Republican state Sens. Wendy Rogers and Justine Wadsack appeared on a chat present this week whose hosts have trafficked in antisemitic content material.
The 2 senators appeared on CrossTalk Information on Monday, a web-based speak present hosted by Lauren Witzke and Edward Szall. Witzke and Szall had been each fired from a streaming TV community that additionally unfold antisemitic messaging. Rogers appeared twice on that community when Witzke was the host there.
Throughout their interviews, each
senators continued to contend that the 2020 and 2022 elections had been
“stolen” from Republican candidates Donald Trump and Kari Lake. Rogers, a
Republican elected from Flagstaff, additionally voiced her hope that Trump
would appoint her to his administration if he wins in 2024.
Wadsack, who represents a Tucson
district, appeared to endorse the racist “Nice Alternative” conspiracy
idea whereas defending payments she authored earlier this 12 months that might
have prohibited drag performances and permit dad and mom to ban any guide they
deem unfit from a faculty library.
“The LGBTQAI+ alphabet agenda is one
of essentially the most harmful as a result of, not solely is it coming for the youngsters,
but it surely’s additionally bastardizing simply the simplicity of what being a
gay particular person would possibly’ve been,” Wadsack mentioned whereas being interviewed
by Szall.
The brand new community which the duo
appeared on is run by Stew Peters, a widely known conspiracy theorist who
additionally has unfold antisemitic conspiracy theories, together with blaming
Jewish folks for the sinking of the Titanic. He is also a widely known purveyor of COVID-19 misinformation.
Witzke is intently tied to recognized antisemites and white nationalists, and took part in a white nationalist youth occasion in Arizona in 2022. She additionally usually seems on podcasts and exhibits hosted by white nationalists. Witzke has additionally appeared in movies on Peters channel selling antisemitic conspiracy theories equivalent to claiming that the Jewish folks had been behind 9/11.
Each Witzke and Szall have additionally
engaged in spreading hateful rhetoric round immigrants, claiming that
there’s a “struggle on whites,” and have pushed the racist “Nice Alternative” idea.
That concept, fashionable amongst white
supremacists and more and more being adopted by Republican politicians,
holds {that a} nefarious Jewish cabal helps unchecked immigration —
significantly from Latin America — to “exchange” white People. It has
been seized upon by extremist teams such because the American Identification Motion and Era Identification.
It has additionally stoked violence,
together with Anders Behring Breivik’s murderous rampage in 2011 at a
Norwegian youth summer time camp and the Tree of Life synagogue capturing
in Pittsburgh in 2018, the deadliest assault in opposition to the Jewish
group in United States historical past. Simply earlier than it occurred, the
killer took to right-wing social media website Gab to say he believed that
immigrants had been being introduced in to exchange and “kill our folks.”
The subsequent 12 months in New Zealand, 51
folks could be killed and 40 injured however not earlier than the shooter would
put up a 74-page manifesto titled “The Nice Alternative.”
Once more in 2019, a shooter who killed
23 folks at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, focused Latino buyers and
cited the New Zealand shooter’s manifesto in his personal, saying the mass
homicide was a response to the “hispanic invasion of Texas.” In 2022, a
shooter in Buffalo, New York, killed 10 folks, citing his perception within the Nice Alternative idea in his manifesto.
Each Wadsack and Rogers have made claims that some mass shootings had been “false flags,” with Rogers claiming the Buffalo capturing was one.
Wadsack boosted the interview on her
social media, retweeting Witzke. She additionally appeared to agree with host
Szall’s statements about immigration.
“It’s a substitute. They’re
changing us,” Wadsack mentioned about immigration into the USA,
claiming that Arizonans are paying “thousands and thousands” of {dollars} for well being care
for unlawful immigrants.
Rogers has interviewed with Witzke a number of instances when Witzke was working with TruNews.
TruNews has a historical past of antisemitic
rhetoric on the location, essentially the most notorious of which is a chunk during which the
founder, Rick Wiles, spent an hour and a half saying that “seditious Jews” had been “orchestrating” to question Trump.
Calling the Jewish folks “tyrants.” Wiles has additionally claimed that the anti-Christ can be a “gay Jew.” Rogers additionally appeared at white nationalist Nick Fuentes’ occasion, giving a speech during which she known as for the hanging of her political enemies.
The 2 Senators additionally unfold election
conspiracy theories whereas on the present, with each Senators claiming the
2022 Arizona gubernatorial election was fraudulent. There isn’t a proof
of widespread fraud within the 2022 Arizona Gubernatorial election or the
2020 Presidential election.
Wadsack and Rogers didn’t reply to
a request for remark about their participation in this system or their
beliefs relating to the Nice Alternative idea. Senate President Warren
Petersen and the Arizona Republican Social gathering equally didn’t reply to a
request for remark.
The Arizona Republican Social gathering in August named Wadsack, who in September voiced help for lengthy discredited conspiracies about 9/11, the “AZGOP’s Freshman Senator of the Yr.”