Gosar gets cozy with hate group member

In late June, Rep. Paul Gosar, Arizona’s most notable congressional kook and shill for Donald Trump, said in a tweet prior to a visit here by the president, “The economy is coming back. The pandemic is waning. Border wall is getting done — more everyday.”

Waning.

Even then it was a ridiculous statement.

At that time there were 58,000 cases of COVID-19 in Arizona and just under 1,400 deaths.

Not even three weeks later those awful numbers have risen to 101,441 cases of COVID-19 and 1,810 known deaths.

Waning.

It’s those kinds of purposefully ignorant, callously disrespectful (of the dead) assertions that make Gosar a favorite of right-wing fringe elements like those he was caught cozying up to in Prescott during the Fourth of July.

The fringe was the mainstream in parts of the old state capitol that day.

Former Prescott Mayor Jack D. Wilson took a photograph of a vehicle sporting a “White Pride Worldwide” flag not too far from downtown Prescott and the Courthouse Square.

Gosar, in town for the festivities, posed for a photo or two with some of the locals.

NBC’s Vaughn Hillyard tweeted the photo of Gosar in which Nick Martin, creator of The Informant (a mainstay newsletter for those looking to stay knowledgeable on the activities of extremists in America) noted a familiar face.

Martin tweeted: Here’s Congressman Paul Gosar posing for a photo with what appears to be a member of the Proud Boys, a known hate group. As a bonus, the man on the far left of the photo is wearing a T-shirt for the Oath Keepers, an anti-government extremist organization.

This sent Gosar into a Twitter tizzy aimed at Martin, which only served to increase circulation of his newsletter.

Gosar, mimicking Trump’s slur against the media, called Martin “an enemy of the people.”

Hate groups are fine, I guess. Supremacists. Racists. Whatever.

But not journalists.

After writing about this online, one of Gosar’s supporters sent me an email reading in part, “Gosar is our guy. Will be in congress as long as he wants. Go find a tissue to cry in. Do you think being in a photo with a goof will hurt him?”

I do not, that being Gosar’s constituency. It’s also just that kind of thinking that has gotten Gosar an endorsement from Trump, who tweeted not long ago:

Congressman @DrPaulGosar is a tremendous supporter of our #MAGA agenda! He is Strong on the Wall, Law Enforcement and the Second Amend