Republican who said ‘Hitler was right’ wins Missouri primary race
Steve West routinely expresses conspiracy theories on his YouTube channel
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Your support makes all the difference.A Missouri Republican who once claimed “Hitler was right” has won his primary election.
Steve West is now the party’s nominee for a seat in the state House, representing Clay County, an area to the northeast of Kansas City.
He has a radio show, broadcasting under the pseudonym Jack Justice. Mr West said on that show in early 2017: “Looking back in history, unfortunately, Hitler was right about what was taking place in Germany”.
Mr West is known for his YouTube channel through which he has espoused several conspiracy theories in the vein of Infowars’ Alex Jones - including that there are Jewish “cabals”.
He has also expressed views like “Islam is antithetical to this country as founded” and has spoken about “harvesting baby parts” from women’s healthcare services provider Planned Parenthood.
The Missouri Republican party, however, does not endorse Mr West.
Despite Mr West’s public comments dating back years, a statement issued by the party just days ahead of the election said: “Steve West’s shocking and vile comments do not reflect the position of the Missouri Republican Party or indeed of any decent individual. West’s abhorrent rhetoric has absolutely no place in the Missouri Republican Party or anywhere. We wholeheartedly condemn his comments.”
The party did not respond to a request for comment on why the party had waited so long to disavow Mr West.
The Kansas City Star reached out to Mr West and he said his comments on Hitler were “taken out of context”.
He noted he thinks all people are created equal, but found profound fault with Islam and Judaism in particular and did not think his views had anything to do with the “job of state representative”.
When asked about Jewish voters, Mr West told the newspaper: “Well, maybe they shouldn’t vote for me.”
Despite Mr West’s documented bigoted comments, his opponent and incumbent in the district for the general election Democratic state Representative Jon Carpenter said: "It is my hope that folks who voted for Steve West in the Republican primary weren’t aware of any of this stuff. I sincerely hope that’s true”.
Mr Carpenter said he could not “think of a single American political candidate in the 21st century who has engaged in this level of hate speech and unhinged conspiracy-mongering who actually won a primary election”.
“I just want everyone who lives in this community to know that they’re welcome here,” he added in a statement.
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