Newsmax host and contributor deny that white nationalists exist in America
Rob Finnerty: “I wouldn't know how to identify one”
Published
Citation From the February 3, 2021, edition of Newsmax's Wake Up America
CRAIG SHIRLEY (CONTRIBUTOR): Joe McCarthy tried it in the 1950s. He broke -- he was a Senator from Wisconsin. He was first a Democrat and then switched to Republican because hunting grounds were a lot happier there. And then he broke out in 1950 with a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, in which he charged that there were 200 known communists in the State Department. This set off a wildfire in the United States; Harry Truman sat up and took notice, and then later Dwight Eisenhower did, the Republican Party did, everybody did. There were nationally televised hearings on how many communists were actually in the U.S. government.
ROB FINNERTY (HOST): Yeah.
SHIRLEY: The problem with McCarthy was that he was not wrong. There were communists in the U.S. government. He just went too far in naming exact numbers.
FINNERTY: Well let's, hold on. Craig, let's set it up.
SHIRLEY: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is going to go too far just as McCarthy went too far.
FINNERTY: Yeah, she's already gone too far.
So this is just after World War Two, alright. We had just defeated fascism. We had just defeated the empire of Japan. Americans were finally home from a long war, a deadly war, the worst war we've ever seen in world history. We just wanted, you know, we wanted to make sure -- that's why everyone was -- this Red Scare was such a big deal back then. The early 1950s, Joe Mccarthy, I mean he cost people their jobs, their lives, ultimately cost himself his career. He ended up drinking himself to death. He was dead in, I think, 1955. He was like 48 years old. But he was going after communists just like right now they're going after conservatives, Republicans, white supremacists, white nationalists. All the same stuff from 60, 70 years ago.
SHIRLEY: Well yeah. You know it's funny they mentioned white nationalists. You know, I'm 64 years old. I've never met a white nationalist in my life and I've been in national politics my whole life. I doubt you've ever met a white nationalist either. I don't think they exist in America --
ROB FINNERTY (HOST): No.
SHIRLEY: I think it's a made-up phrase --
ROB FINNERTY (HOST): I wouldn't know how to identify one.
SHIRLEY: Exactly, neither would I. You can't identify one. I don't think any exist. I think it's just a made-up cause for the left to challenge against.