Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) strongly denounced the meeting between former President Donald Trump, Kanye West, and commentator Nick Fuentes.

Tuesday evening, Trump made headlines by hosting the two for dinner at his Mar-a-Lago home.

West has been making plenty of headlines himself following a slew of anti-Semitic comments, leading to big name collaborations dropping him and a major hit to his personal finances. Fuentes is a controversial far-right podcaster and commentator, banned from major social media platforms for his white nationalist views.

On CNN’s State of the Union show on Sunday, host Dana Bash was joined by Hutchinson to discuss the meeting.

“I know as U.S. Attorney in Arkansas, you personally prosecuted white supremacist groups. What’s your reaction to seeing a former U.S. president associate with someone like that?” Bash asked.

“Well, I hope someday we won’t have to be responding to what former President Trump has said or done,” Hutchinson began.

“In this instance, it’s important to respond, and as you mentioned, the last time I met with the a white supremacist, it was in an armed standoff. I had a bulletproof vest on. We arrested them, prosecuted them, sent them to prison,” he added.

Hutchinson said the meeting was not the best example to set as a leader.

“And so, no, I don’t think it’s a good idea for a leader that’s setting an example for the country or the party to meet with an avowed racist or anti-Semite,” Hutchinson replied. “And so it’s very troubling and it shouldn’t happen. And we need to avoid those kinds of empowering the extremes. And when you meet with people, you empower and that’s what you have to avoid. You want to diminish their strength, not empower them, stay away from it.”

Bash pivoted the conversation to Trump distancing himself from Fuentes after the dinner made headlines. According to Politico, in a statement posted to Truth Social on Friday, Trump claimed he was unaware of Fuentes and said West had brought the commentator with him unexpectedly.

“This past week, Kanye West called me to have dinner at Mar-a-Lago. Shortly thereafter, he unexpectedly showed up with three of his friends, whom I knew nothing about,” Trump wrote. “We had dinner on Tuesday evening with many members present on the back patio. The dinner was quick and uneventful. They then left for the airport.”

On Sunday, Bash brought up the post, saying, “Trump has released multiple statements. What he’s doing is he’s denying knowing Nick Fuentes, but he is not condemning his views, let alone condemning Kanye West’s history of anti-Semitic comments, recent history. So it’s a pattern.”

“Well, I mean, you can have accidental meetings, things like that happen. This was not an accidental meeting. It was a setup — dinner with Kanye,” Hutchinson said.

“And so this happened. But you certainly have every occasion that the question of white supremacy or neo-Nazis or denying the Holocaust comes up — You’ve got to be absolutely clear in your communication that this is not acceptable dogma. It’s not acceptable conversation, it’s not acceptable history, and you have to disavow it — it is as simple as that,” he added.

As the conversation continued, Hutchinson focused his criticism on how Trump failed to condemn the ideology.

“What Donald Trump did, and his failure to condemn it, is really the minority of the party. It’s an extreme side of it, and that’s what you’ve got to distance yourself from. And he failed to do that,” Hutchinson concluded.

Watch above via State of the Union with Jake Tapper and Dana Bash on CNN.

The post Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson Blasts Meeting Between Trump and Nick Fuentes as ‘Very Troubling,’ Says It Empowered Extremists first appeared on Mediaite.

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