CNN's Alisyn Camerota just interviewed the Holocaust denier running for Congress in Illinois. It did not go well.


Arthur Jones is a Nazi, says the Illinois Republican Party. Unfortunately, Jones is also the only Republican running to represent the state's third congressional district.
Because he is essentially guaranteed to be on the ballot this fall, CNN's Alisyn Camerota interviewed Jones on Thursday's New Day. Things quickly turned contentious: After playing a clip of Jones yelling that the "white majority" could no longer tolerate the "two-party, Jew-party, queer-party system," Camerota said, "Mr. Jones, it is shocking to hear how vocally and unapologetically racist you are." She then asked point-blank: "Are you a Nazi?"
Jones insisted it had been "15, 20 years" since he was affiliated with such groups "on a formal basis." "I don't call myself a Nazi," he said. "I call myself an American patriot and statesman."
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Camerota calmly read off a list of damning facts in response. "You've been part of anti-Semitic groups since the 1970s, you go to neo-Nazi rallies … you were part of the White People's Party, you dress in Nazi garb, and you celebrate Hitler's birthday." She concluded: "You're a Nazi."
Jones reiterated that he does not belong to any "formal" Nazi-affiliated groups "anymore," before going on to claim that the Holocaust "is nothing but an international extortion racket by the Jews," which the "Israeli lobby" uses to drag the U.S. into wars in the Middle East. Camerota hit back: "Mr. Jones, 6 million Jews were killed. Adolf Hitler perpetrated a genocide. The Auschwitz death camp existed. And the Nuremburg trial happened. Those are the facts." Jones called Camerota's facts "poppycock."
Illinois' third district is deeply Democratic, so it's unlikely Jones will get anywhere near Capitol Hill. Still, watch him espouse his views below, if you can stomach it. Kelly O'Meara Morales
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Kelly O'Meara Morales is a staff writer at The Week. He graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and studied Middle Eastern history and nonfiction writing amongst other esoteric subjects. When not compulsively checking Twitter, he writes and records music, subsists on tacos, and watches basketball.
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