White House weighs in on Fuentes meet
The White House on Monday joined some Republicans in criticising former US President Donald Trump for dining with white supremacist Nick Fuentes, saying there is no place in America for “vile forces” such as racism, bigotry and anti-semitism.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters she would not comment on every move by Mr Trump, who this month said he would run for president again, but it was critical to condemn such behaviour in “really absolute terms.”
“There is just no place for these types of vile forces in our society,” she told reporters. “When you say things like this, when you do not speak out against these kinds of poisonous and dangerous kind of remarks ... that is also incredibly dangerous within itself.”
Mr Trump has said the encounter at his Mar-A-Lago resort in Florida was inadvertent, but it drew rare criticism from fellow Republicans, including Arkansas Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson, who accused Mr Trump of empowering extremism.
Mr Trump earlier this month said he plans to seek the Republican nomination to run for the White House again in 2024, though he could face challengers to that bid, including from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his former vice president Mike Pence. “Trump was wrong to give a white nationalist, an antisemite and a Holocaust denier a seat at the table, and I think he should apologise,” Mr Pence said on Monday.
Mr Fuentes was described as a white supremacist by the Justice Department and he attended the Jan 6, 2021, rally that preceded the attack on the Capitol. The Anti-Defamation League said he once compared Jews burnt in concentration camps to cookies in an oven.