Nassau County Legislators Josh Lafazan (D-Woodbury) and Arnold Drucker (D-Plainview) urged Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman to denounce former U.S. President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago dinner with rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, and white supremacist Nick Fuentes.
Fuentes, a Holocaust denier and outspoken antisemite attended the dinner which was initially planned to be between Trump and Ye, the former president said on his social media platform, Truth Social. Trump said “the dinner was quick and uneventful” and that Ye, whose antisemitic comments have circulated the news recently, arrived with three friends who he “knew nothing about.”
Lafazan and Drucker urged that Blakeman, the former liaison between Nassau County’s Republican Party and Trump who is also Jewish, denounce the meeting the former president had with the duo.
‘We implore you to immediately utilize your platform and stature as Nassau County’s first Jewish County Executive to denounce Trump’s destructive decisions and make clear that you reject his reckless emboldening of our society’s most poisonous and bigoted voices,” the legislators urged in the letter.
Immediate efforts to reach Blakeman for comment were unavailing.
Fuentes, a former YouTuber whose hateful rhetoric and antisemitic views led to his channel being permanently suspended, recently demanded that Jews leave the country and that the military be deployed into Black neighborhoods.
Trump claimed he had no prior knowledge of Fuentes, who claimed Trump “liked” him and said “He gets me,” according to a report from the New York Times.
Trump also said Ye had sought business advice from him and that he “expressed no antisemitism,” according to the Times.
Ye’s appearance on far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ show InfoWars featured a handful of antisemitic rhetoric, most notably, “I see good things about Hitler.”
Ye, who wore a face mask during the nearly 3-hour interview with Jones, also said, “I love Jewish people, but I also love Nazis.”
Ye, in October, tweeted that he is “going death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE,” a tweet which has since been deleted.
Drucker and Lafazan said a handful of prominent Republican Jewish officials have condemned the former president for hosting the event and that Blakeman should continue the trend.
“Your failure to date to denounce Trump’s despicable embrace of these individuals has been extremely disappointing,” the legislators wrote to Blakeman
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, bashed Ye for his comments on Twitter.
“Saying you “like Hitler,” “love the Nazis,” and spending all your time with a white supremacist makes one thing clear: Ye is a vicious antisemite,” Greenblatt tweeted last week. “His comments today on InfoWars are not just vile and offensive: they put Jews in danger.”
Matt Brooks, CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition told the Times, “We strongly condemn the virulent antisemitism of Kanye West and Nick Fuentes, and call on all political leaders to reject their messages of hate and refuse to meet with them.”
