The Texas GOP has a critical antisemitism drawback

By Robert Downen
The Texas Tribune

Confronted with ongoing scandals this month involving his allies’ ties to antisemitic extremists, the chief of the Republican Social gathering of Texas has come out strongly—to assault different conservatives who’ve criticized his buddies.

For 3 weeks, Texas GOP Chair Matt Rinaldi has been defiant within the face of calls from members of his personal occasion to chop ties with Defend Texas Liberty chief Jonathan Stickland, who lately hosted avowed white supremacist Nick Fuentes at his workplace for almost seven hours. And he’s gone after those that’ve been vital of Defend Texas Liberty, a political motion committee that’s funded by two of the Texas GOP’s most prolific donors.

Individually, Rinaldi is on the middle of a parallel controversy involving a gaggle for younger conservatives that he lately embraced regardless of warnings about its leaders’ brazenly antisemitic views and ties to white nationalist figures.

[Nick Fuentes is just the latest white supremacist embraced by Defend Texas Liberty]

For some Republicans, the twin scandals have raised critical questions concerning the occasion’s willingness to denounce racists — and its chief’s proximity to those that embrace them.

“He has put his buddies’ pursuits above what’s in one of the best curiosity of the occasion,” stated Mark McCaig, an lawyer and chair of the Texas Republican Initiative. “He’s extra involved about defending them and their gang.”

To make certain, Rinaldi was fast to distance himself from Fuentes. The Texas Tribune noticed Rinaldi earlier this month on the workplace constructing the place Fuentes, an Adolf Hitler admirer who has referred to as for a “holy battle” towards Jews and inspired his followers to beat women, was being hosted by Stickland.

Requested concerning the Oct. 6 assembly, Rinaldi informed the Tribune that he had no thought Fuentes was inside and would by no means meet with him. As for Stickland? Rinaldi stated he would wait till extra information got here out earlier than commenting on his longtime political kin.

“I’m not going to make assumptions based mostly on what I am informed by a reporter,” he stated on Oct. 8.

Since then, neither Rinaldi nor the Republican Social gathering of Texas has commented on Stickland, at the same time as different main figures — together with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Kyle Rittenhouse — have issued statements that confirmed the Tribune’s reporting. Nor has Rinaldi responded to issues from fellow Republicans and a few occasion government committee members who’ve referred to as for a break with Defend Texas Liberty, which has donated $257,000 to the occasion since 2021.

As an alternative, Rinaldi has reserved his ire for Home Speaker Dade Phelan, accusing the Beaumont Republican of politicizing antisemitism earlier than demanding his resignation. Phelan has additionally demanded Rinaldi step down because the occasion’s chief and provides cash the Texas GOP acquired from Defend Texas Liberty to pro-Israel charities.

Since information of the Fuentes assembly broke, Rinaldi has posted or amplified assaults on Phelan or the Texas Home on X, previously Twitter, greater than 40 occasions. He has not, nonetheless, publicly criticized Stickland or Defend Texas Liberty in any respect — at the same time as new info continues to emerge about their shut ties to white supremacists.

[Here’s who gets money from Defend Texas Liberty, the PAC whose leader met with white supremacist Nick Fuentes]

On Monday, the Tribune reported that, in simply the final month, a minimum of 5 present and former Fuentes associates have labored with teams which might be carefully tied to Stickland, Rinaldi and Defend Texas Liberty. That features True Texas Undertaking, whose leaders have sympathized with the racist gunman who murdered 22 folks at an El Paso WalMart in 2019, and who’re set to host Rinaldi for a fundraiser and softball recreation this weekend.

On Wednesday, the Texas Observer reported {that a} swastika-clad neo-Nazi who was noticed handing out antisemitic flyers in Fort Value this month had beforehand interned for Luke Macias, a longtime GOP advisor and Rinaldi ally who simply changed Stickland as president of Defend Texas Liberty, in line with the group’s web site.

And this week, the Tribune reported that the president of Texans For Sturdy Borders, Chris Russo, has for years been a distinguished determine in Fuentes’ racist motion, and has continued to publish on nameless, hate-filled social media accounts as his group —with assist from Rinaldi and Defend Texas Liberty — has emerged as an influential voice that’s pushed lawmakers to crack down on authorized and unlawful immigration.

Rinaldi and the Texas GOP didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark for this story.

‘An ethical obligation’

The controversies come amid an internecine struggle between the state’s far proper and the Texas GOP’s extra reasonable, however nonetheless deeply conservative, wing. That strife has exploded into all-out battle for the reason that impeachment and acquittal of Legal professional Basic Ken Paxton, a Rinaldi ally who has acquired almost $4.65 million from West Texas oil billionaires Tim Dunn and Farris and Dan and Farris Wilks. These billionaires additionally fund Defend Texas Liberty and, earlier than that, bankrolled Rinaldi’s profession within the Texas Home.

Defend Texas Liberty has been one of the vital necessary gamers within the state occasion’s ongoing civil battle. Marketing campaign finance information present that, since 2021, it has given almost $15 million to right-wing actions and candidates. The group made headlines this summer time after giving $3 million to Patrick, months earlier than he presided over Paxton’s impeachment trial. Defend Texas Liberty additionally gave $3.6 million to Don Huffines, a former state senator who helped push Gov. Greg Abbott to the suitable by attacking him on immigration and different points throughout final yr’s Republican main.

