WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 27: Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) speaks during a news conference outside the U.S. Department of Justice on July 27, 2021 in Washington, DC. A group of far-right conservatives held a news conference to demand answers from Attorney General Merrick Garland on the status of prisoners being held in connection with the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Arizona) pushed back on Sunday against claims that he promoted an antisemitic group while arguing in a newsletter against further U.S. aid to Ukraine.
“it’s not possible to read every article on every website we link to,” said Gosar’s newsletter this week. ”I have a solid record supporting Christians and Jews and other faiths.”
Gosar’s original April 10 newsletter referenced a neo-Nazi website that praised him, linking to an article with the headline: “Congressman: Jewish warmongers [Victoria] Nuland & [Antony] Blinken ‘Are Dangerous Fools Who Can Get Us All Killed.’” The website’s headline was omitted in the final draft of the newsletter.
Ironically, the letter included his attempt to frame his opposition to aiding Ukraine as an anti-Nazi position, claiming that “$100 billion of your tax money is going to help Nazis… I will never support Nazis and I condemn our country’s support and military aid to Nazis.”
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Gosar is referencing the Azov Battalion—a neo-Nazi Ukrainian nationalist group that was incorporated into the Ukrainian military in 2014 when pro-European Union and pro-Western forces overthrew the Russian-backed Ukrainian administration of President Viktor Yanukovych. Gosar referenced this event in his newsletter as an Obama State Department-backed “coup.”
The Azov Battalion’s influence over the Ukrainian government is greatly exaggerated by Russian President Vladimir Putin and pro-Russian outlets. Gosar’s newsletter did not mention the Wagner Group—a Russian far-right paramilitary organization with neo-Nazi sympathies that is also fighting in Ukraine.
Gosar has spoken in recent years at the America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC) which was founded by far-right Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes. He has also claimed that the 2017 Charlottesville rally may have been organized by Jewish billionaire George Soros, and that the FBI raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate resembled actions of the “brown shirts” who helped Adolf Hitler rise to power in the 1930s.
Gosar represents a faction of the far-right that has parted ways in recent years with the Republican Party’s neoconservatives and has sought to become more isolationist and promote what they market as “America First” policies.
Former President Donald Trump has leaned into this position as well, attempting to contrast himself with President Joe Biden and the Democrats who staunchly support the continuation of aid to Ukraine.
Trump has recently stated that he believes Russia will ultimately win the war, and that he will push to negotiate a peace deal in Ukraine on his first day in office if reelected in 2024.
The war is widely considered to be at a stalemate, with both Russians and Ukrainians deeply entrenched in defensive trench positions in Eastern Ukraine.
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