The most unhinged moment from a Republican not named Donald Trump comes from, of all places, rural Arizona. The Congressman for much of that area is under the delusion that a Holocaust survivor is a closet Nazi sympathizer.
Paul Gosar represents Arizona’s 4th District, in the northwestern portion of the state–including Prescott, Lake Havasu City, and the Grand Canyon. It provides some of the most beautiful scenery in the nation. Unfortunately, this beautiful area is represented by a man who is a tea partier from central casting. He believes Native Americans are wards of the government, and boycotted Pope Francis’ address to a joint session of Congress because he felt the pope was acting like “a leftist politician.”
But those are models of sanity compared to what he said when Vice News interviewed him earlier this month. Vice originally focused on a constituent who sued Gosar for banning her from his official Facebook page. But the interview went off the rails when Gosar talked about the Charlottesville violence. Watch here.
While defending his line on blocking people from his Facebook page, Gosar referred to antifa inciting violence. When Vice’s Elle Reeve noted that antifa first got in the headlines during the Charlottesville protests, Gosar claimed that antifa groups were being bankrolled by George Soros, the liberal financier who has long been one of the right’s favorite whipping boys. He then seemed to imply that Soros sold out his own people.
“Who is he? I think he’s from Hungary. I think he was Jewish. And I think he turned in his own people to the Nazis. Better be careful where we go with those.”
When an incredulous Reeve asked Gosar if he believed Soros helped fund Richard Spencer and his neo-Nazi friends, Gozar cracked, “Wouldn’t it be interesting to find out?”
If you did a double take watching that, you’re not alone. A member of the United States House of Representatives accused a Holocaust survivor of not only turning over his own people to Hitler’s thugs, but of playing both sides of the street in Charlottesville.
Soros’ Open Society Foundations rushed out with a burning statement denouncing Gosar’s statement.
Just so we're clear. Our response to a false claim by @RepGosar: https://t.co/06Ag2hr2p0 via @VICENews pic.twitter.com/TY3FOYI8Am
— Open Society (@OpenSociety) October 5, 2017
Seven of Gosar’s own brothers and sisters were equally outraged, and wrote a blistering letter to the Kingman Daily Miner denouncing their brother’s “despicable slander” against Soros, and claimed that they were not the values with which they were raised in their Wyoming hometown. They demanded that their brother have the decency to issue “a complete retraction and genuine apology” for blowing an “anti-semitic dog whistle.”
CNN’s Anderson Cooper spent much of October trying to get Gosar on the record. Cooper’s crack investigative reporter, Randi Kaye, finally collared him on Wednesday. Watch what happened here.
Gosar tried to deny his initial claim that the white supremacist rally had been organized by an Obama supporter, even when Kaye quoted it back at him. He then suggested that Kaye look at his Website for a post later in the day. When Kaye asked him about his claim that Soros funded the white nationalists, the same thing happened–Gosar initially denied it, then suggested that Kaye check his Website later that day.
Kaye rightly called this a “conspiracy theory” that has been debunked several times over. Gosar tried to turn the tables in Trumpian fashion, accusing CNN of peddling “fake news” about the “golden showers” dossier. As it turns out, that post was a link to a “60 Minutes” interview with Soros. In that interview, Soros said that he only saw Nazi thugs take property from Jews. The post also included a link to a rant from a hard-right radio host in rural Arizona who peddled much of the same conspiracy theory claptrap that Gosar peddled. Apparently Gosar expects us to believe this will suffice.
Sadly, it’s not likely that Gosar will be held to account at the ballot box for making himself, his district, and his state look foolish. He was first elected in 2010 from the neighboring 1st District, and moved to the newly created 4th in 2012 after the 1st was made friendlier to Democrats. With a Cook Partisan Voting Index of R+21, it is easily the most Republican district in Arizona, and also the third most Republican district in the Mountain Time Zone. Arizona uses nonpartisan redistricting, so Gosar really does represent that district. Trump beat Hillary Clinton here by a punishing 68-28 margin, his strongest showing in the state.
That doesn’t mean Gosar should be allowed to get away with this. He is presently the chairman of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, as well as the vice chairman of the Oversight Subcommittee on the Interior. What does it say about the House leadership that it allows a raving and unapologetic conspiracy theory peddler to hold such important posts? It’s time for House Speaker Paul Ryan to show some leadership and demote Gosar. That is, unless Gosar has the decency to apologize and stand down from those assignments himself.
(featured image courtesy Gosar’s Facebook)
