The Biden Administration is calling out twice-impeached former president Donald Trump days after he had a private dinner with Kanye West and white supremacist Nick Fuentes. Trump’s controversial dinner guests (who he welcomed to his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, FL last week) are two figures who have both made recent anti-semitic comments.
White House responds to Trump’s Fuentes dinner: “Bigotry, hate, and antisemitism have absolutely no place in America – including at Mar-A-Lago. Holocaust denial is repugnant and dangerous, and it must be forcefully condemned,” Andrew Bates said. https://t.co/nVQnJ9EmiE
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) November 26, 2022
Deputy White House Press Secretary Andrew Bates Denounces Trump’s Dinner With West & Fuentes
In a statement following Trump’s dinner, Deputy White House Press Secretary Andrew Bates said, “Bigotry, hate, and antisemitism have absolutely no place in America— including at Mar-A-Lago.” He added,”Holocaust denial is repugnant and dangerous, and it must be forcefully condemned.” President Biden, meanwhile, told reporters, “You don’t want to hear what I think” when asked about the dinner, according to CBS News.
The statement came just days after Trump, 76, dined with West, 45, and Fuentes, 24 at his club. Axios cited a source who said that “there was a lot of fawning back and forth” between Trump and Fuentes. Fuentes is an infamous livestreamer who has been deemed a “white supremacist” by the U.S. Justice Department, and he notably attended the white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. In February of 2020, YouTube permanently suspended his channel for violating the company’s hate speech policy, and he continues to promote Holocaust denialist comments and antisemitic views.
White House spokesman Andrew Bates on Trump’s dinner with white supremacist Nick Fuentes:
“Bigotry, hate, and antisemitism have absolutely no place in America – including at Mar-A-Lago. Holocaust denial is repugnant and dangerous, and it must be forcefully condemned.”
— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) November 26, 2022
West, meanwhile, has been facing backlash for the past month after making antisemitic remarks and allegedly subjecting his former Yeezy and Adidas employees to inappropriate workplace behavior and bullying. Following his antisemitic comments, the disgraced rapper and fashion designer has lost deals with several companies, including Adidas. Most recently, West (now legally known as Ye) appeared on right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars Network along with Fuentes, said he “likes” Adolf Hitler and even referred to himself as a “Nazi.”
Donald Trump and Kanye West have befriended Nick Fuentes, who promises “the most racist, sexist, Antisemitic, Holocaust-denying speech in all of Dallas this weekend.”
Tell me who your friends are, and I will tell you who you are.pic.twitter.com/VYbBoInPAt
— Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) November 25, 2022
Trump Claims He Knew ‘Nothing’ About Fuentes, Releases Statements After Dinner
Trump has issued several statements about the November 22nd dinner since it was first reported, saying that he somehow “knew nothing” about Fuentes, but he has still refused to denounce the white supremacist or his views. “This past week, Kanye West called me to have dinner at Mar-a-Lago. Shortly thereafter, he unexpectedly showed up with three of his friends, whom I knew nothing about,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on November 25th. “We had dinner on Tuesday evening with many members present on the back patio. The dinner was quick and uneventful. They then left for the airport.”
‘[Pres. Biden] totally rejects bigotry, racism, antisemitism. There is just no place for these types of vile forces in our society.’ — Here’s what the White House had to say about Donald Trump’s dinner with Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, and white supremacist Nick Fuentes pic.twitter.com/FywxmjV7Qu
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) November 29, 2022
Trump later revised his statement, but still didn’t repudiate Fuentes, writing on November 26th, “So I help a seriously troubled man, who just happens to be black, Ye (Kanye West), who has been decimated in his business and virtually everything else, and who has always been good to me, by allowing his request for a meeting at Mar-a-Lago, alone, so that I can give him very much needed ‘advice.'” Trump continued, adding, “He shows up with 3 people, two of which I didn’t know, the other a political person who I haven’t seen in years. I told him don’t run for office, a total waste of time, can’t win.”
