RNC Day Three: Speakers Bring Revisionist History of WWII, and QAnon-Affiliations to the Stage
Day Two of the Republican National Convention continued the prior days’ themes. The most notable incidents of antisemitism and white nationalism are detailed below:
Burgess Owens, Republican Congressional Candidate for UT-04
In his speech on day three of the RNC, Owens — who in May 2020 appeared on The Common Sense Show, a QAnon-affiliated program that promotes antisemitic conspiracy theories — claimed “Mobs torch our cities while popular members of Congress promote the same socialism my father fought against in World War II.”
The United States did not fight socialism during WWII; the United States fought the Nazis, who were right-wing fascists — and who also targeted and murdered socialists and other political dissidents. Owens’ comment is one of many from Republican politicians seeking to revise history and redefine Nazism so they can apply it as a label under which to lump their opposition: the Democratic party, socialism, and anti-fascists. The flimsy rationale relies on the full name of the Nazi Party, The National Socialist German Workers Party. The name itself was largely the byproduct of the party’s need to appeal to Germany’s working class; their struggles, and importantly, their resentments.
Owens’ blatantly inaccurate claim is part of an ongoing effort to re-cast contemporary Democratic Socialists — the most famous of whom is Jewish Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) — as the modern-day equivalent of the Nazis, rather than the right-wing movements and political party that have increasingly embraced white nationalism and antisemitic conspiracy theories.
Jack Brewers, Black Voices for Trump
Brewers also attempted to re-write history, arguing that Trump didn’t say the neo-Nazis and white supremacists who marched in Charlottesville for Unite the Right in 2017 were “very fine people.”
Brewer said: "Are you going to allow the media to lie to you by falsely claiming that he said there were 'very fine white supremacists' in Charlottesville? He didn't say that, it's a lie." A CNN fact-check pointed out the following day that, while Trump did not say the phrase, “very fine white supremacists,” he was specifically using that phrase to describe the August 11, 2017 march. This was the infamous tiki torch march, during which hoards of white supremacists and neo-Nazis chanted Nazi slogans like “blood and soil” and “Jews will not replace us.”
Trump’s defenders like Brewers point to Trump’s statement, "I'm not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists, because they should be condemned totally,” to claim that he did condemn white supremacists. That argument is hard to accept taking Trump’s next sentence: “But you had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists, okay? And the press has treated them absolutely unfairly." There were no people participating in the August 11 march who were not neo-Nazis, white nationalists, or white supremacists. Calling some of these marchers were “very fine people” is unavoidably labeling neo-Nazis, white nationalists, and white supremacists “very fine people.” Efforts to deny this erase the degree to which Trump has endorsed and embraced antisemitic and white supremacist movements.
Vice President Mike Pence
In the middle of his lengthy speech on the second night of the RNC, Pence referenced an Oakland police officer who had been recently killed by an extremist connected to the far-right and predominantly white supremacist Boogaloo Boys movement. Pence’s description of the killing, however, falsely implied that it had taken place in the midst of a Black Lives Matter protest: “Dave Patrick Underwood, an officer in the Department of Homeland Security’s federal protective service, who was shot and killed during the riots in Oakland, California,” said Pence.
The Trump administration, Republican Party, and their allies in right-wing media regularly seek to downplay the degree to which movements that support them engage in violence, instead trying to claim that the majority of violent attacks, particularly antisemitic attacks, come from the Left. This is categorically false.
Richard Grenell, Former Acting Director of National Intelligence
Grenell, who served in the Trump administration first as U.S. Ambassador to Germany, and then in a brief stint as Acting Director of National Intelligence, emphasized and praised Donald Trump’s identity as a nationalist in his RNC speech: “The D.C. crowd think when they call Donald Trump a nationalist, they're insulting him.”
Trump declared himself a nationalist two weeks before the 2018 midterm elections and just days before the deadliest antisemitic shooting in U.S. history at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. The statement raised eyebrows at the time, due to the unspoken link between the word “nationalist” and the white nationalist movement. Trump and Grenell, as well as others who have used the word, continue to claim it simple means “somebody that loves our country.” The word “patriot” could embody that description as well; the decision to use “nationalist” is a way to signal support for the violent far-right movement. Trump knows this: When he first identified himself as such, he added “we’re not supposed to use that word.” Two years later, it became moniker for the entire party to unabashedly celebrate at the RNC.
Lara Trump, Trump 2020 Campaign Advisor
In July of 2020, Lara Trump participated in a live video chat with Gavin Wax, white nationalist sympathizer and the Chair of the Association of Young Republican Clubs, the same day that Wax gave an interview to the white supremacist hate site, VDARE. On August 26 of the same year, she spoke at the RNC.
Clarence Henderson, Conservative Civil Rights Activist
Burgess was not the only speaker on the third day of the RNC with a history of associating with QAnon supporters. In 2019, Henderson appeared on Patriot Soapbox, one of the most prominent podcasts and YouTube channels in the antisemitic QAnon conspiracy theorist network.
Madison Cawthorn, Republican Congressional Candidate for NC-11
In since-deleted Instagram posts, Cawthorn posed for pictures in front of the Eagle’s Nest in Berchtesgaden, Germany, Hitler’s notorious vacation home. Cawthorn wrote in his caption that the vacation spot of “the “Fuhrer” ”did not disappoint.” In campaign videos, he posed in front of the Betsy Ross flag, which has also been appropriated by white nationalist groups. He spoke on day three of the RNC.
Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX)
Crenshaw, who was exposed during his 2018 congressional race as a Facebook Administrator for a far-right group that regularly posted white nationalist conspiracy theories, was a speaker on day three of the RNC.
Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY)
Zeldin, who kicked off his 2018 reelection campaign with Sebastian Gorka as his headliner, spoke on day three of the RNC.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)
Blackburn, who subtly bolstered antisemitic conspiracies that claimed the Impeachment proceedings were run by a Jewish cabal of lawyers and politicians, spoke on day three of the RNC.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY)
In 2019, Stefanik atttended a fundraiser and posed for pictures with Islamophobic and antisemitic conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, who, on August 18, 2020, became the Republican nominee in the race for U.S. Congress representing FL-21. Stefanik later said she didn’t know who Loomer was, but did nothing to speak out against the white supremacist candidate as she ran in and won the Republican primary election.