Former VP Pence, other Republicans condemn Trump for having dinner with Ye and Nick Fuentes

Many Republicans, including former Vice President Mike Pence, have condemned former President Donald Trump for recently having dinner with Nick Fuentes and Ye, formerly known as Kanye West.

“President Trump was wrong to give a white nationalist, an antisemite and a Holocaust denier a seat at the table, and I think he should apologize,” Pence said during an interview with NewsNation. “I don’t believe Donald Trump is an antisemite. I don’t believe he’s a racist or a bigot.”

Other Republicans also jumped on Trump for the incident, with many calling for him to apologize.

“It was wrong and inappropriate to have that meeting. White supremacy has no place in our nation’s culture. It’s antithetical to everything we stand for as Americans,” said Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), according to ABC News.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) said of Trump: “I think it’s been clear there’s no bottom to the degree to which President Trump will degrade himself and the nation.”

Trump has maintained that meeting with Fuentes was not intentional: He said in multiple statements that he only sought to meet with Ye and that the rapper brought Fuentes to the two-hour dinner without his knowledge. He also said he did not know who Fuentes was when Fuentes came to Mar-a-Lago.

However, while Republicans were largely divided on the subject, with some refusing to comment, others defended Trump’s right to have dinner with whoever he wants.

“I suppose he can have dinner with whomever he wants. I wouldn’t have had dinner with him,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) said, according to ABC.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) added that while “the meeting was bad,” the media was holding Trump to a “double standard.”

“I think Trump should be talking about what he did as president and how he could fix the problems that America is living with, and any day he is not doing that is a bad day for him,” Graham said.

The White House chimed in on Trump’s private dinner as well, with Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre telling reporters: “We should all be condemning this, and we should be very clear, very clear and say it in really absolute clear terms.”

She added, “This is something that we condemn, and we will continue to speak out against.”