By Jerod MacDonald-Evoy, for Arizona Mirror
Republican Congressman from Arizona Paul Gosar shared plenty of conspiracy theories in his official Home of Representatives publication this week, together with one with antisemitic ties.
This isn’t the primary time Gosar’s publication has courted controversy as twice he has used it to advertise web sites that shared antisemitic messages like Holocaust denialism.
Within the Prescott Republican’s weekly publication to constituents, Gosar responded to an electronic mail from a Shock man who mentioned he opposed President-elect Donald Trump’s nominations of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard to positions in his new administration.
Gosar defended former Congresswoman Gabbard, who has been criticized for her lack of expertise working with the intelligence group, one thing Gosar believes makes her proper for the job.
“Many are saying that she has no background in the so-called ‘intelligence community’ that was famously responsible for quashing the Hunter Biden laptop story, fabricating Russia-Gate, replacing Ukraine’s government in 2014, launching a false flag operation on a U.S. naval vessel in coordination with the Israeli government in 1967, perpetrating the Bay of Pigs fiasco, and perhaps even killing President John F. Kennedy,” Gosar mentioned within the publication.
Gosar’s protection of Gabbard is filled with conspiracy theories comparable to Hunter Biden’s alleged involvement in a bribery scandal with connections to Russia in addition to myths concerning the assassination of President Kennedy.
His point out of the sinking of the usS. Liberty ties to an antisemitic conspiracy principle.
“Congressman Gosar’s reference to the USS Liberty incident as part of a broader critique of the intelligence community in his newsletter is misguided at best and antisemitic at worst,” Sarah Kader, deputy regional director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Arizona chapter mentioned in a press release to the Arizona Mirror.
“The USS Liberty incident has been historically misused by conspiracy theorists and antisemites to promote harmful narratives targeting the Jewish community and the U.S.-Israel relationship,” Kader mentioned. “Longstanding conspiracy theories about the USS Liberty have been repeatedly debunked and by referencing it in this context, Gosar perpetuates falsehoods that feed into antisemitic tropes and undermines public discourse.”
Gosar’s workplace didn’t reply to a request for remark for the story or reply questions on who wrote the Congressman’s reply within the publication.
In 2023, Gosar’s publication linked to an article on a web site that had beforehand posted a video by a famed Holocaust denier and featured the identical coded language utilized by neo-Nazis.
Gosar’s publication has additionally linked to a unique web site with an writer who promoted a e-book that claims the Holocaust was a “fraud.” The web site is closely pro-Kremlin, usually republishing articles from the Russian state-run propaganda web sites Russia In the present day and Sputnik.
Iran has not too long ago seized upon U.S.S. Liberty conspiracy theories and has used them to amplify hate towards Jewish folks and Israel. The theories have additionally been a go-to for neo-Nazis and different antisemites.
Gosar has lengthy amplified extremists together with his platform.
In 2021, Gosar promoted the work of identified white nationalist Vincent James Foxx, who grew to become the unofficial propagandist for a neo-Nazi combat membership. Gosar spoke on the identical white nationalist convention as Foxx a number of years earlier, alongside Holocaust-denier and antisemite Nick Fuentes, the first sitting politician to take action.
The work that Gosar promoted talked about the “great replacement theory,” the thought, fashionable amongst white supremacists, that white People are being changed by immigrants. It has been seized upon by extremist teams such because the American Id Motion and Technology Id.
The good alternative principle has additionally impressed violence. Fears of immigrants undermining his imaginative and prescient of a white Christian Europe motivated Anders Behring Breivik’s murderous rampage in 2011 at a Norwegian youth summer season camp.
Within the U.S., the Tree of Life synagogue taking pictures in Pittsburgh in 2018 was the deadliest assault towards the Jewish group in United States historical past. Simply earlier than perpetrating the assault, the killer took to right-wing social media web site Gab to say he believed that immigrants have been being introduced in to switch and “kill our people.”
The following 12 months in New Zealand, 51 folks can be killed and 40 injured however not earlier than the shooter would put up a 74-page manifesto titled “The Great Replacement.”
In 2019, in El Paso, Texas, a shooter who killed 23 in a Walmart would cite the New Zealand shooter’s manifesto in one in all his personal saying it was a response to the “hispanic invasion of Texas.”
Gosar has often seized on meme tradition utilized by white supremacists and neo-Nazis on his Twitter account, together with the #DarkMAGA motion, which has roots in accelerationist neo-Nazi meme tradition and plenty of memes associated to it usually categorical a want for violence towards perceived enemies. In lots of circumstances, they’re accompanied by neo-Nazi imagery.
Gosar’s employees mentioned they have been unaware of #DarkMAGA till it was delivered to their consideration by the Mirror.
Gosar has additionally employed two white nationalists in his workplace.
“As a public servant, the Congressman’s words have significant influence,” Kader mentioned. “We urge him to consider the implications of referencing such narratives and the potential harm they can cause to Jewish Americans, the broader community, and the vital U.S.-Israel alliance.”
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