The Republican leaders in both the House and the Senate condemned former President Donald Trump’s dinner last week with Ye–the artist formerly known as Kanye West– and commentator Nick Fuentes, whom the U.S. Justice Department has identified as a white supremacist. Ye has also been condemned for making antisemitic and anti-Black comments on social media.
“There is no room in the Republican Party for antisemitism or white supremacy,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters Tuesday at the U.S. Capitol. “Anyone meeting people advocating that point of view, in my judgment, are highly unlikely to ever be elected president of the United States.”
In remarks outside the White House, Rep. Kevin McCarthy — who is seen as the frontrunner to become speaker of the House when Republicans take over the majority next year — said, while he did not believe Trump knew who Fuentes was, Fuentes and the hateful rhetoric he espouses, has no place in the Republican Party.
“Look, the president can have meetings with who he wants,” the House GOP leader said. “I don’t think anybody though should have a meeting with Nick Fuentes, and his views are nowhere within the Republican Party or within this country itself.”
This post was produced and edited by Julia Griffin, Yasmeen Alamiri, Molly Finnegan and Dan Cooney.
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