Holocaust-denier California congressional candidate loses GOP support
The wide spectrum of Fitzgerald's antisemitic and anti-Israel jargon consists of diminishing the historical significance of the Holocaust and condemning the Israeli government's involvement in 9/11.
By JONATHAN WEBER ROSENUpdated: JULY 9, 2018 00:37The state flag of California flies on a flag pole in San Diego, California, U.S., October 6, 2017.(photo credit: REUTERS/MIKE BLAKE)
John Fitzgerald, Republican candidate for California’s eleventh congressional district, received almost one quarter of the votes in the state’s primary election in July, only to lose the support of the Republican Party for his antisemitic rhetoric.The wide spectrum of Fitzgerald’s antisemitic and anti-Israel statements includes diminishing the historical significance of the Holocaust, and claiming that the Israeli government was involved in the 9/11 attacks.“The Germans had no death camps in WWII, only work camps like the Brits had in the early 1900s,” Fitzgerald published on his Twitter account.In an interview with The New York Times, Fitzgerald said that he is running as a Holocaust denier, claiming that the Holocaust was a “complete fabrication.”A Twitter user with the handle Paul Goldstein released a string of critical posts against Fitzgerald’s policies, calling him a “threat to liberty, Medicare and social security,” and said that he had relatives who were murdered by the Nazis in the Second World War.Fitzgerald responded by asking if the critic’s relatives “weren’t killed as a result of Allied bombings?” In reaction to such incidents, the California Republican Party removed its support for Fitzgerald.“Tonight, the California Republican Party’s Board of Directors took swift and decisive action to eliminate any support for John Fitzgerald due to antisemitic comments he made recently. Those views have no home in the Republican Party,” an official statement said. “We reject John Fitzgerald’s campaign and encourage all voters to do the same.”The executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, responding to the Republican Party’s rejection, said: “We absolutely and unequivocally condemn John Fitzgerald and his campaign for Congress. His antisemitic views have no place in our political system, and especially not in our Republican Party.”“Fitzgerald clearly has no grasp of the facts when it comes to the Jewish people, Israel and our nation’s relationship with the only democracy in the Middle East – and history in general,” the official statement concluded.Earlier this year, neo-Nazi Senate candidate Patrick Little was also removed from California’s Republican Party.
