CNN host corners GOP lawmaker for blaming Dems to defend 'high-profile voices on the right'

CNN host Audie Cornish on Thursday called out a Republican lawmaker who tried to downplay growing antisemitism on the right.

Speaking on the emerging antisemitic voice of MAGA influencer Nick Fuentes and leaked messages from national Young Republican leaders saying "I love Hitler," Cornish cited party leader Paul Ingrassia having to withdraw after bragging about having a “Nazi streak.” She then referenced Republican figurehead and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson platforming Fuentes and asked U.S. Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) if antisemitism is “systemic through the Republican Party?”

Fine tried to pivot to Democrats.

“It's not systemic, but we are having a fight that the Democrats refused to have a few years ago when antisemitism crept into their party and they refused to do anything about it,” Fine began. “What we have is issues in our party. It's a minority, but it's a loud minority, and it is a growing minority.”

But Cornish took issue with Fine’s assessment: “Honestly, it sounds like you're minimizing it when you say it this way. I mean, obviously, I understand what people have said (about Democrat supporters) in the light of the attack in Gaza on Israel. But this is so specific. These are the most high-profile voices on the right.”

“No, I don't want to minimize it because is a big deal. And Tucker Carlson has a huge platform. He was the dominant conservative voice for many years. I'm not minimizing it, but for example, I serve with 219 Republicans in the Florida house. Only two of them are antisemites. So, it is small, but it is growing.”

Cornish asked “should the White House say something,” and pointed out national leaders like JD Vance are not refuting the antisemitism, and that Trump “actually dined with Fuentes.”

“When that happened, the president didn't know who [Fuentes] was and who he was eating with, frankly, back at that time. I'll tell you, I work on this issue every day, and I'd never heard of Nick Fuentes.

Fine went on to say he has “ended” his relationship with the conservative bastion the Heritage Foundation, which made headlines when its leader refused to disavow Carlson after his friendly interview with Fuentes.

“… [T]he biggest issue we have with Tucker Carlson is people remember the Tucker Carlson of five years ago. That's what makes him so dangerous,” said Fine. “He's trading on a brand as the leader of conservative thought, when he was just a conservative guy, but not a lunatic. And, so it's incumbent on me to make people understand he's not the same guy that you remember from being on Fox News.”