Multiple Republican candidates for Congress this fall are facing backlash over recent interviews with Stew Peters, a podcaster who has called Judaism "a death cult," said Black people are genetically prone to crime and "God hates" gay people, while calling for the hanging of Anthony Fauci, promoting the QAnon and "pizzagate" conspiracy theories and arguing the Earth is actually flat.
Peters, who has praised Nazi book burnings and suggested Hitler may have been unfairly maligned, recently sat down for an interview with Arizona Republican state Sen. Anthony Kern in the state Senate's broadcast studio. That decision that led the Legislature to ban Kern from using its broadcast equipment. Kern, who is running in a crowded GOP primary to represent Arizona's 8th Congressional District, did not get Trump's endorsement, but he was indicted for acting as a fake elector in 2020 and has boasted about his ties to Trump.
Meantime, Mark Burns, a Trump-endorsed pastor running in the GOP primary for South Carolina’s 3rd Congressional District, also appeared on Peters’ show this week. In his interview, Burns condemned transgender people as an “evil from the gates of hell” and said a recent House bill that targets antisemitism may be a sign that the Antichrist is coming.
These aren't isolated incidents. A recent New York Times article about pro-Israel Republicans using antisemitic rhetoric noted that multiple Republicans have appeared on Peters' show in recent years, including former Texas Reps. Louie Gohmert and Pete Sessions and Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar.
It's not just Peters, either. Commentator Candace Owens remains popular among conservatives despite making claims such as “secret Jewish gangs” are terrorizing Hollywood. And Elon Musk just welcomed back onto X (formerly Twitter) Nick Fuentes, who has said that Jews aren't "part of Western civilization," jokes that the Holocaust didn't happen and talks about fighting "Jewish control" and "Jewish power."
Republican lawmakers are currently trying to paint liberals as being overly friendly with antisemites. Perhaps they should look a little more closely at who people on their side are getting friendly with.