Rep. Paul Gosar is facing a complaint over a link in his weekly House newsletter that led readers to online content that identified U. S. officials as “Jewish warmongers” in a headline in the latest example of Arizona Republican associating with fringe right-wing extremists.
Gossar’s bulletin did not come with the word “Jew” and was not cited as such in the article, despite this title.
This is not the first time Gosar has been accused of having links to fringe extremists, or his defense has called a controversy the result of a mistake. A year ago, he had to distance himself from a prominent white nationalist political commentator after sending a welcome video used at a white nationalist event, calling it a staff error.
Similarly, this time, a representative of Gosar’s crusade said that it was a mistake to include such an article in the bulletin and that Gosar is a staunch supporter of Israel and other people of the Jewish faith.
The liberal online website Media Matters for America was the first to report the link and related headline on the online page Veterans Today, noting that the Feb. 26 report first made the impression on Sputnik, a Russian state-controlled news agency.
Media Matters criticized a link in Gosar’s newsletter to Veterans Today because, despite its innocent name, the site hosted anti-Semitic content. Media Matters referred to a now-deleted 2015 article that claimed the Holocaust was a “false flag” operation as evidence. of the anti-Semitism of the site.
Campaign rep. Rory McShane said Gosar’s workplace uses a third-party aggregation service to collect press clippings. He said the service “completely ignores the nature of this post” and the name of the article.
The Washington Post and Politico wrote about Russian agents Veterans Today to spread incorrect information to American service members.
For subscribers: This is how Biggs, Gosar and other Republican representatives in Congress are Biden
McShane said it was unclear whether the name of the original article was replaced after copying the newsletter link, but that the headline had been an apparent red flag not to include it in the communication.
Gosar’s bulletin did not include the word “Jewish warmongers. “Gosar was not interviewed for the Veterans Today or Sputnik article. The reprinted article was necessarily reported by compiling tweets from the congressman and others.
“We need to call the media here that gives the impression that the congressman said that, when that’s not what the article claims,” McShan said.
“The congressman has a long history as a defender of the State of Israel and a defender of other people of the Jewish faith,” he said.
Gosar’s sends a weekly email on Sundays. Sometimes it’s a long message, adding Gosar’s mind about the political issues of the day, positive and negative letters from voters, to which he responds, and internet clippings mentioning Gosar.
Sometimes the note is short, as at Easter, when it is a concise Christian message that acknowledges the feast.
On April 16, the story began with a photo of a headline in azcentral. com for a story about President Joe Biden signing one of Gosar’s bills, along with a photo of the president.
COVID-19 Emergency Declaration: Biden Signs Gosar Bill Ending COVID Emergency
After a summary of the issue, which ended the COVID-19 emergency declaration, the newsletter included a lengthy discussion about proposals to ban the TikTok app.
He then discussed an investigation through Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, into tech companies and elections, followed by a nearly 30-paragraph discussion of Gosar’s prospects for the U. S. to move on to the U. S. UU. no dedicate resources to help Ukraine.
This segment included accusations that Ukraine is subsidized through neo-Nazi militias. This has nuances, because Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish. Russian invasion.
Gosar said the prominence of neo-Nazis in Ukraine provides the United States with an explanation for why to cut off support.
“I will never help the Nazis and I condemn our country’s aid and the army’s aid to the Nazis. And honestly, it’s hard to say that in 2023,” Gosar said in the note.
Then, after some messages from the electorate with a brief comment from Gosar and a “tweet of the week” from another lawmaker and a photo of the recent snowfall in Arizona, the poll contained a list of 10 “read by read. “”Stories referencing Gosar, the fifth of which is a link to the debatable Veterans Today story.
In the newsletter, the article “Veterans Today: Congressman Gosar: Warmongers Nuland”.
The story focused on Gosar’s court cases over the personal foreign policy tastes of Victoria Nuland, assistant secretary of state for political affairs, and Antony Blinken, U. S. secretary of state.
But other people who clicked on the link saw another name on this website.
“Congressman: Jewish warmongers Nuland and Blinken ‘are harmful fools who can get us all killed,'” reads the headline of the Veterans Today article. But nowhere did he quote Gosar commenting on the devoted association of Nuland or Blinken, and history does not mention him anywhere in the title.
The original Sputnik story also used the word “Jew. “
Contact reporter Ryan Randazzo at ryan. randazzo@arizonarepublic. com or 602-444-4331. Follow him on Twitter @UtilityReporter.
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