House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy talks to reporters, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2022, connected Capitol Hill successful Washington. | Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy connected Tuesday became the latest apical Republican to condemn Donald Trump’s meal with achromatic supremacist Nick Fuentes — portion declining to condemn the erstwhile president himself.
Making his archetypal comments connected Trump’s meal with Fuentes and the rapper Ye, some of whom person publically engaged successful antisemitism, McCarthy falsely asserted that the erstwhile president had already condemned Fuentes. Trump has said aggregate times that helium did not cognize who Fuentes was erstwhile the achromatic nationalist attended meal with him arsenic a impermanent of Ye, formerly known arsenic Kanye West.
“I don’t deliberation anybody should person a gathering with Nick Fuentes, and his views are obscurity wrong the Republican Party oregon wrong this state itself,” McCarthy said pursuing a gathering astatine the White House with President Joe Biden and legislature leaders. The California Republican added that “I don’t deliberation [Trump] should person associated with [Ye] arsenic well.”
McCarthy’s comments echo those of most different legislature Republicans, who person criticized Trump’s actions but refrained from criticizing the erstwhile president himself. Trump’s erstwhile vice president, Mike Pence, departed from that norm connected Monday by asking Trump to apologize for associating with Fuentes. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is expected to code the substance aboriginal connected Tuesday.
Trump dined past week astatine his Palm Beach, Fla., resort with Ye and Fuentes, an avowed achromatic nationalist, racist and antisemite, POLITICO archetypal reported. Notably, that meal was not the archetypal clip this twelvemonth that Fuentes has caused headaches for legislature Republican leaders: McCarthy vowed to “have a discussion” with Reps. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) aft the brace spoke astatine a February league Fuentes organized. Since then, McCarthy has vowed to reconstruct committee assignments that Democrats stripped from Greene aft a bid of polarizing and incendiary remarks from the Georgian.
The GOP person has further vowed to eject progressive Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from the House Foreign Affairs Committee implicit her criticisms of the Israeli government’s attraction of Palestinians, and a fewer members of McCarthy’s league person tried to equate that disapproval from Omar with Fuentes’ unfastened racism and antisemitism.
Omar fired backmost successful a statement past week connected McCarthy’s plans to barroom her from the committee, saying that Republicans “made it their ngo to usage fear, xenophobia, Islamophobia and racism to people maine connected the House Floor and done millions of dollars of run ads.”
Myah Ward contributed to this report.
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