By Sahil Kapur, Scott Wong and Frank Thorp V -
NBC News
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump is embroiled in another controversy, and this time some Republicans on Capitol Hill are less willing to defend him.
After dining with notorious white supremacist Nick Fuentes and rapper Ye, better known as Kanye West, who has come under fire for anti-Semitic comments, Trump is facing increasing denunciations from Republican senators, including some nominal allies who rarely -or never- criticize him or his actions.
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In interviews conducted Monday, as the Senate returned from Thanksgiving recess, reactions from Senate Republicans ranged from outrageous incredulity to calls for a reshuffle of Trump's advisory team to vindication. among his staunchest critics within the party.
There was little desire to ignore or brush off the incident, as most GOP lawmakers tend to do when Trump stirs up controversy, and little indication that any of them wanted to defend a former GOP president. his party.
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"Ridiculous.
That's all I have to say about it," said Sen. Joni Ernst, Iowa, a member of the Senate Republican leadership.
“I have no idea what is going on.
But then again, it's really ridiculous for him to do that,” she added.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-West Virginia, also searched for the right word to describe the dinner.
Like Ernst, she too called it "ridiculous."
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"I think you certainly should know who you're having dinner with, and it seems to me... I want to make sure I'm using the right word... It seems totally ridiculous to me to sit down with someone who espouses those views," Capito told reporters.
When asked if he blamed Trump or his staff, Capito replied: "We are all responsible for our own actions."
Trump claimed Friday that he "knew nothing" about Fuentes, a well-known figure in far-right circles, saying he showed up "unexpectedly" at dinner with Ye.
The normally reticent conservative Sen. Deb Fisher, R-Nebraska, made a rare break with Trump, saying of Fuentes when asked about the dinner on Monday: "I think it's always a mistake to raise the rhetoric that that gentleman - or that person - employs -“.
Former US President Donald Trump speaks at the Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, on November 15, 2022Alon Skuy / AFP via Getty Images
Trump recently announced his plans to run for president again in 2024, and it remains unclear whether criticism from GOP senators will persist, let alone loosen their tight grip on the party base.
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Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, the 2012 GOP presidential candidate, delivered a fiery rebuke to Trump and his decision to dine with Fuentes and Ye, calling it a "character issue."
“There is no bottom line to the degree to which he is willing to demean himself, and the country for that matter.
Dining with those people was disgusting,” claimed Romney, noting that he “voted to impeach [Trump] twice” and said that “anyone else” would be a better party leader.
“I don't think I should be president of the United States.
I don't think he should be our party's candidate in 2024. And I certainly don't want him hanging over our party like a gargoyle,” he noted.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who voted to convict Trump in his 2021 impeachment trial, said: “I condemn white supremacy and anti-Semitism.
The president should never have had a meal or even a meeting with Nick Fuentes."
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Those weren't the questions GOP senators wanted answered on Capitol Hill on the first day back from their Thanksgiving vacation.
But given the seriousness of the matter, some lawmakers acknowledged that "no comment" - a standard response when Trump gets into trouble - would not be enough.
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Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, a golf partner of Trump's, said Trump made the wrong decision to dine with Fuentes and Ye, though he doubted it would harm Trump's campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.
“No, the meeting was bad.
I shouldn't have done it," Graham said.
“But again, you know, there's a double standard about this kind of thing.
And I don't think it matters in terms of his political future, but I do think we have to watch who we meet with.
We shouldn't give oxygen to people who think like that," he said.
“And here's another thought: If a guy is called Yeh, or Ye, you probably shouldn't be with them,” Graham stated, sounding unsure how to pronounce the rapper's name.
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Other politicians issued sweeping denunciations of anti-Semitism without mentioning Trump or Fuentes.
“We cannot tolerate anti-Semitism, period,” said Sen. Steve Daines, R-Montana, the incoming chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., the outgoing NRSC chairman, said: "There's no room in the GOP for white supremacist anti-Semitism, so it's wrong."
Senator Chuck Grassley, Republican of Iowa, declared: “Anti-Semitism is wrong, and white supremacy is wrong, and that's it.
That's what I think".
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a top lieutenant to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he could not be bothered with questions about Trump and Fuentes.
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“I don't know who it is.
And I see no reason for me to comment on what private individuals do or don't do themselves,” Cornyn said.
“I have more important things to do,” she added.
McConnell indicated that he would address the issue at his weekly news conference on Tuesday.
In the House of Representatives, which reconvenes on Tuesday, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who is leaning to the right to try to win votes to become Speaker of the House next year, I hadn't commented on anything.
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Trump has blamed Ye for bringing Fuentes to dinner.
Writing in Truth Social, Trump called Ye a "man with serious problems" and said he had no idea who Fuentes was.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina, said he was taking Trump at his word and blamed the former president's staff for failing to investigate Fuentes.
“If the reports are true and the president didn't know who he was, whoever let him into the room should be fired,” Tillis said.
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Several potential 2024 rivals criticized Trump for sitting down with Fuentes, including his own vice president, Mike Pence, who said Trump "demonstrated profoundly poor judgment."
“President Trump was wrong to give a white nationalist, an anti-Semite and a Holocaust denier a seat at the table.
And I think he should apologize for it and call out those individuals and their hateful rhetoric without qualifying it,” Pence opined Monday in an appearance on NewsNation.
“I don't think Donald Trump is an anti-Semite.
I don't think he's a racist or a bigot.
He would not have been his vice president if he was,” Pence added.
"People often forget that the president's daughter converted to Judaism, her son-in-law is a devout Jew, her grandchildren are Jewish."
