WATCH: GOP Congressman Blames George Soros For Charlottesville
Rep. Paul Gosar (guess which party!) says the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, was all George Soros's fault. Also Nazis. Or something.
It would be one thing if Paul Gosar was a YouTube commenter, spewing nonsense about George Soros being a former mission-critical Nazi sympathizer (Soros was 14 when the war ended) and insisting that Soros funded the White Supremacist rally that resulted in the death of a counter-protestor.
But this is a sitting congressman, folks. Elected to office. By the people of Arizona's 4th Congressional District (88.6% White and R+21, you betcha!).
And The Hill reports that yesterday he
...doubled down on his conspiracy theory that Democratic mega-donor George Soros could have been involved in organizing an August white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., saying "proof will be coming."
"Maybe [the rally] was created by the left," Gosar said, pointing to Charlottesville rally organizer Jason Kessler, who once was "an Obama sympathizer."
"You know George Soros is one of those people that actually helps back these individuals. Who is he? I think he’s from Hungary. I think he was Jewish. And I think he turned in his own people to the Nazis," Gosar continues. "Better be careful where we go with those."
Gosar reportedly gets a lot of his "ideas" from right-wing Arizona radio.
Gosar's seven siblings are not amused, They wrote a scathing letter to the editor denouncing their own brother and demanding he apologize:
Cue his siblings, Joan, Dave, Tim, Grace, Gaston, Pete and Jennifer Gosar:
“Our parents are 87 and 83 and we would be outraged if some sleaze did to them what Paul shamelessly did to Mr. Soros. First, Paul confabulated horrendous lies about Soros as a young boy who survived the Holocaust and followed it with invented notions that Soros was behind the Charlottesville Nazis. Paul’s deceit was uttered without a shred of evidence.
“Those aren’t our family values or the values of the small Wyoming town we grew up in. Character assassination wasn’t revered. Lies and distortions do reveal much about the character of the congressman of Arizona’s 4th congressional district, however.
“Paul had no problem going completely out of his way to malign Mr. Soros on Vice, so we can’t imagine anything less than a complete retraction and genuine apology. A press release, inadequate. One of those phony apologies that begins with, 'If someone was offended by my “statements' ...” won’t do either.
"It is extremely upsetting to have to call you out on this, Paul, but you’ve forced our hand with your deceit and anti-semitic dog whistle. We look forward to your apology on Vice."
Once Trump and Bannon are through "cleaning out" the Republican Congress, far right conspiracy theorists like Paul Gosar are all the GOP will have left.