'Bigotry Has No Place in Society': GOP Pulls Support from N.J. Congressional Nominee

The National Republican Congressional Committee pulled its support for a New Jersey attorney, radio host and pundit who posted an article calling African-Americans “a threat to all who cross their paths.”

Seth Grossman won the GOP nomination in the June 5 primary for the 2nd Congressional District seat vacated by retiring Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.). The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is targeting the seat for a red-to-blue switch, and the party nominated state Sen. Jeff Van Drew to face Grossman in November.

But now, the NRCC wants Grossman to drop out.

“Bigotry has no place in society — let alone the U.S. House of Representatives,” NRCC Chairman (R-Ohio) said in a statement. “The NRCC withdraws our support of Seth Grossman and calls on him to reconsider his candidacy. The people of New Jersey’s 2nd District deserve an inclusive Republican candidate who will be a trusted conservative voice in Congress.”

Last month it was reported that Grossman, who called diversity “a bunch of crap and un-American,” at a GOP forum this spring, used his Facebook page to slam Islam, HIV-positive gays, Black History Month, and Kwanzaa, which he called “a phony holiday invented in 1960’s by black racists to weaken and divide Americans during a Christmas season of joy and good will.” The former Atlantic City councilman defended to CNN his “provocative statements for the purpose of provoking interest and open discussion on vitally important issues I believed were being ignored.”

He added that “some generalizations and remarks that may be offensive to some” were “necessary to bring attention to important issues. I also believe them to be substantially true.”

Media Matters reported today that Grossman posted a pseudonymously written 2014 article from American Renaissance, an online magazine run by white nationalist writer Jared Taylor, stating that African-Americans are “different by almost any measure to all other people. They cannot reason as well. They cannot communicate as well. They cannot control their impulses as well. They are a threat to all who cross their paths, black and non-black alike.” Soon after the report was published, the NRCC withdrew support.

Republican National Committeeman Dave Agema posted the same article on his Facebook in 2014, contributing to a censure from the RNC the following year.

Grossman replied in a statement to Media Matters, “For more than 50 years, the Democratic Party set the agenda for black America. Far too many blacks still suffer from crime, poverty, and violence caused by that Democratic Party agenda. I am glad I helped Trump become President so he could change that agenda and get black and Hispanic Americans working again in record numbers. I am running for Congress so I can help Trump do even more to take the Democratic training wheels off the black and Hispanic communities so they can succeed even more.”