Rep. Paul Gosar has a neo-Nazi on staff
Hunter for Daily Kos
Daily Kos Staff
Monday May 15, 2023 · 10:19 AM PDT
Talking Points Memo appears to have quite the scoop, reporting that they've identified a "relatively prominent" pseudonymous booster of the neo-Nazi "Groyper" movement as a staffer for scandal-plagued House Republican Rep. Paul Gosar.
An "extensive digital trail of interconnected Groyper social media pages" has been "linked to" Wade Searle, Gosar's digital director. The news won't come as a terrible surprise to anyone familiar with the House Republicans’ many, many past dalliances with white supremacy and neo-Nazi support, but the revelation that one of his top staffers has a double life as an enthusiastic supporter of the neo-Nazi movement does a lot to explain the constant nods to neo-Nazism in Gosar's campaigns and public statements.
It's no wonder Gosar has his finger on the pulse of the movement: He's got a staffer on the inside.
TPM's scoop is well worth a read, if only for the quote from an unsurprised researcher noting "I didn’t think that Gosar was a Zoomer Groyper shitposter by himself," but you'll need a strong stomach. In his online persona of "ChickenRight" and similar pseudonyms, Gosar's staffer Searle expresses vigorous support for neo-Nazi leader Nick Fuentes and his "America First" movement. ChickenRight himself has more than 20,000 followers on far-right sites for his own "extremist, anti-Semitic, racist, and anti-vaccine" posts, reports TPM; that's certainly a consequential following inside the violent far right.
After one tirade in which Fuentes asked for "undying allegiance" to his movement, asking viewers to raise their hand and swear to "defend the white race, my nation America, and my savior Jesus Christ, and my loyalty to the America First movement" and a subsequent outburst of racial slurs, the online account linked to Searle responded with "You are our voice!" and a $150 donation.
TPM also has evidence that Searle's ties to Fuentes and "America First" go beyond mere online statements of support: During a 2020 "Stop the Steal" rally attempting to overturn presidential challenger Joe Biden's Arizona victory, Searle and another man can be seen holding up a large "America First" flag to act as background for Fuentes as Fuentes gives a speech.
There's really no possible argument that a man seen holding up the flag of a violent white supremacist group during a speech by the leader of that white supremacist group might not be a supporter of the group. Gosar's staffer has been caught dead to rights on that one.
It's also important to emphasize that Fuentes is one of the most consequential far-right extremist leaders in America. He's a vitriolic white supremacist and Holocaust denier who is the ideological leader of a large chunk of America's violent far right. He's also an unabashed supporter of Russian leader Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Fuentes frequently displays the Russian flag and "Z" symbol of the invading Russian army on his screen as he rants to his violence-promoting incel base.
What makes this story perhaps more important than it seems at first is that it appears to suggest the links between Gosar's office and Fuentes' America First movement are closer than anyone suspected, possibly including ongoing coordination between the two camps. After he was pompously reinstated in his congressional duties after being censured by the House in 2021 for an animated so-called joke video that showed him attacking colleague Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and President Joe Biden with a sword, Gosar was already deeply suspected of coordination with the violent neo-Nazi group and other fascist movements.
In the February after the violent Jan. 6 insurrection attempt, which Gosar himself is suspected of aiding, Gosar received national attention when he keynoted Fuentes’ America First Political Action Committee conference.
After attempting to pass off that initial endorsement of the white supremacist group as an error by staffers, by June he was holding another fundraiser for Fuentes during Fuentes' "White Boy Summer" road trip. Gosar made a video appearance speaking to America First PAC's in February 2022 as well.
In April 2021, Gosar and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene even went so far as to form an "America First" caucus for House Republicans, only abandoning it after the idea of an "Anglo-Saxon" congressional caucus proved so toxic that they sheepishly dropped the idea.
There's really no question that Gosar is a backer and promoter of the white supremacist group. Searle, who joined Gosar's office in November 2021, may be the first member of Gosar's staff to have a proven connection to Fuentes' group itself and is almost assuredly the one with the most consequential, if pseudonymous, following among the extremist far right.
There's no evidence to suggest, however, that Searle is Gosar's only staff conduit to the violent far right. Searle was hired well after Gosar had already publicly committed himself to support for Fuentes' America First group, and well after Gosar had already begun to distinguish himself with bizarre violent-right dogwhistles that only people connected to the far right could dream up or understand.
That suggests that Searle isn't the only member of Gosar's staff to have ties to the very bowels of the extremist right. Gosar is, by his own family's acknowledgement, not necessarily a clever man. It's difficult to imagine he himself would know such deep incel movement and neo-Nazi movement references if he didn't have staffers to lead him to it and, of course, use his accounts to post the far-right memes themselves.
