GOP lawmaker banned from using legislative studio after interview with pro-Hitler streamer

07 May 2024

A Republican state legislator in Arizona is now no longer allowed to use legislative broadcast equipment after he used it to talk to a far-right Rumble streamer who has praised Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

According to the Arizona Mirror, Republican state senator Anthony Kern was interviewed by Stu Peters last week, who has repeatedly and consistently praised Hitler and called for the mass murder of various political opponents. Kern used the legislative studio to join Peters' channel to discuss a Drag Story Hour that took place at the state capitol in Phoenix, decrying both the event itself — in which a drag queen read a story to an audience of legislators and staffers — and the fact that it was held in a basement meeting room at the Arizona House of Representatives.

"I said, ‘Hey, Arizona, this is where your tax dollars are going,'" Kern said on Peters' channel.

After it became known that Kern used broadcast equipment provided for lawmakers to produce videos, a spokesperson for Senate President Warren Petersen (R) told KPNX 12 News reporter Brahm Resnik that Kern is now banned from using it for the rest of his time in office.

"The Senate President does not approve of how the Senator chose to use the legislative broadcast resource last week, as a result, his privileges to use those resources for future interviews has been revoked," the spokesperson said.

Peters – a former bounty hunter — is an open anti-Semite, and has regularly used his channel to issue calls for political violence. Last fall, Peters specifically singled out Catholic Charities as a target for far-right vigilante violence.

"We need troops on the border that will shoot people that are trying to invade our country. That’d be a good first step," Peters said in November. "But you know what a better second step would be? Shooting everyone involved with these fake charities."

Ads for former President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign have also appeared on Peters's show, suggesting that the ex-president's campaign is spending money to explicitly target potential voters among Peters' audience. The campaign said it only spent money to advertise on Rumble — the preferred platform of streamers who have been banned from YouTube for extremist content — and that it never directly gave money to Peters or his channel.

Sen. Kern is also in the midst of legal problems, after he was indicted with seven others for his alleged role in Arizona's fake electors plot. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes indicted Kern and several others — including former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows — for allegedly submitting false documents to the state claiming that they were the presidential electors from the Grand Canyon State. Trump was not indicted, but was named in charging documents as an unindicted co-conspirator.

Click here to read the Arizona Mirror's full report.

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