Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) on Dec. 7, 2021. Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

By Jacob Kornbluh April 17, 2023

Rep. Paul Gosar, a far-right Arizona Republican with longtime ties to white nationalists and pro-Nazi activists, condemned the U.S. government’s support of Ukraine in the yearlong war with Russia, suggesting that the U.S. is aiding a Nazi regime. 

“$100 billion of your tax money is going to help Nazis,” Gosar wrote in his weekly newsletter published Sunday morning. “I will never support Nazis and I condemn our country’s support and military aid to Nazis.”  

Gosar linked to a January article posted on a conservative website, American Greatness, that claims “Ukraine is the world’s first openly Nazi state since 1945” and suggests that Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the country’s Jewish president, abandoned his faith and “mocks Jewish culture.” It echoes Russian President Vladimir Putin’s portraying of Ukraine as being aligned with Nazism. 

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“But Congressman, there can’t be Nazis in Ukraine, we defeated the Nazis in World War II?” Gosar wrote using a rhetorical question, attaching some pictures of the Azov Battalion, a neo-Nazi militia group that was incorporated into Ukraine’s National Guard fighting pro-Russian forces in the 2014 war, to make his point. Zelenskyy maintains that they are part of the Ukrainian army and are not involved with politics.

Gosar, who has associated himself with white nationalists and a pro-Nazi blogger, said “it’s difficult to believe” he has to denounce support for Nazis “in 2023.” 

In recent years, Gosar addressed the America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC) founded by Nick Fuentes, a right-wing provocateur and Holocaust denier. He engaged with local far-right Arizona figures, including appearing in photos with a person who has expressed admiration for Nazi Germany and promoted fringe conspiracies and antisemitic content. In 2017, Gosar claimed that the deadly neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, may have been organized by Jewish billionaire George Soros.

And it is not the first time the Republican congressman has drawn Nazi analogies to criticize the federal government. Last year, Gosar compared the FBI raid of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort to the actions of the “brown shirts,” the Nazi militia that helped Adolf Hitler rise to power in Germany.

In the newsletter, Gosar also included a link to a neo-Nazi website praising him, but omitted the antisemitic reference from the original headline that reads, “Congressman: Jewish warmongers Nuland & Blinken ‘Are Dangerous Fools Who Can Get Us All Killed.’”

This post was updated.

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