Representative Louie Gohmert, a Republican from Texas, has a reputation for often going on television, radio, or the House floor and making bold charges. On Thursday, he made remarks while appearing on Fox Business Network which led the network to apologize.
Appearing on Stuart Varney’s Fox Business show Thursday, Gohmert turned the subject to the liberal financier George Soros. It began with a discussion of George Orwell, somehow related to the poor recent stock performance of Google parent company Alphabet, until Gohmert suddenly changed the subject to Soros.
“You mention Orwell, it also reminds me of another George — George Soros,” Gohmert said. “George Soros is supposed to be Jewish, but you wouldn’t know it from the damage he’s inflicted on Israel and the fact that he turned on fellow Jews and helped take the property that they own.”
Varney did not challenge the statement, but quickly changed the subject, asking what Gohmert can do about Google’s policies in China in his capacity as a member of Congress. Varney later read an apology on the air.
“Congressman Louie Gohmert, for some reason went out of his way to bring up George Soros and made unsubstantiated and false allegations against him,” the host said, as reported by the Daily Beast . “I want to make clear those views are not shared by me, this program or anyone at Fox Business .”
Soros, a controversial businessman and philanthropist with a penchant for political activism, has frequently been the target of conspiracy theories. Many of those theories allege that Soros was a Nazi collaborater, a line of reasoning which Snopes debunked.
Holy crap!
Appearing on Fox Biz, Louie Gohmert says “George Soros is supposed to be Jewish but you wouldn’t know it from the damage he inflicted on Israel and the fact that he turned on fellow Jews & helped take the property that they owned.”
Stuart Varney quickly moves on pic.twitter.com/P4KUjOVnKb
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) December 6, 2018
Facebook is currently under fire after the New York Times reported that the company had retained a public relations firm to conduct research about Soros — particularly surrounding his political activities and financial motivations.
The comments which the Republican Congressman made on Thursday, November 6, were not the first instances in which Gohmert has drawn fire for controversial statements. In 2010, Gohmert alleged on the floor of the House that “terror babies” were being born — part of a plot for mothers to cross the border into the United States, deliver babies, and raise the babies to become terrorists, as reported by the Texas Tribune .
Two years later, Gohmert helped spearhead a letter raising the alarm about “the Muslim Brotherhood and other radical groups’ access to top Obama administration officials,” according to a report by Newsmax . Gohmert has also called for the resignation of special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the probe concerning potential Russian interference in the previous presidential election, according to a report by the Washington Examiner .