NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) apparently thinks nothing of his gray, Nazi-style trench coat and Hitler Youth haircut.
A smiling Rosendale posed for a photo outside the US Capitol last week alongside two well-known white supremacists: Ryan Sanchez, a former member of the violent neo-Nazi street gang Rise Above Movement who dresses like a World War II German officer, and Greyson. Arnold, a pro-Nazi blogger.
“Just met Congressman @mattformontana, a real America First representative with a backbone,” Arnold wrote on Instagram. post.
Independent journalist Vishal Singh first drew attention to the photo by posting it on his own Instagram.
“This is not a right-wing activist,” Singh wrote in the caption. “These people support an active call for genocide against LGBTQ+, Black, and Jewish people in the United States. Why are Republicans meeting masked neo-Nazis?
Instagram: @american_greyson
Rosendale’s office told HuffPost that someone had approached the congressman when he returned to the House from a hearing on veterans’ affairs together, and neither he nor his staff knew that they were.
“I absolutely condemn and have no tolerance for hate groups, hate speech, and violence,” Rosendale said in an email statement. “I did not take meetings with these people – I was asked to take photos when I walked between hearings, as I wanted to all photo requests, and do not know the individual’s identity or affiliation with this unrelated hate group. contrary to my personal beliefs.”
This isn’t the first time Rosendale, a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump, has been rumored to run against Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) in 2024, was attacked for joining right-wing extremists. .
In 2014, he spoke at a Pro-gun Oath Keepers rally in Kalispell, Montana. Pictures from the event show Rosendale, then a state senator, standing at a microphone behind a large black and yellow Pledge of Allegiance banner. The anti-government militia group has a long history of violence, including storming the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Several members of the group, including founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes, have been convicted of seditious conspiracy for their role in the attack.
“I’m not affiliated with Oath Keepers, and the event I spoke about in 2014 was in Kalispell, and it was for the Second Amendment — to support the Second Amendment,” Rosendale told NBC Montana shortly after the inauguration of President Joe Biden. “I have no affiliation with him, I have no communication with him, but I support the Second Amendment.”
Notably, Rosendale is among 147 Republicans who vote against certifying Biden as the winner of the 2020 election. He then voted for both the creation of a select committee to investigate the January 6 insurrection and the awarding of the Congressional Gold Medal to the fallen Capitol Police officers, including the two who died as a result of the attack.
Sanchez has ties to various white supremacist groups. He was a member of RAM, a group infamous for the violence it unleashed on counter-protesters at a 2017 neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Sanchez has claimed membership in RAM led to his expulsion from the US Marine Corps, according to Left Coast Right Watch, an investigative news outlet.
He is also suspected of being a member of Identity Evropa, a white supremacist group since the break-up that was heavily involved in the Charlottesville rally. The group practices “entryism”, which is the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights state is a strategy of “gaining a place in a more mainstream organization by changing views and sharing values in order to achieve the movement’s goals.”
Sanchez is a practitioner of entryism and has tried to enter the MAGA movement, speaking at the “Stop the Steal” rally that rejected the elections in California in 2020 and then joining the People’s Convoy, a caravan of trucks protesting policies related to COVID. .
And this past November, Sanchez a guest on the pro-Trump One America News Network, where he spoke in defense of the white supremacist sentenced to three years in prison for his role in the January 6 insurrection.
Arnold has also entered the conservative space. He had top Oregon Republican officials on the podcast and briefly to work for the Washington State GOP.
On her Instagram account, Arnold has posted pictures of herself with many GOP figures in recent months, including former Vice President Mike Pence, Rep. Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) and far right Arizona state Sen. Wendy Rogers.
According to CNN reported, Arnold has called for the killing of refugees and undocumented immigrants. He was also a Nazi sympathizer, once stating that Adolf Hitler was “a complex historical figure that many people misunderstand.”
HuffPost spotted both Sanchez and Arnold in the lobby of the Gaylord Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, where this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference is underway.
Video sent to Twitter by journalist Zach Roberts photo shows Sanchez and Arnold both attending CPAC, the annual gathering that attracts prominent GOP lawmakers and presidential candidates, i.e. noisy with Election deniers and anti-trans bigotry this year.
“Dress to impress, man,” Sanchez said while Roberts ask about the outfit, including the Nazi-style overcoat.
On Saturday afternoon, Sanchez and Arnold attended a rally that Nick Fuentes – the racist and violently antisemitic leader of the America First movement who had been kicked out of CPAC the day before – was hosting at the Marriott Hotel across the street from the conference center. His supporters, who called themselves “groypers”, called a HuffPost reporter a “f****t” and stopped him from shutting down the rally, threatening to call hotel security.
A video of Fuentes’ speech showed him supporting CPAC speaker Michael Knowles, who the same day called for “transgenderism” to be “erased from public life.”
But Fuentes said he also wants to eradicate other -isms.
“These are people who hate Jesus and the world. … Another thing that should be removed from public life at the highest level is this Talmudic Judaism,” he said.
Fuentes previously aligned with prominent figures in the GOPand he is the host last year’s conference where Greene was the featured speaker. Republican officials eventually denounced him, however, after he was recruited by rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, to run his often antisemitic presidential campaign.
Along with appearing alongside the leader of the neo-Nazi movement last week, Rosendale received the “True Blue” award from the political arm of the right-wing Family Research Council – a prize given to members of Congress “whose voting record perfectly defends the values. faith, family, and independence.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center has identified the Family Research Council as an anti-LGBTQ hate group.
At post to Twitter, Rosendale said he was “honored” to receive the award and said he will “always stand up for Montana values in Washington.”