Republican senators are lining up to oppose one of President Donald Trump’s nominees who reportedly said in a leaked group chat that Martin Luther King Jr. Day should be “tossed into the seventh circle of hell,” and that he has “a Nazi streak.”
Paul Ingrassia, an attorney nominated by Trump to lead the Office of Special Counsel, allegedly made these and other racist comments in leaked group chat messages obtained by Politico. Ingrassia is scheduled to appear Thursday in a confirmation hearing with the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, but his confirmation, which requires simple majority approval from the Senate, seems to be doomed.
Republican Sen. James Lankford told reporters Monday night that Ingrassia should withdraw.
“I have tons of questions for him when he comes on Thursday, but I can’t imagine supporting that,” Lankford said.
Lankford said he had already spoken to Ingrassia in his office previously, but “if he comes to the hearing, I want to be able to ask him questions point-blank.”
Other Republicans have voiced their opposition as well. Sen. Rick Scott of Florida told Semafor that he does not “plan on voting for” Ingrassia.
“I’m not supporting him,” said Scott in an interview with Politico on Monday. “I can’t imagine how anybody can be antisemitic in this country. It’s wrong.”
And Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said that he is not supporting the nomination and that he thinks Trump should pull the nomination entirely.
“I think you know why,” Johnson told reporters.
Ingrassia’s leaked group chats are just the latest in a string of Nazi-related incidents affecting Republican politics this month. Last week, another series of group chat messages leaked to Politico reportedly captured a number of local and state leaders in GOP-affiliated Young Republican groups using hundreds of racial slurs and homophobic insults, as well as jokes about Nazis, gas chambers and rape. “I love Hitler,” one professed. “I’m ready to watch people burn now,” another replied.
Rep. Dave Taylor also blamed a coordinated “ruse” that targeted several GOP offices on Capitol Hill for an incident in which an American flag emblazoned with the Nazi swastika was spotted in his office.
“New details have emerged from a coordinated investigation into the vile symbol that appeared in my office,” Taylor said in a statement last week. “Numerous Republican offices have confirmed that they were targeted by an unidentified group or individual who distributed American flags bearing a similar symbol, which were initially indistinguishable from an ordinary American flag to the naked eye. My office was among those that were subjected to this ruse.”
Hill staffers later confirmed to multiple outlets that the flags were distributed but disputed that the symbol was “indistinguishable” from a regular American flag.
“It was plainly obvious to us that there was a swastika on the flag with the naked eye,” one GOP staffer told Politico, adding that the flag delivered to their office was thrown away immediately, “like we would hate mail.”