Republican congressman Jim Jordan appeared to deny that a now-deleted Twitter post praising Elon Musk, Kanye West and Donald Trump came from an account linked to him.
An account for Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee, on which Mr Jordan serves as ranking member, posted “Kanye. Elon. Trump.” on 6 October. The post was deleted roughly two months later, after the virulently antisemitic rapper praised Adolf Hitler and Nazism.
The account, which regularly posts provocative messages amplifying GOP talking points and goading liberals with inflammatory statements, also names Mr Jordan in its bio and banner image.
But during a committee hearing on ethics breaches at the US Supreme Court, Mr Jordan falsely claimed that the now-deleted tweet “was not our account”.
California congressman Eric Swalwell asked whether Mr Jordan would “denounce” former president Donald Trump’s apparent call to terminate the US Constitution as well as West’s antisemitism.
“Does he stand with Kanye and his hatred of Jews and love of Hitler?” Mr Swalwell asked.
Mr Jordan shot back, claiming that “President Trump has clarified his comments regarding the Constitution.”
Defending Mr Trump from allegations of antisemitism, he conflated antisemitism with foreign policy.
“There is no way this guy’s antisemitic,” he said of Mr Trump. “This guy was the most pro-Israel president in history. He put the embassy back in Jerusalem. Abraham Accords – the most pro-Israel we’ve ever had. Did more on foreign policy in the middle east than any president we’ve ever had.”
Mr Swallwell then asked: “Do you denounce your tweet praising Kanye West?”
“That tweet was not our account, and that tweet’s been removed,” he said.
In August, Mr Swalwell had accused a communications aide with the Judiciary Committee Republicans of fuelling death threats to his office by amplifying baseless claims on the account that Mr Swalwell had an affair with an alleged Chinese spy.
The “Kanye. Elon. Trump.” tweet was written after West’s appearance on Fox News during an interview with personality Tucker Carlson.
But it was untouched for weeks even after West vowed to go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE”, after unaired footage from that same interview included bigoted remarks about Jewis people, and after the former president invited West – accompanied by white nationalist Nick Fuentes – to a dinner at Mar-a-Lago.
The post was deleted after West’s appearance on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s InfoWars programme, which aired West’s cascade of antisemitic statements and praise for Nazism.
