Rep. Matt Gaetz Invited Holocaust Denying White Supremacist Chuck C. Johnson (Who Is NOT ME) to the SOTU
In the seemingly interminable Age of the Trump-Thing, Republican politicians have apparently lost all compunctions about associating with known Holocaust deniers and white supremacists, and the latest example of this ugly trend is reported by the Daily Beast: Florida (Congress)Man Invited Infamous Troll Chuck Johnson to Trump’s State of The Union.
Gaetz said that he and Johnson did not discuss the Nunes memo and didn’t interact much at the event at all. Asked if he planned to stay in touch, Gaetz replied: “He has my number.”
Johnson offered a different explanation of how the evening came together. Initially, he said he and Gaetz were introduced by another member of Congress, whom he declined to name. In a separate conversation with The Daily Beast, however, Johnson said that he was invited by several members of Congress but “took Gaetz’s invitation” as “he’s into stuff on the issues that I care about.”
Asked about Gaetz’s differing account, Johnson said, “I’ll go with whatever version Gaetz says because I’m not a gangster rapper.”
The issues that drew him to the congressman, Johnson said, included “weed and bitcoin and Trump and animal welfare.” He said he also likes Gaetz because he has “that fuck you mindset.”
For some reason, Daily Beast reporters Lachlan Markay and Gideon Resnick refrain from pointing out Johnson’s white supremacism or his Holocaust denial, or the fact that he identified himself as a “fascist” in a recent “Ask Me Anything” session on Reddit.
From Politico, we learn that the Capitol Police have Chuck C. Johnson’s name on a list, and flagged him when they learned Gaetz had invited him.
“I had no idea who he was,” Gaetz said Wednesday, disavowing some of the racist views attributed to Johnson, which the congressman said he learned of after they met earlier this week.
But even after Gaetz found out just how controversial Johnson was — the Capitol Police had flagged the name and called Gaetz to inquire about Johnson in a mysterious unrelated matter — the first-term congressman decided not to pull his ticket to President Trump’s speech.
Johnson is probably on the Capitol Police’s watch list because in 2015 he stalked GOP Speaker John Boehner and tried to crash one of his fundraisers, but was detained, questioned and thrown out.
