Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) speaks during a news conference to discuss legislation to revoke “The Medal Of Freedom” given to Bill Cosby in 2002 at the Cannon House Office Building on January 7, 2016, in Washington D.C. | Source: Kris Connor / Getty
To paraphrase the popular saying, if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it’s a duck.
Using similar logic without the need for any prolonged deliberation because of a growing amount of evidence, an informal online poll of the least scientific variety has arrived at a seemingly unanimous decision that Republican Rep. Paul Gosar is a white nationalist — the same designation that he has vehemently denied.
But the 62-year-old Arizona Congressman’s denial wasn’t being greeted too warmly across Twitter, where accounts proceeded to post an impressive string of receipts casting significant doubt on Gosar, who, to quote Shakespeare, “doth protest too much” to be believed.
On Friday, Gosar’s name became a nationally trending topic for all the wrong reasons when he quote-tweeted a reporter who referred to the lawmaker as a “white nationalist.”
Gosar responded in kind by claiming his name as being defamed, threatening legal action and calling the reporter “lying scum.” He denied having “ever supported ‘white nationalism.'”
Gosar’s tweet went viral, but it wasn’t the flex he was expecting it to be as people quickly called his bluff. Justin Hendrix, a tech policy journalist, led the charge.
Like citing the time Gosar “lauded the white nationalist assault on the Capitol as it took place.”
Others pointed to the Washington Post’s analysis of Gosar published in June that drew attention to a fundraiser for the Congressman that was held “with America First PAC, a group run by young far-right operative Nick Fuentes, who has promoted white-nationalist ideas and whom the Justice Department has labeled a “white supremacist.”
And that’s to speak nothing of the time that the Arizona Mirror covered an event back in February and gave its coverage the headline, “Paul Gosar spoke to a white nationalist conference, and they chanted his name.”
In that case, again, Fuentes was the link to Gosar’s alleged and apparent support for that “white nationalist,” at least.
“When Gosar finished, the event concluded with a 67-minute speech by 22-year-old white nationalist Nick Fuentes, the conference organizer, who called the Jan. 6 riots ‘awesome’ and demanded elected leaders like Gosar enact protections for the country’s ‘white demographic core,'” the Mirror wrote.
Hendrix’s Twitter thread of receipts wasn’t nearly done, also pointing to the time in 2018 when Gosar was in London and had dinner with “an extremist Belgian politician who has a history of inflammatory and racist comments,” as CNN put it.
There’s also the Vice News interview from 2017 during which Gosar suggested the deadly white nationalist riot in Charlottesville was a conspiracy theory started by “the left.” He even evoked former President Barack Obama’s name in a failed — and racist — attempt to shift responsibility for the violence.
“Let’s look at the person that actually started the rally,” Gosar said in the interview, referencing Blogger Jason Kessler, who organized the so-called Unite the Right rally. “It’s come to our attention that this is a person from Occupy Wall Street that was an Obama sympathizer. So, wait a minute, be careful where you start taking these people to.”
Gosar, of course, conveniently ignored the Nazis and other white nationalists who openly rallied in favor of white nationalism during the rally in Charlottesville, regardless of who planned it.
But perhaps the most damning receipt shared across social media was the NBC News op-ed published earlier this month and authored by Gosar’s own blood brothers and sister, who called on him to resign and cited his support for white nationalism as one of the multiple reasons why. Fuentes’ name makes an appearance again.
“How is it that a hateful boy 40 years your junior is able to lead you around by your nose?” Dave Gosar, Jennifer Gosar and Tim Gosar asked in the Aug. 1 op-ed while referring to Fuentes before adding: “And what about Fuentes’ disgusting and appalling Holocaust denial you have never once condemned? Or his racist statements scoffing at the horrors of Jim Crow, segregation and Derek Chauvin’s brutal murder of George Floyd — again, statements you have never condemned. What decent person would associate with such a wretched creature?”
It doesn’t stop there.
An expertly produced Twitter video posted by a pro-democratic group also drew attention to Gosar’s relationship with Fuentes and his support for the Jan. 6 insurrection. The group, Really American, said in the video that Gosar “deserves to be in jail” and urged Congress to “expel him and prosecute him for sedition.”
Another Really American video was making the rounds on Friday that served as a “REMINDER that Rep. Paul Gosar is an insurrectionist who collaborates with extremist right-wing groups like the Proud Boys.”
Yet another tweet linked to an opinion piece in the Arizona Republic that was published Friday and carried the headline, “Paul Gosar is going full-on white nationalist and the GOP’s silence is … not surprising.”
“This you?” the tweet asked in response to Gosar’s Twitter denial.
SEE ALSO:
Clarence Thomas’ Wife Gleefully Cheered On White Supremacists At The Capitol
Rep. Steve King Cries Over White Nationalist Label After History Of Racism
