Republicans blasted former President Trump over his dinner with embattled rapper Kanye West and antisemite and White nationalist Nick Fuentes.
Trump had dinner with Fuentes, a Holocaust denier, last week alongside West, sparking backlash from several GOP lawmakers and organizations for meeting with the young antisemite that claims to be a conservative activist.
Republicans have by and large steered away from directly criticizing the former president’s dinner with Fuentes, who is largely viewed as a political pariah outside of the Trump wing of the GOP, but several party members have spoken out on the dinner.
"I am appalled," Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., told reporters on Sunday.
Bacon is the Republican co-chair of the Caucus for the Advancement of Torah Values with Democrat Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar.
Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy tweeted that Trump "hosting racist antisemites for dinner encourages other racist antisemites."
"These attitudes are immoral and should not be entertained," Cassidy wrote. "This is not the Republican Party."
Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., who is expected to take the mantle of the House Oversight Committee chairman come January, criticized the meeting in a Sunday Meet the Press interview.
"He certainly needs better judgment in who he dines with," Comer said. "I know he’s issued a statement and said he didn’t know who those people were, but, at any rate, my focus is going to be investigating the current administration as the next chairman of the House Oversight Committee and try to get a handle on the massive amount of waste, fraud, and abuse in our federal government."
When pressed on if he would condemn the dinner, Comer said he would not take a meeting with either Fuentes or West but stopped short of a condemnation of the dinner.
Texas GOP Rep. Chip Roy’s office pointed to the congressman’s pointed February comments towards Fuentes after two of his colleagues spoke at an event the young purported antisemite hosted.
"Nick Fuentes is an a--hole." Roy said. The congressman added he was "frustrated by colleagues who have chosen to associate in this situation."
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie blasted Trump over the meeting, as did Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, who said it was "very troubling" the former president had dinner with "avowed racist."
"You could have accidental meetings. Things like that happen. This was not an accidental meeting. It was a set-up dinner with Kanye," Hutchinson said. "You have to disavow it. It is as simple as that."
"This is just another example of an awful lack of judgment from Donald Trump," Christie said.
Antisemitism watchdogs and other Jewish groups have also weighed in on the controversy with Liora Rez, executive director of grassroots watchdog StopAntiSemitism, took aim at the Republican silence on the dinner.
"Ignoring antisemitism when convenient is abhorrent; it must always be exposed, condemned, and prevented regardless of political allegiance," Rez said.
"The deafening silence emanating from GOP leaders regarding former President Trump’s meeting with two antisemites, Nick Fuentes and Kanye West, is frightening," she continued. "Why are leading Republicans silent now, when they previously loudly condemned antisemitic rhetoric yielded by Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib?"
Rez said that "Kanye West is currently one of three finalists in StopAntisemitism’s ‘Antisemite of the Year’ vote" and that thousands "of Americans have already cast their vote, and the dishonorable winner will be announced on December 11th."
"We are determined to hold these antisemites accountable and to prompt consequences for their dangerous behavior," Rez added. "Politicians on both sides of the aisle should do the same without hesitation."
The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) condemned both Fuentes and West in a statement.
"We strongly condemn the virulent antisemitism of Kanye West and Nick Fuentes and call on all political leaders to reject their messages of hate and refuse to meet with them," the RJC said.