.webp)
Republican says Trump ‘empowering’ extremists by
having dinner with white supremacist
‘It’s very troubling,’ says Arkansas governor who
condemned Trump’s meeting with anti-semite Nick Fuentes
Sun 27 Nov
2022 18.32 GMT
The
Republican governor of Arkansas on Sunday joined a chorus of criticism of
Donald Trump for having dinner with American white supremacist and anti-semite
Nick Fuentes, accusing the former US president of effectively “empowering” such
extremists.
“It’s very
troubling and it should not happen,” Asa Hutchinson told CNN’s State of the
Union show on Sunday morning, becoming the most senior Republican politician to
condemn the meeting.
Hutchinson,
governor of Arkansas since 2015, has previously said he is “very seriously”
considering a run for president in 2024, competing with Trump, who announced
his candidacy in the wake of the midterm elections.
He added
that: “I hope someday we won’t have to be responding to what former president
Trump has said or done.”
Then
Hutchinson addressed the latest controversial meeting at Mar-a-Lago.
“I don’t
think it’s a good idea for a leader that’s setting an example for the country
or the party to meet with an avowed racist or anti-semite … we need to avoid
empowering the extremes … you want to diminish their strength not empower them,
stay away from them,” Hutchinson said.
After
details emerged of Fuentes being hosted by the former president, Trump admitted
he met him, but has not condemned his stances.
Fuentes is
open about his extreme racist and anti-semitic views on his podcast and on the
visit to Trump accompanied Kanye West, the rapper now known as Ye, who has been
under fire for antisemitic comments.
Trump said
he did not know Fuentes was going to be present at the dinner and had no idea
who he was.
One person
present, however, said Trump was impressed by Fuentes. “He was impressed with
Nick and his knowledge of Trump World. Nick knew people and figures and
speeches and rallies and what surrounded the Trump culture, particularly when
it came to the base,” Karen Giorno, a former Trump aide and senior adviser,
told the Washington Post.
The meeting
has been harshly criticized by human rights groups and former New Jersey
governor and one-time close Trump ally Chris Christie, but Hutchinson turned up
the heat on Sunday.
“This was
not an accidental meeting,” Hutchinson said of Fuentes sitting down with Trump.
“It was a set up dinner with Kanye. Every occasion that the question of white
supremacy or neo-Naziism or denying the Holocaust comes up you have got to be
absolutely clear in your communication that this is not acceptable…and you have
to disavow it.”
In
addition, congressman James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, said Trump
needed “better judgment [on] who he dines with.”
“I would
not take a meeting with that person,” Comer told NBC’s Meet the Press, of
Fuentes.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário