A Republican candidate who just won a primary for a Missouri State House position drew condemnation from his own party on Thursday, after hateful comments he made on his radio show surfaced. Steve West made several anti-Semitic remarks on his KCXL show, and not all that long ago.
“Looking back in history, unfortunately, Hitler was right about what was taking place in Germany. And who was behind it,” West said in January 2017, according to the Kansas City Star. He has also reportedly made comments about “Jewish cabals” that run the Republican party and are “harvesting baby parts” through Planned Parenthood.
In a statement, the Missouri Republican Party reacted to these comments:
Steve West’s shocking and vile comments do not reflect the position of the Missouri Republican Party or indeed of any decent individual. West’s abhorrent rhetoric has absolutely no place in the Missouri Republican Party or anywhere. We wholeheartedly condemn his comments.
Despite these public statements, West defeated three other candidates in the primary in Clay County. The Anti-Defamation League doesn’t know how he managed to get this far before his comments were brought up.
“I’m trying to get sense of why he flew under the radar, and I’m not sure I have a great answer,” ADL regional director Karen Aroesty told the Star. “What is a person who is elected into a position of power going to do with beliefs like this?”
When confronted about his past statements, West didn’t deny them, and didn’t apologize, but claimed they were taken out of context. He then told a reporter that while he believes all men are created equal, he doesn’t feel the same way about ideologies, specifying that he has problems with Judaism and Islam. He also seemed to dismiss his comments as being radio chatter, saying, “I’m not running as a radio show host, I’m running for state representative. I’m sorry. I’m not going to have this discussion.”
West, who received 49.45 percent of the votes in his district, is now set to face off against Democratic incumbent Rep. Jon Carpenter, who addressed West’s comments by saying:
It is my hope that folks who voted for Steve West in the Republican primary weren’t aware of any of this stuff. I sincerely hope that’s true. … I can’t think of a single American political candidate in the 21st century who has engaged in this level of hate speech and unhinged conspiracy-mongering who actually won a primary election.
[Image from YouTube screenshot]
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