Matt Rosendale, elected Republican from the State of Montana to the United States Congress, caused a scandal last week because of a photo relayed on social networks showing him in the company of two neo-Nazis. In his defense, he assured this Monday, March 6, that he had no knowledge of the profile of the two men.
A controversial cliché in front of a symbol of the United States. Matt Rosendale, an elected Republican from Montana (United States) sitting in Congress, caused a scandal on Wednesday 1is March via a photo relayed on social networks showing him in the company of two neo-Nazis.
In his defense, the 62-year-old elected official assured that he had no knowledge of the affiliation of the two men before taking a photo with them in front of the American Capitol.
“I absolutely condemn and have zero tolerance for hate groups, hate speech and violence. I have not met these people. I was asked for a photo while walking (…) I was not aware of the identity or the affiliation of the individuals to these hate groups which contrast sharply with my personal convictions”, explained this Monday Matt Rosendale to the Billings Gazette.
However, the outfit of one of the two men closely resembled that used by German soldiers during the Second World War, namely a greyish trench coat.
Two of the three men identified
The regional daily was able to identify two of the three men accompanying Matt Rosendale in the photograph. The first would be Ryan Sanchez, a former member of the white supremacist street fighting gang Rise Above Movement. Former American “marine”, he would appear on the left of the photo dressed in the outfit similar to that of the Nazis between 1939 and 1945.
The second follower of Nazism would be Greyson Arnold, a podcaster present during the uprising at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. According to the local newspaper, he would have called Adolf Hitler a “complicated historical figure”
Elected to the United States House in 2020, Matt Rosendale joined the far-right parliamentary group “Freedom Caucus”, created in 2015. After the attack on the Capitol in January 2021, he voted, along with 146 other elected Republicans, the cancellation of the results of the presidential elections unfavorable to Donald Trump.
In November 2021, Kari Lake, a Republican candidate for governor of Arizona, previously posed with Greyson Arnold and another far-right activist at a campaign event.