Former Vice President Mike Pence said Monday that former President Donald Trump should “apologize” for hosting white nationalist Nick Fuentes and Kanye “Ye” West at Mar-a-Lago.
NewsNation host Leland Vittert questioned Pence on whether hosting a dinner with West and Fuentes, a Holocaust denier and labeled a white supremacist by the Department of Justice (DOJ), would disqualify from him running for re-election in 2024. West came under fire for anti-semitism after stating that he was “going death [sic] con” on Jewish people in an Oct. 9 tweet.
“Of course there is Leland and let me say this, anti-semitism is a real issue in the world today and there’s a rising tide of anti-semitism in many countries around the world,” Pence said. “When I was in Congress I co-founded the anti-semitism caucus as I write about in the book with the only Holocaust survivor ever to serve in Congress, a Democrat, the late Tom Lantos and as I said in another forum in Chicago earlier today, President Trump was wrong to give a white nationalist, an anti-semite and a Holocaust denier a seat at the table and I think he should apologize for it and he should denounce those individuals and their hateful rhetoric, without qualification.”
The former vice president said he does not “believe” Trump is anti-semitic or bigoted, pointing to his daughter, Ivanka, who converted to Judaism upon marrying Jared Kushner. Their children, Trump’s grandchildren, are all part of the Jewish faith.
“I think the president demonstrated profoundly poor judgement in giving those those individuals a seat at the table and as I said, I think he should apologize for it, he should denounce them without qualification,” he continued. “Look, anti-semitism is a very real issue. We saw anti-semitic violence during the Trump-Pence years. We saw the Tree of Life synagogue come under fire and other synagogues around the country.” (RELATED: Don Lemon, Former Trump Official Spar Over Trump’s Meeting With Nick Fuentes)
“We have to make it very clear, we believe in religious liberty and every American of every political background should speak without hesitation to denounce the message and the language of anti-semitism, white nationalism and we’ll always do that,” he concluded.
After the dinner, Trump said he “knew nothing about” Fuentes when he arrived at Mar-a-Lago. Early reports claimed that Fuentes was with West on Trump’s property that day, but did not attend the dinner with rapper and former president. Fuentes reportedly told Trump that he appeared scripted during his 2024 presidential candidacy announcement.