Breitbart is pulling its support from Paul Nehlen, the Wisconsin businessman challenging House Speaker Paul Ryan in the 2018 Republican congressional primaries, due to the right-winger’s recent anti-Semitic comments.
As Salon’s Matthew Sheffield reported more than a year ago, Nehlen has an extensive history of flirting with the overtly racist and anti-Semitic far-right fringe. Here is a list of some of Nehlen’s greatest “hits,” both pertaining to Jews and other oppressed minority groups.
There is exactly one candidate proving he's willing to fight for you.
Will you help fund the fight?
1. Build a wall.
2. Protect your lawful speech on social media platforms (FB, T, YT)Real America First Initiatives #ShallNotCensorhttps://t.co/ooGgsVIngs
— Paul Nehlen (@pnehlen) December 28, 2017
Nehlen = Still A Happy Warrior
Oh, and about that?
BoomerCucks are gonna Cuck. It's what they do.
Let it go.
— Paul Nehlen (@pnehlen) December 28, 2017
Where are you on the scale of love, indifferent to, or hate? I am asking the question for a few reasons:
1. I'm genuinely interested.
2. There are at least three positions, but the media narrative only offers two: love, hate
3. My position is America 1st— Paul Nehlen (@pnehlen) December 28, 2017
Nehlen: "Hey, American Jews, I'm not putting Israel first or compromising pro-White interests for yours, but I will make sure the Islamists who want to murder you (and annihilate Israel off the map) are deported back to their homelands. That's something, right?"
— Paul Nehlen (@pnehlen) December 27, 2017
Probably not based on past experiences…I'm expecting and prepared for a torrent of responses from people like Goldberg: "No. Fuck you, Hitler. Obviously this is WWII all over again."
— Paul Nehlen (@pnehlen) December 27, 2017
And then, this same group will try to keep the Islamists here, bring more in, stop the wall, stop deportations of illegals, promote rabid anti-Whiteness and degneracy, and destroy freedom of speech (except for themselves).
— Paul Nehlen (@pnehlen) December 27, 2017
Those last three tweets seem to capture the mindset that has gotten Nehlen in trouble with Breitbart — namely, his struggle to differentiate his “pro-White” views from outright anti-Semitism. Breitbart senior editor Joel Pollak recently tweeted that Breitbart no longer support Nehlen’s campaign.
“He’s gone off the deep end. We don’t support him. Haven’t covered him in months,” Pollak wrote.
In a text message to The Washington Post, Nehlen defended himself by asking a baffling rhetorical question: “If pro-White is White supremacy, what is pro-Jewish? I reject being called a White Supremacist, because clearly Pro-White isn’t White Supremacy unless Pro-Jewish is Jewish Supremacy.”
Nehlen has also used anti-Semitic symbols in his Twitter arguments, such as putting a parenthetical “bell” around the name of a Jewish pundit who had a public disagreement with him.
Just admit you are a (((bigot))) @aricohn and I'll pretend you didn't pretend you were white for the purposes of starting a race war w me. pic.twitter.com/huxsS0qcbw
— Paul Nehlen (@pnehlen) December 19, 2017
Yet Breitbart has a problematic background of its own when it comes to anti-Semitism. The website has been heavily criticized by the Anti-Defamation League for promoting alt-right ideas, with alt-right leader Richard Spencer even acknowledging, “Breitbart has elective affinities with the alt-right and the alt-right has clearly influenced Breitbart. In this way, Breitbart has acted as a ‘gateway’ to alt-right ideas and writers.”
Breitbart has also published stories with titles like “Bill Kristol: Republican Spoiler, Renegade Jew” and has used terms which are viewed as dogwhistles for anti-Semitism, like “corporatist” and “globalist.” Bannon’s ex-wife has also accused him of making anti-Semitic comments during their marriage (although those accusations have not been proved). By contrast, the site is also known for its staunchly pro-Israel views.
