Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) slammed GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) and Paul Gosar (Ariz.) for speaking at a far-right conference on Friday.
Greene spoke at the America First Political Action Conference in person, while Gosar spoke by video link. The conference was founded by Nick Fuentes, who the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) calls as a “white supremacist.”
“There’s no place in either political party for this white nationalism or racism. It’s simply wrong,” Romney told CNN. “Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar—I don’t know them. But I’m reminded of that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid movie where one character says ‘Morons. I have morons on my team.’ And I have to think anybody that would sit down with white nationalists and speak at their conference was certainly missing a few IQ points.”
“I am not going to play the guilt by association game in which you demand every conservative should justify anything ever said by anyone they’ve ever shared a room with,” Greene told Newsweek in a statement on Sunday. “I’m not going to be drawn into that. I’m only responsible for what I say. So ask me about my speech. I talked about God and Liberty.”
On Saturday Greene tried to distance herself from Fuentes, telling CBS News: “I don’t know what his views are, so I’m not aligned with anything that may be controversial. I went to his event last night to address his very large following because that is a young, very young, following and a generation I am extremely concerned about.”
