New York’s newly elected Republican members of Congress are refusing to criticize former President Donald Trump for meeting with notorious white supremacist Nick Fuentes.
Rep.-elect Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), who won national notoriety for knocking off heavyweight Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), slammed Fuentes and even referred to the controversial dinner that Trump hosted at Mar-a-Lago with rapper Kanye West.
But he didn’t mention the former president by name.
“Nick Fuentes and his views are repulsive,” Lawler tweeted. “The scourges of white supremacy and antisemitism have no place in our society — let alone a seat at the table.”
Rep.-elect Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.), who won a seat on Long Island’s East End, used remarkably similar language to tiptoe around Trump’s involvement.
“Nick Fuentes has proven to be a garbage person with ignorant views which run counter to America’s core,” LaLota tweeted. “He should be given no quarter in our party nor at any serious meeting table.”
Lawler led a remarkable string of victories for Republicans in the New York City area in the midterm elections.
The GOP flipped two Democratic-held seats on Long Island along with one in Westchester, one in the Hudson Valley and another in the Syracuse area.
The wins, along with another flip in the New Jersey suburbs, effectively handed Republicans narrow control of the House of Representatives after an otherwise underwhelming performance in the rest of the country.
But the newcomers have not openly criticized Trump, who remains the most popular GOP leader and recently announced his comeback 2024 presidential campaign.
Some Republican senators called Trump out by name, including Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).
But most Republicans, including potential White House rival Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) refused to comment. Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), who ran a strong losing race for governor, has not said anything about the meeting.
House Republicans stuck to the party line script of blaming only Fuentes, a notorious racist and Holocaust denier, or West, who recently made anti-Semitic remarks.
Rep.-elect Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.), who scored a huge upset to win a seat on the South Shore of Long Island that President Biden won by nearly 10% in 2020, called Fuentes “disgusting.”
“The abhorrent agenda advanced by Nick Fuentes has no place in the Republican Party or in American society,” D’Esposito said.
Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) denounced Fuentes as a “s–m bag” without mentioning Trump.
“No one should be dealing with him,” Garbarino said.
