Maine Congressional Candidate Promotes Event with White Nationalist Michelle Malkin

Adrienne Bennett, a Republican Congressional Candidate running to represent ME-02, and former press secretary to Maine’s former Republican Governor, Paul LePage, promoted a University of Maine College Republicans event featuring white nationalist Michelle Malkin. The following day, Bennett introduced Malkin at the event, which her campaign’s Facebook page livestreamed, celebrating Malkin for “proudly defending out culture.” Also in attendance was Waterville Mayor and Vice Chair of the Maine Republicans, Nick Isgro.

At the January 17, 2020 event, (minute 1:01:00 in the livestream), Malkin stated “I don’t have dual loyalty, I have one loyalty,” a nod to the antisemitic notion that American Jews are not full citizens and instead have dual loyalty to the United States and Israel. The audience, including Bennett, applauded in response to this statement. Malkin went on to advocate for assimilation, and asserted that the United States was founded as a Christian country.

Towards the end of her speech (1:32:50), Malkin claimed that “Soros-keyboard monkey types” are “paid to find ugly pictures of conservative patriots.” This racist statement evokes the antisemitic and racist conspiracy theory that Jews are paying people of color to organize against white Christians.

The event in question was the source of controversy back in November 2019, when the UMaine College Republicans first invited Malkin to speak on campus. Their faculty advisor stepped down in protest of the group’s willingness to align with Malkin.