Arizona GOP leaders claim College Republicans tricked them into appearing at white supremacist's event

Local GOP officials said they weren’t notified that white supremacist Nick Fuentes was invited to speak before an Arizona College Republicans event scheduled for later this month, Arizona Mirror reports.

One invited speaker claims organizers lied to her to secure her acceptance to appear at the event, the report said. Jake Angeli-Chansley, the Jan. 6 rioter also known as the QAnon Shaman who also accepted an invitation to appear before the group, earlier in the day expressed disgust after learning Fuentes was scheduled to appear at the event.

The annual convention for the College Republicans United groups scheduled to be held in Prescott is being organized by the group’s Arizona State University chapter.

The group is known to support Fuentes and has previously hosted white nationalist speakers.

The Maricopa County Republican Committee issued a statement Monday distancing itself from the event but didn’t specifically mention Fuentes.

“The #MCRC never authorized, sponsored, or promoted the upcoming July 30 College Republicans United convention,” the group tweeted.

“Any placement of "MCRC" or "Maricopa GOP" etc on anything associated with the CRU event is unauthorized. Thank you.”

The Pima County Republican Party issued a similar statement.

“The Pima County Republican Party” holds true to the values of the Republican party, upholds the principles of the Constitution, The Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the laws of the state of Arizona and that of our country,” the statement said.

The role of Maricopa, Pima and Yavapai Republican parties surfaced Monday morning when Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer shared a flier promoting the event on social media.

Jerod MacDonald-Evoy writes for the Mirror that “Within hours, Republican officials began claiming that the county GOP committees were involved with the event. By the afternoon, both the Maricopa and Pima parties had issued formal statements; Yavapai had not done so before this story was published.”

Others with extremist views who are scheduled to speak at the event include Ryan Sanchez, who goes by the nickname “Culture War Criminal,” who is a former member of the “Rise Above Movement” Neo-Nazi group.

Read the full article here.