Topline
Former Vice President Mike Pence joined a large continent of high-profile Republicans on Monday calling out former President Donald Trump over his recent dinner with white supremacist Nick Fuentes, telling the NewsNation cable network Trump “should apologize” for the meeting and acknowledge it was “wrong” to have in the first place.
Former Vice President Mike Pence speaks at the Ingleside Hotel on August 3, 2022, in Pewaukee, … [+]
Key Facts
Pence in an interview Monday blasted Fuentes as “a white nationalist, an anti-Semite and a Holocaust denier,” but insisted Trump is not a racist or an anti-Semite, stating, “I would not have been his vice president if he was.”
He said that, in addition to apologizing, Trump should more explicitly denounce anti-Semitism and “those individuals and their hateful rhetoric, without qualification.”
Pence’s comments come after a dozen Republican senators made remarks earlier in the day critical of the meeting, starting with Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who tweeted early Monday afternoon, “President Trump hosting racist anti-Semites for dinner encourages other racist antisemites.”
Trump has insisted he “knew nothing about” Fuentes coming to the dinner, claiming West brought him along as an uninvited guest.
Key Background
Fuentes, 24, is a political extremist who first emerged as a far-right figure during the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, before starting the hard-right America First Political Action Conference in 2020 and encouraging his supporters to use violence to keep Trump in power after he lost the 2020 presidential election. Fuentes said he launched the PAC as a counter to the more mainstream Conservative Political Action Coalition, which he’s criticized for supporting Israel. Fuentes has also called the push for greater LGBTQ rights in the U.S. a “bastardized Jewish subversion of the American creed” and in February compared Russian President Vladimir Putin to Nazi dictator and mass murderer Adolf Hitler in what was apparently intended to be takenas a compliment for the Russian leader. The Anti-Defamation League has condemned Fuentes for sharing “numerous antisemitic and racist comments” online.
What To Watch For
Trump earlier this month became the first major Republican figure to announce a 2024 presidential bid. Pence is widely expected to announce a run of his own and recently told ABC’s World News Tonight he’s giving “prayerful consideration” to a bid.
Tangent
West last week launched his own 2024 presidential campaign, and claimed in a video that he asked Trump to be his running mate. West said Trump then began “screaming at me at the table, telling me I was going to lose.”
Further Reading
Pence: Trump should apologize for recent Mar-a-Lago dinner (NewsNation)
Billionaire No More: Kanye West’s Antisemitism Obliterates His Net Worth As Adidas Cuts Ties (Forbes)
Nick Fuentes: Meet The Gen-Z White Supremacist Who Dined With Trump And Kanye West (Forbes)
Trump Launches 2024 Presidential Bid (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2022/11/28/pence-and-a-dozen-gop-senators-slam-trump-over-dinner-with-white-supremacist-in-latest-republican-rift/