In the meantime, the Texas GOP’s far proper has continued to embrace teams and people that others have warned are a bridge too far. Fuentes was the best-known of these excessive figures; however his go to and the following controversy had been punctuated by a separate-but-related, scandal involving the occasion and white supremacists.

That ordeal dates again to August, when the 66-year-old Texas Younger Republican Federation voted to finish its partnership with the Texas GOP till Rinaldi — who the group accused of initiating a “smear marketing campaign” and partnering with far-right figures to undermine their newly-elected management — was faraway from his place.

Issues escalated final month, when Rinaldi pushed for the Texas GOP to convey a newly-formed spinoff group into the occasion regardless of warnings that its leaders included avowed white nationalists.

The warnings proved to be proper: Days after the Tribune first reported on Fuentes’ go to with Stickland, an impartial journalist reported that leaders of the brand new younger Republicans group had praised Hitler on-line, and printed images of a few of its leaders outdoors of an occasion for Fuentes’ vitriolically antisemitic “groyper” motion.

“There was a time in my life once I hated Nick Fuentes and his white supremacy views,” one of many group’s leaders, Rylie Rae, reportedly wrote on social media final yr. “Now I acknowledge that he is likely one of the smartest folks in our nation and we’d like white nationalism. Oh how the tides have turned.”

Responding to the controversy, the brand new group’s management stated in a press release that it “condemns bigotry in all types” and had eliminated the people in query.

However earlier than that, different younger Republicans stated they made clear to Rinaldi and the leaders of the brand new group that they had been in mattress with extremists. These issues had been rebuffed, a transfer that one individual stated is emblematic of a broader drawback and energy wrestle that has allowed extremists to flourish in Republican circles.

“There’s a tendency among the many populist proper to primarily say, ‘It doesn’t matter how terrible the individual is, so long as they’re on our facet,’“ stated Matt Wiltshire, finance director for the Younger Republican Nationwide Federation. “We consider that we’ve got a ethical and moral obligation to be uncompromising in our stance that there’s proper and there may be unsuitable.”

A kind of eliminated was Konner Earnest, who led the group’s Parker County chapter and in addition lately grew to become concerned with the European American Neighborhood, a white nationalist group that argues American citizenship ought to be based mostly on European ancestry.

Earnest has different ties to Rinaldi and Defend Texas Liberty: He was noticed outdoors the Fuentes assembly with Stickland, and has appeared in movies for Russo’s Texans For Sturdy Borders, which has acquired appreciable monetary assist from Defend Texas Liberty. Earnest has additionally written anti-immigration articles for Texas Scorecard, a distinguished right-wing media web site that’s financed by Defend Texas Liberty’s billionaire funders.

Rinaldi doesn’t seem to have launched any public assertion or made any touch upon social media concerning the younger Republicans scandal.

In the meantime, the Texas GOP’s government committee stays at an deadlock over how to reply to the occasion’s ongoing white supremacist drawback.

Final week, after Stickland was quietly eliminated as Defend Texas Liberty’s president, roughly one-third of the manager committee’s 64 members, together with Vice Chair Dana Myers, signed a letter saying that the occasion had a “ethical obligation to talk boldly, publicly, and clearly on this matter” and demand a proof for the Fuentes assembly.

“Fuentes’ views and Stickland’s ways are abhorrent and completely antithetical to the ideas of the Republican Social gathering of Texas and to the conservatives who’ve trusted [Defend Texas Liberty] for the reason for liberty and patriotism,” they wrote. “Whether or not this was attributable to a lapse in judgment, acutely aware disregard, poor management, or a defective ethical compass –– Stickland and [Defend Texas Liberty] should in the end settle for duty.”

The members additionally referred to as on the Texas GOP — in addition to its donors — to chop all ties with Defend Texas Liberty and the myriad teams it funds till Stickland is “eliminated and disassociated from [Defend Texas Liberty] and its benefactor organizations and a full accounting of the assembly is offered.”

Since then, the occasion’s disagreements have continued to escalate in public view, as Rinaldi and his allies stay largely silent on the scandal. Two weeks in the past — and after a Tribune reporter reached out to greater than a dozen members of the occasion’s government committee concerning Defend Texas Liberty — the Texas GOP eliminated contact info for government committee members from its web site.

The Texas GOP didn’t reply to a request for touch upon the transfer, which has been publicly blasted as an try and maintain members from being contacted by the general public.

“You don’t stand for ‘we the folks’ except they’ve entry to you,” stated Cat Parks, a former government committee member and vice chair of the Texas GOP. “It’s not like controversy didn’t occur throughout my tenure.”

For now, it’s unclear what comes subsequent for the Texas GOP and its relationship with Defend Texas Liberty, which launched a two-sentence assertion saying it opposes Fuentes’ “incendiary” views however has but to offer some other particulars on the assembly. Stickland might now not be main the group, however his removing is probably going beauty on condition that he additionally owns Pale Horse Methods, a consulting agency that’s used closely by Defend Texas Liberty-funded teams and candidates.

Members of the occasion’s government committee have stated as a lot this week, and reiterated their requires the occasion to talk out towards Defend Texas Liberty and Stickland.

The Texas GOP “should resign [Defend Texas Liberty] till a full clarification of the Fuentes assembly is offered, these accountable are held accountable and there’s new fully new management (not simply the identical gamers swapping job titles),” government committee member Rolando Garcia wrote this week on social media.

“Don’t excuse the inexcusable simply to spite your political enemies,” he added.

This text initially appeared in The Texas Tribune.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and interesting Texans on state politics and coverage. Study extra at texastribune.org.

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