Welcome to the 602nd original “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profile, where we’ll be discussing Paul Nehlen, an executive at a water filtration company who got outraged that Paul Ryan supported the Trans-Pacific Partnership and decided to challenge the sitting Speaker of the House for his Congressional seat representing Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District. Yes, we’re talking about THAT Paul Ryan. And from the start, it was pretty clear that Nehlen was not your typical candidate from the point where he released his first campaign ad, “Truth Resurrection” on Youtube, where he’s riding around on a motorcycle, showing off tattoos in a sleeveless T-shirt through rural Wisconsin. But in his second ad, he began exhibiting some of the xenophobia you’d expect from someone with flirtations to the Alt-Right, as he complained about “Mexican heroin” that Paul Ryan had failed to stop coming into the country during his time in Congress, illustrating this with the not-so-subtle visual of a storage bin with “DRUGS” spelled out on the side of it in Duct tape floating in a river. Now, you may be wondering why someone in Wisconsin is fretting about things coming across the U.S/Mexico border, since his state lies on the U.S./Canada border. Stay tuned, because this might be a sign he’s an Alt-Right racist. Like how he met up with a Breitbart editor, and went down to our Southern border to further demonize Mexicans.
The next thing you know, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Michelle Malkin, and Sarah Palin were all coming running to try and make Paul Nehlen into the next Dave Brat, and unseat a member of the Republican leadership in Congress, or at least scare them into being extremists for life. The point where Nehlen really became interesting was on August 1st, 2016, where Donald Trump complimented him on Twitter, a shout-out that many interpreted as a shot directed at Paul Ryan for not doing enough to support the Trump campaign. Later that same afternoon, Nehlen’s praise from Trump made even more sense, when in a radio interview, he talked about deporting all of the Muslims in the United States, during a rant against Paul Ryan for not backing Donald Trump enough in his feud with the Gold Star Parents in the Khan family, and adding that “Islam is the only religion that endorses lying.”
Donald Trump’s mini-feud with Paul Ryan was settled by RNC insiders, and he came out to give a lukewarm endorsement of Paul Ryan in Green Bay. Nehlen tried entering the event as a spectator to personally stir up s***, but was turned away at the gate.
Paul Nehlen ended up still getting crushed by Paul Ryan, getting only 16% of the vote in spite of Donald Trump repeatedly complimenting his campaign on Twitter late in the campaign. He was actually scheduled as speaker at the Deplora-Ball on Inauguration Day in Washington, D.C., where he felt he was among his “brothers-in-arms” among all the White Nationalists and Mens’ Rights Activists present.
We’d like to think that when he follows through on his threat to attempt to unseat Paul Ryan again in 2018, that he ends up doing worse. Breitbart News are already giddy about this turn of events, because of course they are. What, with him already speaking with a White Naitonalist radio show in December 2016 and calling for the end of Birthright Citizenship, stating that he believes in the insane Pizzagate conspiracy theory in a Reddit AMA he hosted, and that he Re-tweeted and praised photos of tiki-torch wielding Neo-Nazis and Klansmen in Charlottesville, Virginia last month.
At this point, it’s becoming pretty obvious that Paul Nehlen’s interest isn’t in reaching Congress to put a stop like things like TPP. He’s a revolting bigot who’s rubbing elbows with domestic terrorists and avowed racists. And he himself is one.
One Year Ago, September 5th, 2016: Matthew Erickson (MN)
Two Years Ago, September 5th, 2015: Michelle Bachmann (MN)… 2015 Update Profile
Three Years Ago, September 5th, 2014: Michelle Bachmann (MN)…Original Profile