Tag: Paul Gosar

Paul Gosar was a beloved dentist. Now he’s a MAGA congressman. His former patients need a spit bowl.

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Coreen Anderson didn’t want to see the dentist.

She hadn’t had her teeth cleaned for the better part of a decade, and was “super fearful” of the experience. But there was a guy in town who came highly recommended, and she decided to go see him.

Sure enough, the dentist took fantastic care of her. “He was amazing, just amazing,” said Anderson, who works as a nurse in Flagstaff, Ariz. “He was so kind, and gentle. And not at all judgmental about how I hadn’t been to a dentist in so long. He was just like, ‘Well, you’re here now, it’s going to be okay.’ ” Continue reading.

Far-Right Extremist Finds an Ally in an Arizona Congressman

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Representative Paul Gosar’s association with the white nationalist Nick Fuentes is the most vivid example of the Republican Party’s growing acceptance of extremism.

WASHINGTON — Nick Fuentes, the leader of a white nationalist group, was bemoaning the political persecution he said he was facing from the federal government when he paused during a recent livestream to praise one of his few defenders.

“There is some hope, maybe, for America First in Congress,” Mr. Fuentes said, referring to the name of his movement, a group that aims to preserve white, Christian identity and culture. “And that is thanks to — almost exclusively — to Representative Paul Gosar.”

Mr. Gosar, a five-term Republican and dentist from Prescott, Ariz., emerged this year as a vociferous backer of the “Stop the Steal” movement that falsely claimed that former President Donald J. Trump won the 2020 election and spearheaded the rally in Washington on Jan. 6 that led to the deadly Capitol riot. Continue reading.

Rep. Gosar denies knowledge of fundraiser with group that promotes white-nationalist ideas despite invitation for the event

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Rep. Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.) on Tuesday denied that he plans to attend a fundraiser this week with a group that promotes white nationalist ideas, despite an invitation for the event circulating online that features the congressman and Nick Fuentes, a far-right operative who leads America First.

Gosar has previously attended events with Fuentes and appeared to defend the fundraiser in a tweet Monday night when he wrote: “Not sure why anyone is freaking out. I’ll say this: there are millions of Gen Z, Y and X conservatives. They believe in America First. They will not agree 100% on every issue. No group does. We will not let the left dictate our strategy, alliances and efforts. Ignore the left.”

But on Tuesday Gosar denied any knowledge of the fundraiser when asked about the invitation featuring a photo of him with Fuentes. Continue reading.

Gosar is the Republican that Democrats want to avoid

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Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) is finding that Democrats who once worked with him on bipartisan bills no longer want to touch them with a 10-foot pole if he’s involved. 

Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) last week removed himself as a co-sponsor from a bill authored by Gosar that would crack down on illegal foreign donations to political campaigns.

A California Democrat, Rep. Mike Levin, said he informed Gosar that it would be “detrimental” to the chances of a public lands bill becoming law if his name were on it, even though they introduced it together in the last session of Congress.  Continue reading.

Republicans race for distance from ‘America First Caucus’

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Republicans from various factions in the GOP are racing to distance themselves — and the party at large — from a band of hard-line House conservatives whose flirtation with forming a caucus espousing white nationalist views has ignited a firestorm of controversy on Capitol Hill.

GOP leaders, anti-Trump centrists and vulnerable Republicans in battleground districts wasted little time in recent days denouncing the “America First Caucus,” whose stated purpose in a platform document included the defense of America as a nation “strengthened by a common respect for uniquely Anglo-Saxon political traditions.”

While the Republicans reportedly behind the group — including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) and Paul Gosar (Ariz.) — appear to have abandoned the project in the face of bipartisan criticism, their very interest has created an enormous headache for Republican leaders seeking to steer the party away from an image of racial insensitivity and appeal to a broader swath of voters, including women and minorities, in the post-Trump era. Continue reading.

Kevin McCarthy argued GOP is the party of Abraham Lincoln, not racism. It did not go well

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After four years of a Republican President who worked almost daily to spread or lend support to racism, white nationalism, or white supremacism – including having top advisors inside the White House who embraced those ideologies – House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy is having a hard time tamping down the Pandora’s Box of hate Donald Trump unleashed.

McCarthy has refused to take a strong stand against the most dangerous members of his caucus, trying to allow the extremist Congressmen and Congresswomen to actively lie, disrupt House business, and spread hate on a daily basis. Because they are raising millions.

In response to Republican white supremacist members of Congress Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona announcing they are forming the “America First Caucus,” McCarthy tried to stand up to those radicals, as Forbes notes, via tweet. Continue reading.

Rep. Paul Gosar Tweets White Nationalist Group’s Motto

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After speaking at a white nationalist “America First” conference recently, the Arizona congressman appears to be doubling down on his support of the group.

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) posted on Twitter the motto of a white nationalist group on Sunday, a little over a week after delivering the keynote address at the group’s conference in Florida. 

“#AmericaFirst,” Gosar tweeted above a meme showing a cartoon of what appears to be a sex worker leaning into a man’s car and saying, “$50 WHATEVER YOU WANT BABY.” 

The man sitting in the car replies: “CAN YOU … TELL EVERYONE AMERICA FIRST IS INEVITABLE.”  Continue reading.

Why are no Republicans condemning Rep. Paul Gosar for cozying up to white nationalists?

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Opinion: Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar spoke at a white nationalist conference and the condemnation from the Republican Party is … non-existent.

Arizona’s most shocking story today isn’t the fact that an Arizona congressman spoke at a white nationalist conference on Friday night.

It isn’t that he then posed for pictures with the event organizer, a guy who lamented the loss of the country’s “white demographic core” and proclaimed the events leading up to the Jan. 6 riot at the nation’s Capitol as “awesome.”

It’s the silence pouring forth from the Arizona Republican Party that is absolutely stunning. Continue reading.

A ‘Stop the Steal’ organizer, now banned by Twitter, said three GOP lawmakers helped plan his D.C. rally

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Weeks before a mob of President Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, right-wing activist Ali Alexander told his followers he was planning something big for Jan. 6.

Alexander, who organized the “Stop the Steal” movement, said he hatched the plan — coinciding with Congress’s vote to certify the electoral college votes — alongside three GOP lawmakers: Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Mo Brooks (Ala.) and Paul A. Gosar (Ariz.), all hard-line Trump supporters.

“We four schemed up of putting maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting,” Alexander said in a since-deleted video on Periscope highlighted by the Project on Government Oversight, an investigative nonprofit. The plan, he said, was to “change the hearts and the minds of Republicans who were in that body, hearing our loud roar from outside.” Continue reading.

These members are self-quarantining after being exposed to coronavirus patients

Lawmakers interacted with people later diagnosed with coronavirus

At least six members of Congress have said they interacted with individuals who tested positive for coronavirus and many have vowed to stay away from Capitol Hill temporarily.

Republican Reps. Doug Collins of Georgia and Matt Gaetz of Florida, as well as California Democrat Julia Brownley, announced Monday they were self-quarantining. Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said in separate statements Sunday they would also self-quarantine after interacting with a person who later tested positive for COVID-19.

Gaetz, Collins, Gosar and Cruz said they were exposed to a coronavirus patient at the Conservative Political Action Conference, which typically attracts thousands of conservatives and was held Feb. 26-29 at National Harbor in Maryland. Continue reading.