This past Saturday, leaders of the Texas Republican Party rejected an amendment to a pro-Israel resolution that would have prohibited party members from associating with known neo-Nazis and antisemites. The resolution, which barred association with those “known to espouse or tolerate antisemitism, pro-Nazi sympathies or Holocaust denial,” was stripped from the pro-Israel resolution in a 32–29 vote.

The Texas Tribune reported that following the vote, in “a move that stunned some members, roughly half of the board also tried to prevent a record of their vote from being kept.”

The amendment to the resolution was proposed two months after current chairman of the Texas Republican Party, Matt Rinaldi, was photographed by reporters with the Texas Tribune entering the Fort Worth offices of right-wing political consulting firm Pale Horse Strategies. Prior to Rinaldi entering the office building, reporters with the Tribune photographed neo-Nazi and leader of the America First Groyper movement, Nicholas J. Fuentes, going into the same building.

In addition to denying the Holocaust and participating in the January 6 coup last November, Fuentes was a dinner guest of ex-President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago. Fuentes and fellow Hitler admirer Ye (Kanye West) had dinner with Trump for nearly two hours, during which they discussed a possible joint Trump-Ye presidential ticket.

While Rinaldi has denied meeting with Fuentes while he was inside the Pale Horse offices, the Tribune confirmed that the neo-Nazi was inside the unofficial Republican Party headquarters for nearly 7 hours.

Pale Horse Strategies is owned by former Texas state Rep. Jonathan Stickland. Up until October, Stickland was also the president of Defend Texas Liberty (DTL), a far-right political action committee that has donated millions of dollars to fascistic Republicans including Attorney General Ken Paxton and Lt. Gov Dan Patrick.

Funding for DTL primarily comes from two oil and fracking billionaires, Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks. Last year, CNN reported that Dunn and his wife, Terri, “have contributed more than $18 million to state candidates and political action committees, while Wilks and his wife, Jo Ann, have given more than $11 million,” making the two couples “among the top donors in the state.”

At the conclusion of the October 6 meeting at Pale Horse, Fuentes was photographed leaving the building alongside anti-immigrant fascist Chris Russo. Russo has worked with Fuentes since at least 2019 and is the founder and president of Texans for Strong Borders.

Texas for Strong Borders is also funded by Dunn and Wilks according to the Texas Tribune. The anti-immigrant group has called for ending all birthright citizenship, and in a letter sent to Gov. Greg Abbott earlier this year, which was co-signed by Rinaldi, the group called on the governor to declare an “invasion” at the southern border and restrict “non-citizens” from owning property in Texas.

Following the publication of the Texas Tribune article last October, Luke Macias replaced Stickland as president of DTL.

In its coverage of Saturday’s vote, the Texas Tribune noted that the amendment did not specifically call on Texas Republicans to disassociate from DTL, or Pale Horse.

During Saturday’s meeting, the first held since the Nazi scandal broke in October, several committee members argued that antisemitism was not a problem in the Republican Party. One committee member, Dan Tully, said adding language preventing associating with neo-Nazis “was very hurtful” and that it “could put you on a slippery slope.”

Chair of the Texas Republican Party Rinaldi abstained from voting on the resolution, but said that even if it did pass he did not think “there would be any difference in the way we have operated because I don’t see any antisemitic, pro-Nazi or Holocaust denial movement on the right that has any significant traction whatsoever.

“I do see it in college campuses and on the left and in the streets of large cities,” Rinaldi opined, adding, “So I don’t think it would affect us at all as originally drafted, as amended.”

Saturday’s vote is a concrete expression of the ongoing fascist degeneration of the Republican Party, which is now openly embracing neo-Nazis and white supremacists. The vote completely exposes as phony all the “antisemitic” resolutions embraced and endorsed by Republicans in Congress. These resolutions are aimed at slandering opposition to Israeli genocide as “antisemitic,” thereby smearing opposition to war.

Notably, some 48 hours before the “anti-Nick Fuentes” amendment vote was held, Fuentes and fellow fascist Richard Spencer held an over hour-long conversation on X/Twitter where they discussed their love of Trump, Elon Musk and hatred of Jews. In addition to both being Jew-hating fascists, Spencer and Fuentes both participated in the 2017 Charlottesville, Virginia, riot that ended with the neo-Nazi murder of anti-fascist protester Heather Heyer. Following the riot, Trump, defending the Nazis, said there were “fine people” on “both sides.”

In the November 30 discussion, Spencer pontificated on the “Jewish experience,” which he said was “wave after wave of expulsions… Is there a cycle to it?

“There were a lot of down home guys who were probably Christian Zionists, to be honest, who don’t want their monuments to Robert E. Lee taken down,” Spencer said.

“And the Jews, they didn’t see that, they didn’t see how it would be better to keep that southern nationalism going. Maybe that’s endemic to them. I’m not associating them with this famous fable. The frog and the scorpion … the frog takes him across the river, ‘Well why did you sting me? You knew who I was before I hopped on your back.’

“I am not equating Jews with insects, or anything like that,” Spencer said with a grin. “What I am saying is that there is a kind of inner dynamic to their way of thinking. They put themselves in this position.

“They empowered the people that are going to persecute them. Is that kind of wild? Maybe it’s endemic to a Jewish mentality.”

“You do sort of have to examine the psychology,” Fuentes hissed. “It is repeated throughout history, there is something … inherent in that group. They keep making the same mistakes.”

The two white supremacists then expressed their appreciation for billionaire Elon Musk’s public embrace of the antisemitic “Great Replacement Theory.” Fuentes said, “Musk, it seems, is playing a very tactical game … a trade. Like when he was called out for this ‘antisemitic remark’ last week. Then he goes to Israel, he says, ‘We are going to ban, “river to the sea” on Twitter,’ and Jonathan Greenblatt thanks him for it.

“So there is clearly a negotiation happening, but I agree. I think Musk is a very deft, strategic player with this, and it[’]s ultimately to our benefit as evidenced by recent events.”

Spencer agreed, “Yeah look, [Musk] said ‘absolutely correct’ to a somewhat random right-wing Twitter user” who claimed “Jewish communities have been pushing … dialectical hatred against whites” through “hordes of minorities … flooding their country.”

“And he just said ‘absolutely correct!’” Spencer gloated.

In a Monday morning post on Telegram, Fuentes celebrated the Texas Republican vote by linking to an article headlined “Texas GOP rejects an ‘anti-Nick Fuentes’ motion.”