Two AZGOP senators appeared on an antisemitic talk show

Republican state Sens. Wendy Rogers and Justine Wadsack appeared on a talk show this week whose hosts have trafficked in antisemitic content. 

The two Senators appeared on CrossTalk News on Monday, an online talk show hosted by Lauren Witzke and Edward Szall. Witzke and Szall were both fired from a streaming TV network that also spread antisemitic messaging. Rogers appeared twice on that network when Witzke was the host there. 

During their interviews, both senators continued to contend that the 2020 and 2022 elections were “stolen” from Republican candidates Donald Trump and Kari Lake. Rogers, a Republican elected from Flagstaff, also voiced her hope that Trump would appoint her to his administration if he wins in 2024. 

Wadsack, who represents a Tucson district, appeared to endorse the racist “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory while defending bills she authored earlier this year that would have prohibited drag performances and allow parents to ban any book they deem unfit from a school library. 

“The LGBTQAI+ alphabet agenda is one of the most dangerous because, not only is it coming for the children, but it’s also bastardizing just the simplicity of what being a homosexual person might’ve been,” Wadsack said while being interviewed by Szall. 

The new network which the duo appeared on is run by Stew Peters, a well-known conspiracy theorist who also has spread antisemitic conspiracy theories, including blaming Jewish people for the sinking of the Titanic. He also is a well-known purveyor of COVID-19 misinformation. 

Witzke is closely tied to known antisemites and white nationalists, and participated in a white nationalist youth event in Arizona in 2022. She also often appears on podcasts and shows hosted by white nationalists. Witzke has also appeared in videos on Peters channel promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories such as claiming that the Jewish people were behind 9/11. 

Both Witzke and Szall have also engaged in spreading hateful rhetoric around immigrants, claiming that there is a “war on whites,” and have pushed the racist “Great Replacement” theory. 

That idea, popular among white supremacists and increasingly being adopted by Republican politicians, holds that a nefarious Jewish cabal supports unchecked immigration — particularly from Latin America — to “replace” white Americans. It has been seized upon by extremist groups such as the American Identity Movement and Generation Identity.

It has also stoked violence, including Anders Behring Breivik’s murderous rampage in 2011 at a Norwegian youth summer camp and the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh in 2018, the deadliest attack against the Jewish community in United States history. Just before it took place, the killer took to right-wing social media site Gab to say he believed that immigrants were being brought in to replace and “kill our people.” 

The next year in New Zealand, 51 people would be killed and 40 injured but not before the shooter would post a 74-page manifesto titled “The Great Replacement.” 

Again in 2019, a shooter who killed 23 people at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, targeted Latino shoppers and cited the New Zealand shooter’s manifesto in his own, saying the mass murder was a response to the “hispanic invasion of Texas.” In 2022, a shooter in Buffalo, New York, killed 10 people, citing his belief in the Great Replacement theory in his manifesto. 

Both Wadsack and Rogers have made claims that some mass shootings were “false flags,” with Rogers claiming the Buffalo shooting was one.  

Wadsack boosted the interview on her social media, retweeting Witzke. She also appeared to agree with host Szall’s statements about immigration. 

“It’s a replacement. They’re replacing us,” Wadsack said about immigration into the United States, claiming that Arizonans are paying “millions” of dollars for health care for illegal immigrants. 

Rogers has interviewed with Witzke multiple times when Witzke was working with TruNews. 

TruNews has a history of antisemitic rhetoric on the site, the most infamous of which is a piece in which the founder, Rick Wiles, spent an hour and a half saying that “seditious Jews” were “orchestrating” to impeach Trump. 

Calling the Jewish people “tyrants.” Wiles has also claimed that the anti-Christ will be a “homosexual Jew.” Rogers also appeared at white nationalist Nick Fuentes’ event, giving a speech in which she called for the hanging of her political enemies. 

The two Senators also spread election conspiracy theories while on the show, with both Senators claiming the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election was fraudulent. There is no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2022 Arizona Gubernatorial election or the 2020 Presidential election. 

Wadsack and Rogers did not respond to a request for comment about their participation in the program or their beliefs regarding the Great Replacement theory. Senate President Warren Petersen and the Arizona Republican Party similarly did not respond to a request for comment. 

The Arizona Republican Party in August named Wadsack, who in September voiced support for long discredited conspiracies about 9/11,  the “AZGOP’s Freshman Senator of the Year.”