Nigel Farage repeatedly appeared with homophobic, antisemitic and anti-Muslim hate preacher
Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage delivers a speech during a campaign event in May 2019 (Ian Forsyth/Getty)
British politician Nigel Farage has repeatedly appeared on a homophobic, anti-Muslim and antisemitic hate preacher’s television show.
The Brexit Party leader has appeared on conservative Christian broadcaster Rick Wiles’ TV show at least six times between 2011 and 2016.
Wiles, who once said the Antichrist will be a “homosexual Jew”, has hosted the TruNews network since its foundation in 1999.
Farage’s appearances saw the politician peddle several antisemitic conspiracy theories, according to anti-racist group Hope Not Hate.
The group unearthed a handful of interviews with Farage spanning at least four years.
Although, descriptions of two further episodes, for which audio cannot be assessed, indicate he was a guest in 2008 and 2009, Hope Not Hate said.
Nigel Farage link to conservative commentator ‘underlines just how dangerous and divisive the Brexit Party is’.
Wiles has stated that he has been interviewing Farage since “around 2006, maybe 2005”, and has claimed that TruNews was, “the first American radio programme, and/or television programme, to introduce Nigel Farage to the American people.”
In one episode featuring Farage, according to Hope Not Hate, his slot was sandwiched between Wiles spouting that legalising marriage equality will: “Bring back down the wrath of God on the whole nation.”
Although, maybe the wrath of climate catastrophe is slightly more of a worry than same-sex weddings are.
WATCH: Nigel Farage appeared numerous times on the talk show of Rick Wiles, a racist conspiracy theorist who has since become even more extreme, calling the impeachment of Donald Trump a "Jew Coup". pic.twitter.com/M8P4pBdDCY
— HOPE not hate (@hopenothate) December 9, 2019
A spokesman for Farage told The Guardian: “Nigel has done a huge amount of US radio, TV and media appearances over the last decade and more. If Mr Farage did appear on this radio show as The Guardian suggests, then he was certainly not aware of Mr Wiles’s views.”
Matthew McGregor, campaigns director for Hope Not Hate, said Farage’s links to Wiles, “underlines just how dangerous and divisive the Brexit Party is”.
He said: “Wiles has become even more vicious since the election of Donald Trump but his hate was always clear and unapologetic. Nigel Farage frequently appeared on Wiles’s platform up until 2016 and was happy to legitimise and expound radical conspiracy theories, some with antisemitic associations, on an outlet that no mainstream politician should ever have countenanced.
The Brexit Party: Nigel Farage’s appearance is not ‘indicative of any endorsement’.
A Brexit Party spokesperson stressed to PinkNews that a politician’s appearance on a media outlet does not necessarily equate to an endorsement to the outlet or the host.
“As committed free speech advocates, The Brexit Party doesn’t believe in no-platforming,” the party spokesperson said.
“We believe that people of opposing views must speak freely and directly to each other in order to advance the public debate on a variety of issues related to Brexit and beyond.
“We also believe that even those with objectionable unsavoury views must speak freely as well, in order that even the most objectionable and unsavoury views are subjected to the public scrutiny they deserve.
Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage (Luke Dray/Getty)
“We don’t believe that an appearance on a given media platform by our Leader and/or Brexit Party representatives is indicative of any endorsement of those platforms or the individuals that own or operate them.”
They continued: “Likewise, representatives for many British political parties and organisations have appeared on the state broadcast networks of numerous objectionable regimes and world governments, including those that are oppressive towards ethnic and religious minorities, that persecute LGBT+ people and are oppressive towards women.
“The Brexit Party is proud to be the home of numerous prominent LGBT+ voices and doesn’t support or advocate for any policy that will adversely impact the lives of LGBT+ people and never will,” they added.
Rick Wiles’ long-standing and well-documented history of homophobia.
TruNews has acted as a soapbox for Wiles to crow an array of fringe, anti-gay theories for decades.
In 2014, Wiles claimed that: “The German Nazi Party was homosexual, Hitler was a homosexual, the top Nazi leadership, all of them were homosexuals.”
He argued they were “creating a homosexual special race” and “a race of super gay male soldiers”.
Rick Wiles.
Moreover, in 2017, Wiles’ brand of bizarre, boorish predictions hit a new height when he prophesied that a nuclear war will break out over trans people using women’s bathrooms.
While in 2017 he blamed a “gay Nazi” conspiracy for the Las Vegas massacre.
Although, that may have more been caused, in part, by loose gun control laws and white supremacism, possibly. Maybe.
