The office of Secretary of State Marco Rubio is answering for a top aide fired over a video ending in a neo-Nazi symbol.
According to a Monday article by The Daily Mail, Rubio speechwriter Nate Hochman was dismissed from Gov. Ron DeSantis' (R) 2023 presidential campaign. Hochman is now a senior aide and works as deputy director of the State Department's policy planning office and as chief speechwriter for Rubio.
Hochman lost the DeSantis job after resharing a video that showed a dejected pro-Trump meme character being cheered by headlines about the governor's immigration and anti-"woke" crackdowns, The Daily Mail reported. The clip closed with the Florida state seal morphing into a Sonnenrad, or black sun, an emblem the Anti-Defamation League considers a neo-Nazi and white supremacist symbol, The Daily Mail reported.
The concerns did not end with the video. In a recorded conversation with white nationalist influencer Nick Fuentes, published as audio by The Dispatch, Hochman praised the provocateur's reach among young men.
"You've gotten a lot of kids based, and we respect that for sure," Hochman told Fuentes. He later said he had been trying to draw Fuentes out and had voiced views he does not actually hold, according to The Daily Mail.
"I said some really stupid things, which I don't actually believe, that signaled agreement with Fuentes, even though I couldn't disagree more with his vision of the world," Hochman said, per The Daily Mail.
The State Department has been defending Hochman. Spokesman Tommy Pigott told the New York Times that "Nate Hochman is a trusted and key member of the department who has worked tirelessly to advance the president's foreign policy agenda."
Hochman denied creating the video that landed him in hot water, though he was among the first prominent DeSantis accounts to spread it, The Daily Mail noted. A New Republic investigation later reported that people on the DeSantis campaign made the clip and planted it in a fan account. Hochman said he deleted his repost once he understood the symbol and alerted his superiors, but the coverage cost him the job regardless.
After the firing, Hochman worked with the conservative group America 2100 and advised Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) before landing at the State Department, according to The Daily Mail.