Rep. Gosar (R-AZ) Tells Jewish Organization to "Get Bent"
The night of the 2020 Florida primary race, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) congratulated extremist Laura Loomer on her win, and attacked the progressive Jewish organization, Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, as well as Jewish donor George Soros.
Laura Loomer is a racist, Islamophobic, xenophobic, and antisemitic conspiracy theorist who has called for the deaths of refugees, called Islam a “cancer on humanity,” and said Jews “control the banks...and the media” and “dominate Hollywood.”
When Bend the Arc pointed to Loomer’s history of extremism in a tweet calling out Reps. Gosar and Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Gosar responded, writing: “Laura is a fighter for truth. Her victory is well deserved. Bend the Arc and its Soros money can get bent.”
Gaetz also attempted to respond to criticism for his support of Loomer, invoking the extremist’s Jewishness as flimsy ‘proof’ that supporting her couldn’t be antisemitic:
Alexander Soros is the chair of Bend the Arc’s board. His father, George Soros, is regularly demonized by the political right, with his name invoked as a stand-in for Jewish liberal wealth the way “the Rothschilds” once were (and in some cases, still are).
Gosar’s attack on August 18 was far from his only time embracing hateful rhetoric: In 2018, Gosar traveled to London to speak at a rally for Tommy Robinson, founder of an anti-Muslim hate group. At the event, Gosar claimed that a “scourge” of Muslim men were responsible for sex trafficking and child abuse in Britain. In 2019, journalists revealed that Gosar followed multiple Twitter accounts publishing racist and white nationalist content. One of the accounts he followed had used racist slurs to describe Black people, while another featured the number 88 — a number white supremacists use to signify “Heil Hitler” — in its profile.
Gosar’s history of antisemitism is lengthy, from his endorsement of congressional candidate who associate with Nazis and other far-right extremists, to spending Independence Day posing for photos with members of a violent hate group.