GOP House candidate gave interview to Nazi sympathizer — then claimed he didn't know who he was

On Friday, CNN's KFILE reported that Republican congressional candidate Joe Kent had more meetings with white nationalists than previously known — including an interview in June with a pro-Nazi activist he had publicly disavowed and claimed not to know anything about.

"While Republican Joe Kent touted his support for prominent far-right figures like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Green and Paul Gosar and supported MAGA policies, he was speaking with Greyson Arnold, a Nazi sympathizer," reported Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck. "Kent’s exchange with Arnold is all the more notable because just weeks later Kent’s campaign worked to distance him from Arnold after photos surfaced of the pair together. A Kent campaign strategist told the Associated Press in July that the campaign did not do background checks on those who took selfies with the candidate."

Arnold is an white nationalist and anti-Semitic activist who has repeatedly praised the Nazis, saying that Hitler was “a complicated historical figure which many people misunderstand," and has promoted content that called Nazi men the "pure race" and said that “Jewish led colored hordes of the Earth” are being used to wipe out White people.

According to previous reports, Kent also appeared on the podcast of Nick Fuentes, a prominent white nationalist leader, and begged for forgiveness over his public disavowal of Fuentes' political beliefs. As the report noted, "Kent’s website also features an endorsement from Arizona state Sen. Wendy Rogers who was censured by the Republican-controlled Arizona senate after she gave a speech to the white nationalist conference calling for public hangings."

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Despite all this, Kent is actually seen as a traitor to Trump by some far-right groups, some of whom have blasted him as "an agent of the Deep State" and a "lifelong Marxist Democrat."

Kent secured the GOP nomination for Washington's 3rd Congressional District earlier this year in a top-two jungle primary, narrowly beating out incumbent Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, who had become a focus of former President Donald Trump's rage as one of a handful of House Republicans who voted to impeach him for inciting the January 6 insurrection. He now faces Democratic candidate Marie Gluesenkamp Perez in the general election.