CNN host rails against neo-Nazi congressional candidate in on-air interview

"You're a Nazi," CNN host Alisyn Camerota told Congressional candidate Arthur Jones.

FEBRUARY 9, 2018 16:55

Updated: FEBRUARY 12, 2018 05:20

CNN host Alisyn Camerota interviews Neo-Nazi congressional candidate Arthur Jones (photo credit: screenshot) — CNN host Alisyn Camerota interviews Neo-Nazi congressional candidate Arthur Jones

(photo credit: screenshot)

"Are you a Nazi?" CNN host Alisyn Camerota asked Republican congressional candidate Arthur Jones during a live interview on the network on Thursday.

"I don't call myself a Nazi, I call myself an American patriot and statesman," Jones shot back.

In response, Camerota listed several key details about Jones so that individuals could "decide for themselves" if they thought Jones was a Nazi. She pointed out that he attends neo-Nazi rallies and celebrates Hitler's birthday - charges Jones did not deny - paused, and said: "You're a Nazi."

Jones is currently the only registered Republican running for Congress in Illinois' 3rd district. While the district is heavily liberal - its last Republican representative was a one-termer who left office in 1975 - and Jones stands little to no chance of winning the seat, he will win the upcoming primary.

Jones, who clarified that he hasn't been affiliated with a formal Nazi organization "since about 1990" has not disavowed his past actions or statements, and, in fact, continues to espouse the same rhetoric he always has.

During the interview, Jones said that the "two-party, Jew-party, queer-party" political system in the US "can't stand" the fact that he is "standing for the truth." He also added that the media - which on his site, he refers to as "Pink Crusader Rabbits" - could not stand this either.

"Yes, I deny the Holocaust," he shouted at Camerota. Jones' campaign website includes a section dedicated to the Holocaust, which he calls an "extortion racket" created by Jews. At one point during the interview, Jones pulled out a piece of paper which he claimed to be a forged record of a social security benefit filed by a Holocaust survivor.

The same sheet can be found on Jones' website. It is a clipping from a handout that explains that many Holocaust survivors had altered their birth certificates or official documents "to avoid persecution or death" at the hands of the Nazis, and that 10,000 of the 250,000 survivors in the US had reportedly done so. It also added that a special program had been introduced in order to correct the birth dates.

In addition to repeating the same antisemitic tropes that he favors, Jones also added that Jews are responsible for orchestrating wars in the Middle East and that the "Israeli lobby controls the Congress of the United States."

Camerota pointed out that 7,000 of the 3rd district's 700,000 residents are Jewish, and questioned how Jones would plan to serve them if elected. He did not answer the question, but stated that the majority are "white Christian patriots" and then added that there are many Black and Latino Christian patriots as well.

She also noted that Jones has ran unsuccessfully for office several times, a fact which has not deterred him from entering this year's race.

"We're not in the business of predicting the news," she said, "but I can say that you will lose this race."