CNN anchor Jake Tapper suggested on Wednesday that the Republican Party has devolved to the party of "deranged bigots."
Two recent GOP primary victories in congressional races have raised eyebrows in recent weeks.
Businesswoman Marjorie Greene, who last week won her primary in Georgia's 14th district, has been criticized as a QAnon conspiracy theorist and a 9/11 truther, things she attempted to walk back during a recent interview with Fox News. Yesterday, far-right activist and provocateur Laura Loomer, who has a lengthy history of Islamophobic rhetoric and has been banned on most social media platforms, won her Florida primary.
Both Republican candidates received congratulatory tweets from President Trump.
During an interview with former Republican congressman and CNN contributor Charlie Dent, Tapper suggested that Greene and Loomer are becoming the face of the GOP.
"President Trump has praised both of them, has gone out of his way to say positive things about these really unlikeable candidates in terms of the things they say and do," Tapper began. "Is it possible that the Republican party is now the party of deranged bigots and there isn't a place in it for a Charlie Dent?"
Kent, who offered his endorsement for Joe Biden, knocked the president for empowering the "whackjobs and nuts."
"With strong leadership, we should be able to marginalize folks like that and it's really a sad state of affairs that the president endorses a 9/11 truther," Kent said.
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Trump was asked about the QAnon conspiracy movement during Wednesday's press briefing.
“I don’t know much about the movement besides that they like me very much,” Trump said, later adding, “I heard these are people that love our country.”