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CNN
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Despite disavowing white nationalism last spring when one of his supporters endorsed him, a candidate for the US House of Representatives in Washington subsequently gave a previously undisclosed interview in June to a Nazi sympathizer and white nationalist.
While Republican Joe Kent was touting his support for prominent far-right figures like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Green and Paul Gosar and supporting MAGA policies, he was talking to Grayson Arnold, a Nazi sympathizer.
Kent’s exchange with Arnold is all the more remarkable because just weeks later, Kent’s campaign worked to distance him from Arnold after photos surfaced of the pair together. A Kent campaign strategist told The Associated Press in July that the campaign did not run background checks on those who took selfies with the candidate.
Arnold has a well-documented history of white nationalist, racist, anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi statements, including once calling Adolf Hitler “a complex historical figure that many people misunderstand.”
In a statement to CNN, campaign spokesman Matt Brainard said, “Joe Kent had no idea who this person was when he met him on the street, and Joe Kent has repeatedly condemned the statements the person is accused of making.”
Brainard added that the campaign screens all interview requests and that Arnold approached Kent on the street through what he assumed was a local journalist. “None of the questions gave Joe any indication that the person had any racist or anti-Semitic views, and if he had, Joe would have canceled the interview immediately,” Brainard said.
The campaign said Arnold “is in no way part of our campaign, nor would we allow our campaign to be associated with someone who has such a background.” We also have no record of any contribution from this person and if we had received one we would have returned it.
Kent, a former Green Beret and Gold Star spouse endorsed by former President Donald Trump, is running in this summer’s primary against Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump in 2021.
In August, Kent advanced to the November general election against Democrat Marie Glusenkamp Perez in the state’s primary after edging out Beutler, who finished third. Inside Elections recently rebranded the race as more competitive, moving it from “Safe Republican” to “Likely Republican.”
In a since-suspended Twitter account and active Telegram channel called “Pure Politics,” Grayson, or “American Grayson,” as he calls himself, shared posts that calls Nazi men “the pure race” and that the US should have sided with the Nazis during World War II. Arnold falsely claimed that there were “Jewish plans for the genocide of the German people,” and in a post he shared a quote that said “Jewish-led colored hordes on Earth” were trying to exterminate white people.
Arnold was pictured in multiple photos with Kent at an April fundraiser and campaigning for Republican candidates with the Washington State Young Republicans, with one recent photo showing Arnold in a Joe Kent T-shirt, according to photos on their public Instagram.
Speaking to Arnold, Kent praised Gosar’s stance on illegal and legal immigration in a friendly five-minute interview.
“Paul Gosar was excellent, obviously immigration – border state down there. He took me to the border so I felt firsthand all the crises we face there,” Kent said. “Representative Gosar also has great legislation that he proposed to eliminate much of legal immigration.”
Arnold was at the Capitol during the riot on January 6, 2021, posting a video of himself leaving the front steps of the building, saying they had been “kicked out by the Communists,” calling the riot “an American baptism,” as he put it. that the police used tear gas. There is no indication he entered the building and he has not been charged with a crime.
Although Kent has tried to steer his campaign rhetoric toward the center — including removing calls for a 2020 election ruling from his website sometime between June and July — his campaign has been mired in associations with white nationalists and extremists, whom Kent has repeatedly had to distance himself from.
Back in March 2022. Kent disavowed Nick Fuentes, a 24-year-old far-right white nationalist, after Fuentes endorsed Kent in the primary. Fuentes is the architect of America’s First Political Action Conference, an annual white nationalist conference that this year received strong backlash after Gosar appeared at the event and Green visited.
At the time, Kent said he was not familiar with Fuentes, despite a brief conversation with him in the spring of 2021 about the candidate’s social media strategy. In April 2021 Kent tweeted in defense of Fuentes after being banned from Twitter.
“Many are glad their political opponents are targeting state & big tech, they hate Trump, @NickJFuentes & MAGA. This short-sighted thinking has led to some of the greatest tragedies in human history. We must fight for all speech and fight against the merger of government and big tech.”
He later said he stood by his comments but reiterated that he did not want Fuentes’ support because of Fuentes’ “focus on race/religion.”
Kent’s website also includes an endorsement from Arizona state Sen. Wendy Rogers, who was censured by the Republican-controlled Arizona Senate after giving a speech at a white nationalist conference calling for public hangings.
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