Arthur Jones, a xenophobic, white supremacist and anti-Semite Holocaust denier, will likely be the face of the Republican Party in Illinois’ congressional election. Jones does not believe the Holocaust killed 6 million Jews during World War II and believes white should be the dominant race.
Jones, who has for decades made unsuccessful attempts to run for public office, is currently the only Republican seeking to represent Illinois’ Third Congressional District.
The Anti-Defamation League described him as, “by every definition, an anti-Semite and unrepentant bigot,” according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
“For example, in 2009, he protested the opening of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, and continues to espouse absurd conspiracy theories questioning the deaths of millions of Jews.”
Jones last year addressed the National Socialist Movement, which is classified by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as a hate group. And he told the Sun-Times he used to head the American Nazi Party and currently leads the America First Committee. “Membership in this organization is open to any white American citizen of European, non-Jewish descent,” he said to the publication.
“The green, red and black flag of the Black militants That’s their goal. They want to take over the South land and drive the white people out and take it over and create a Black nation right there,” Jones said, referring to the Republic of New Afrika.
Jones, meanwhile, seems to favor leaving Black Americans — or anyone who isn’t white — behind altogether. He goes into further detail regarding his feelings on certain flags on his website on a page called “Flags of Conflicting Ideas.”
The first flag pictured is the Confederate flag, which Jones calls “a symbol of White pride and White resistance. It is the flag of a White counter revolution.”
Next to a picture of Mexico’s flag he describes the country as “a nation whose leaders believe they can reconquer the American Southwest, by flooding our country with millions of illegal aliens. And, their plan is working.”
The LGBT community is not safe from Jones’ hate speech, either. He describes a rainbow flag as one “that represents an attack on traditional Christian morality and religious freedom.”
Another page called “Hate Speech” highlights quotes from “four great men of history” that Jones believes do not qualify as “hate speech.”
Quotes attributed to Abraham Lincoln include his assertion that the government was established for white Americans, not Blacks, as well as his belief “that there is a physical difference between the White and Black races, which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality.”
He also quotes Charles Lindbergh as saying, “If the White race were ever seriously threatened it may be time for us to take part in its protection, to fight side by side with the English, French and Germans, but not with one against the other for our mutual destruction.”
During the interview with the Sun-Times Jones recalled, with laughter, taking out a full-page ad in the Milwaukee Journal of a picture of a swastika.
“And the Jews had no idea, you know, that was coming,” he said, smiling and laughing. “And imagine you’re some rabbi and you open up the paper one morning and all of a sudden, bingo, here’s a swastika looking in your face!”
Even the most powerful bigot in the country has a circle too diverse for Jones, who reportedly said he regrets voting for President Donald Trump — a man who has “surrounded himself with hordes of Jews.”
The Illinois Republican Party denounced Jones’ candidacy in a statement to the Sun-Times.
Jones is unlikely to win the election as Illinois is a heavily Democratic state. But his appearance on the ballot only further illustrates the true face of the Republican Party in the day of Trump.
Most recently, former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke, another face of white supremacy that has made his presence known in the world of politics, has garnered some attention. He was one of the first to commend Trump on his State of the Union (SOTU) address.
“Americans are dreamers, too,” Trump said at the beginning of the portion of his speech on immigration.
“Thank you President Trump,” Duke tweeted in response.
