- Rep.
Paul Gosar is being promoted as a 'featured guest' at awhite nationalist event in Arizona. - The event, hosted by American Populist Union, is scheduled for April 20 — Hitler's birthday.
Rep. Paul Gosar is being promoted as a guest at an upcoming white nationalist event scheduled for Adolf Hitler's birthday — a venerated date among neo-Nazis and alt-right devotees — according to a ticket website for the gathering.
The Arizona Republican is being heralded as a "featured guest" at the upcoming American Populist Social, hosted by the ultra-conservative political group American Populist Union in Tempe, Arizona, later this month.
The nonprofit has ties to a group of white nationalists known as groypers, according to The Arizona Mirror. Per the Anti-Defamation League, "
Fuentes is known for promoting racist and antisemitic views, and the ADL has called the 23-year-old Fuentes a "well-known white supremacist pundit and organizer."
American Populist Union, according to its website, champions Christian and family values, an "America first" mentality, and protectionism.
Gosar's office did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
The announcement of Gosar's expected appearance at the event, which was first reported by The Arizona Mirror, comes just days after the conservative lawmaker finally addressed his participation in a right-wing event held in Florida in February called the America First Political Action Conference, which was founded by Fuentes.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia also spoke at the gathering, prompting House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to decry Gosar and Greene's association with the group as "appalling" and unacceptable," though the Republican leader declined to take any punitive action against his members.
Following the outcry, Gosar blamed his participation in the event, via a pre-recorded welcome message, on a staff error. The lawmaker said his staffer "misconstrued" directions from his chief of staff and claimed the tape was intended to go to another conservative gathering. Gosar also denounced Fuentes, saying he was done with the organizer.
Fuentes later claimed in a livestream that he and Gosar would continue to "collaborate behind the scenes."
The Mirror reported that the American Populist Union has ties to Fuentes both in ideology and through many of its young members.
The April 20 event is also set to feature
Insider reached out to American Populist Union requesting comment on whether or not the group chose the date of the event to correspond with Hitler's birthday.