohrabacher spoke on behalf of Gaetz.
It is unclear who invited Johnson, says Mother Jones, but neither campaign denies he was there. Both men have publicly associated with Johnson in the past.
Johnson has a long and controversial history as a Republican activist and internet troll. He is permanently banned from Twitter for asking for help to “take out” Black Lives Matter activist DeRay McKesson.
In 2017, Johnson told a Reddit audience that he does not believe 6 million Jews perished in the Holocaust, and said he agreed with others, “about Auschwitz and the gas chambers not being real.”
Johnson has also made racist comments and flashed white power signs with notorious white supremacist Richard Spencer.
Yet he still pals around with Republican members of Congress and Cabinet officials in the Trump administration.
In January 2018, Gaetz invited Johnson to be his guest at the State of the Union address.
In 2017, Johnson was attending a barbecue in Rohrabacher’s backyard, where the two hatched a plot to visit Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
Rohrabacher and Johnson made the trip, and Rohrabacher came away spouting that U.S. intelligence agencies were lying to the American public about Russian interference in the 2016 election. Rohrabacher clings to wild and debunked conspiracy theories about a mythical “inside job” that resulted in stolen DNC emails during the 2016 election, defending Russia by regularly accusing U.S. intelligence agencies of lying.
It is unclear if Johnson donated to the Gaetz campaign. In 2017, he donated the maximum allowable to Rohrabacher’s re-election campaign.
In addition to socializing with Johnson, Republicans have had numerous issues with Nazis in the past 18 months. In Illinois, an avowed Nazi won the Republican primary for a congressional seat. In North Carolina, a Republican candidate for state office said Jewish people are “descended from Satan.”
Trump has hired senior staff with ties to white supremacy and neo-Nazis. And when racists marched side-by-side with Nazis in Charlottesville, and went so far as to murder an innocent bystander, Trump claimed that Nazis and Nazi sympathizers were “very fine people.”
So long as the leader of the Republican Party coddles Nazis, it should come as no surprise that Republican members of Congress are cozying up to a Holocaust denier on a yacht.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
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