Pennsylvania GOP Rep. Had Associations With Holocaust Deniers
Rep. Lou Barletta (R-PA) speaks to reporters at Trump Tower, November 29, 2016 in New York City. Image by Drew Angerer/Getty Images
WASHINGTON (JTA) A Pennsylvania Republican congressman running for the Senate was interviewed by and appeared at an event with Holocaust deniers, CNN reported.
CNN’s KFile, which delves into candidates’ past, uncovered an interview that Rep. Lou Barletta gave in 2006 when he was mayor of the town of Hazleton with the American Free Press, a publication that peddles Holocaust denial and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
Barletta at the time was getting national attention for cracking down on illegal immigrants in his town, penalizing landlords who rented to illegal immigrants and businesses that hired them. Courts eventually overruled his penalties.
In 2007, he headlined a rally in the town called to support his policies. A speaker was Paul Topete, who headed a band, Poker Face. The band had a website that questioned the veracity of the Holocaust and suggested Israel was behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
A spokesman for Barletta told CNN that, with only a small staff available to him at the time he was getting national attention, Barletta was unable to vet every publication asking for interviews or every individual appearing with him. The spokesman noted a contemporaneous news item about Barletta refusing to allow the Ku Klux Klan to appear in the town to support him.
KFile reported that after his election to Congress, Barletta on at least two occasions appeared at an event with figures associated with white nationalists.
Barletta is one of six Republicans vying to run against the incumbent Democratic senator, Bob Casey.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
