Bannon, Breitbart Disavow Challenger to Paul Ryan

Paul Nehlen accused of white supremacist, anti-Semitic views
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 27, 2017 6:15 PM CST
Bannon, Breitbart Disavow Challenger to Paul Ryan
In this 2016 file photo, Paul Nehlen, a Republican challenger to House Speaker Paul Ryan, speaks in Janesville, Wis.   (AP Photo/Scott Bauer, File)

A far-right challenger to Paul Ryan's congressional seat has lost the backing he once enjoyed from Steve Bannon and Breitbart News. Paul Nehlen "is dead to us," Bannon adviser Arthur Schwartz tells CNN. Breitbart editor Joel Pollak tweeted Tuesday night that "he's disqualified himself," and a story posted Wednesday on the site notes that "Breitbart News has cut all ties with Nehlen and removed his contributor page from the website after ... a series of anti-Semitic and pro-white supremacist comments." Nehlen has been posting "it's okay to be white" memes, and he also tweeted that he was currently reading The Culture of Critique, a book widely viewed as anti-Semitic because of lines such as one arguing that "millions of people have been killed as a result of the failure of Jewish assimilation into European societies," per the Washington Post.

Nehlen also appeared on a white nationalist podcast earlier this month. Coverage of the split notes that when Nehlen challenged Ryan last year—and lost by 68 points—he enjoyed favorable and frequent coverage at Breitbart News, which dispatched a top reporter to follow him. Nehlen, for his part, acknowledged to the Post that he is "pro-white" but seemed unfazed by the new controversy. “Allow me to answer with this question: If pro-White is White supremacy, what is pro-Jewish?" he wrote. "I reject being called a White Supremacist, because clearly Pro-White isn’t White Supremacy unless Pro-Jewish is Jewish Supremacy.” (More Steve Bannon stories.)

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