Republican criticism of Trump builds after his dinner with a white supremacist
Republicans in Congress criticized Donald Trump and denounced antisemitism after the former president dined with white supremacist Nick Fuentes and rapper Ye.
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump is embroiled in another controversy, and this time some Republicans on Capitol Hill are less willing to defend him.
After he dined with the notorious white supremacist Nick Fuentes and the rapper Ye, who has come under fire for antisemitic remarks, Trump faces growing denunciations from Republican senators, including some nominal allies who rarely — if ever — criticize him or his actions.
In interviews when the Senate returned from Thanksgiving recess Monday, the reactions from Senate Republicans ranged from aghast disbelief to calls to shake up Trump's team of advisers to a sense of vindication among his staunchest critics within the party. There was little desire to ignore or brush off the incident, as most GOP lawmakers typically do when Trump stokes controversy, and scant indication that any of them wanted to defend a former president of their party.
“Ridiculous. That’s all I have to say about that,” said Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, a member of Senate Republican leadership. “I have no idea what’s going on. But again, it is really ridiculous that he would do that.”
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., also searched for the right word to describe the dinner meeting. Like Ernst, she, too, landed on “ridiculous.”
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