HOOD MOUNTAIN, TENNESSEE — Bill Ricci is what he calls an “out and proud white supremacist.” He was one of the men carrying a tiki torch and screaming, “Jews will not replace us!” at a rally in Charlottesville in 2017 that left a woman protesting the rally dead, and her killer behind bars, convicted of murder.
“If anyone understands the existential threat of Jews, it’s me,” Ricci told his local newspaper, The Confederate Times, in an interview this morning. “But I’m sorry, God Emperor President Trump is completely correct about Congresswoman Tlaib! What she said is horrible and highly insensitive!”
Ricci was referring to the fact that President Trump took to Twitter today to attack Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat from Michigan. Ms. Tlaib has been assailed by some on the right for what they believe was an insensitive or even antisemitic remark about the Holocaust. During a podcast, Tlaib was asked about her perspective, as a Muslim woman, on the Holocaust. Her answer mentioned a “warm feeling,” and that’s when conservative pundits and politicians started to pile on.
“There’s kind of a calming feeling I always tell folks when I think of the Holocaust, and the tragedy of the Holocaust, and the fact that it was my ancestors, Palestinians, who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity, their existence in many ways, have been wiped out, and some people’s passports,” Tlaib said. (CNN)
After a few days of outrage, Mr. Trump used Twitter to lambaste Tlaib.
Democrat Rep. Tlaib is being slammed for her horrible and highly insensitive statement on the Holocaust. She obviously has tremendous hatred of Israel and the Jewish people. Can you imagine what would happen if I ever said what she said, and says?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 13, 2019
Mr. Ricci admits that “in the full context” of what Tlaib said, she wasn’t referring to the Holocaust, however to the fact that Palestinian people helped give Jews who survived the Holocaust a home. She did, however, say that she wishes the way in which land and a safe haven was given to Jewish immigrants disenfranchised and had a negative impact on Palestinians, and she wishes a solution that didn’t hurt either side had been found. However, Ricci says that “context and facts don’t matter in the Trump era.”
“What matters is that I feel insulted by what she said because Trump told me to feel offended,” Ricci said. “Sure, I’m the one who actually thinks antisemitic stuff. Sure I’m the one actually chanting it and screaming about it, but I’m a Trump supporter, so as long as he’s in office, it’s not legal to criticize me or point out my hypocrisy, fam.”
Ricci says that as a “true antisemite,” he wouldn’t have been offended by Tlaib’s antisemitism if she had shown any with her comments, but he’s “completely offended and outraged” that she’s a Democrat.
“If a Republican spreads antisemitic conspiracy theories about George Soros to defend our free market capitalist economy, that’s just fine. But when a Democrat says anything, literally anything, they risk offending people like me, who like to mock liberals for being sensitive about everything,” Ricci said. “Because I don’t understand what irony is since I was taught that education is literally a liberal conspiracy.”
Ricci says he has every intention of backing Trump again in 2020.
“He’s for the right kind of American antisemitism and American welfare with the farmers,” Ricci said. “He could burn a cross on 5th Avenue and I’d vote for him again. In fact, I think I’ll tweet him and ask him to do exactly that.”
Writer/comedian James Schlarmann is the founder of The Political Garbage Chute and his work has been featured on The Huffington Post. You can follow James on Facebook and Instagram, but not Twitter because he has a potty mouth.
