The congressman called the photo on the steps of the U.S. Capitol “a mistake.” “U.S. Rep. Matt Rosendale said he unwittingly posed for a photo with high profile members of the neo-Nazi movement last week.” Mmhmm. I guess the guy wearing the World War II-era nazi trenchcoat wasn’t a clue for the dumber than a fencepost Rosendale.
Source: Billings Gazette
U.S. Rep. Matt Rosendale said he unwittingly posed for a photo with high profile members of the neo-Nazi movement last week walking between congressional hearings.
The photo taken March 1 in front of the Capitol shows Rosendale, a two-term lawmaker, posing with Ryan Sanchez, formerly of the white supremacist street-fighting gang RAM, or Rise Above Movement, and Greyson Arnold, a Nazi sympathizer and podcaster present at the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Arnold has called Adolf Hitler a “misunderstood” and “complicated historical figure.”
By week’s end, the image was being widely circulated on social media, both on Twitter and Mastodon. The post was most often attributed to Vishal P. Singh, publisher of the website “VPS Reports, Civil Rights and Anti-Fascist News.”
“I absolutely condemn and have zero tolerance for hate groups, hate speech, and violence. I did not take a meeting with these individuals,” Rosendale said in an email. “I was asked for a photo while walking between hearings, accommodating as I do for all photo requests, and was not aware of the individuals’ identity or affiliation with these hate groups that stand in stark contrast to my personal beliefs.”
