Republicans turn on Trump administration's 'bad vetting' as antisemitic posts surface

Republicans condemned a Defense Department deputy press secretary who posted antisemitic and white supremacist rants on social media — and questioned the Trump administration's vetting process.

Kingsley Wilson, a former aide to Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought and the daughter of former Trump campaign strategist Steve Cortes, made social media posts in which she attacked the Anti-Defamation League as "despicable," boosted the antisemitic "Great Replacement Theory" and called Confederate general Robert E. Lee "one of the greatest Americans to ever live." She has also suggested women shouldn't be police officers and compared Hamas' murder of Israeli babies to abortion following the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks.

Her posts drew widespread condemnation, including among GOP lawmakers, Politico reported.

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"It’s horrible, it’s just not appropriate," Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) told the outlet. "Sometimes people think they’re anonymous when they’re on social media, that they can comment or post on whatever may be their attitude at the time, and then they later regret it."

“I’m not gonna tell them who to hire, but I do know that [President Donald] Trump doesn’t believe any of the things she’s talking about, and I’ll leave it up to them to determine if they think she’s the right spokesperson,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said. “If what you say about these posts are true, then she’s completely off-script with President Trump.”

Other Republicans questioned the Trump administration's vetting — or apparent lack thereof.

“Doing appropriate vetting for all those jobs is very important,” Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) told Politico.

A person close to the Trump administration said: “The fact she didn’t even try to delete the last tweets tells you all you need to know. I don’t know who’s doing vetting but it’s bad vetting… and shows that Hegseth is not making personnel decisions nor spending time on them.”