Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., tweeted a white nationalist group’s motto on Sunday following his keynote speech at the same group’s event last week. The tweet, captioned “#AmericaFirst,” appears to picture a meme of a sex worker bending down toward a man sitting in his car.
“$50 WHATEVER YOU WANT BABY,” she says.
“CAN YOU … TELL EVERYONE AMERICA FIRST IS INEVITABLE,” the man replies.
#AmericaFirst pic.twitter.com/cZRqzEcFSB
— Paul Gosar (@DrPaulGosar) March 7, 2021
The tweet comes just a week after Gosar attended the America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC) at the request of Holocaust denier and open racist Nick Fuentes, the event’s organizer. “America First is inevitable” is the motto of the white nationalist group “America First,” which Fuentes heads.
Gosar delivered a twenty-minute speech at the event, declaring that “white people are done being bullied.” Gosar also emphasized that America needs to empower its “white demographic core.”
The following day, Fuentes tweeted a picture of himself at a restaurant with the Congressman smiling. “Great meeting today with Congressman Gosar!” he wrote. “America is truly uncancelled.”
Rep. Paul Gosar, after speaking at AFPAC on Friday night, and then saying he denounces “white racism” at CPAC on Saturday morning, is now meeting with white nationalist and Unite the Right attendee Nick Fuentes with a CPAC lanyard around his neck. pic.twitter.com/Dv0XIEqtaJ
— Zachary Petrizzo (@ZTPetrizzo) February 27, 2021
Gosar initially made a half-hearted attempt to distance himself from Fuentes after AFPAC amid outrage that he’d allowed Fuentes to cozy up to him, condemning “white racism.”
He said, “There is a group of young people that are becoming part of the election process and becoming a bigger force,” he said. “So why not take that energy and listen to what they’ve got to say?” Sunday’s tweet appears entirely unrepentant, however, with Gosar ostensibly doubling down on racist extremism.
Fuentes is one of the most well-known white nationalist organizers in the U.S. His followers refer to themselves as “groypers,” a nod to their memetic mascot, Pepe the Frog. Fuentes’ “Groyper Army” played an outsized role in the Jan.6 Capitol riot, some of whom have since been arrested. Despite there being video evidence of Fuentes rallying his followers to breach the Capitol, however, Fuentes has not yet been detained. Fuentes also attended the “Unite the Right” Charlottesville rally in 2017.
Gosar’s tweet was met with a mixture of disapproval and confusion from his Congressional allies, as well as users on Twitter.
“This [is] a tweet from a sitting Member of Congress,” retweeted Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.
Paul, I say this as your friend and former colleague: You need to retire from Congress. Please don’t run for re-election. https://t.co/x4r5WAUY9S
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) March 9, 2021
Anti-Trump Republican PAC The Lincoln Project replied with a picture of Oprah Winfrey looking away in disgust with her hands up.
Gosar, 62, is a former dentist and was elected to the House of Representatives in 2010. He rose to the national spotlight when six of his nine siblings decried his re-election, citing his extremist tendencies.
