Bennett Bressman, the former statewide field director for Republican Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts’ 2018 reelection campaign, used racial slurs and promoted white nationalism in leaked messages published by a Nebraska anti-Fascist group.
Bressman, 22, admitted to the Lincoln Journal-Star that he posted the messages but said he regretted what he said.
The messages posted by Anti-Fascist Action Nebraska show Bressman using the n-word, mocking the Holocaust, and promoting white nationalism on a YouTube page for white nationalist YouTuber Nicholas Fuentes’ show America First
Bressman wrote that the “white race is dying” and that he was “becoming a fascist” because of his “research.” Bressman urged fellow white nationalists to seek local office and “take this whole apparatus over.”
In another message, he muses about running over Black Lives Matter demonstrators. “I have a nice car and it’s white are the downsides but I think probably would for the lulz,” he wrote.
“Gays are scum of the earth,” he wrote in another post.
“My whole political ideology revolves around harming journalists,” he said in another comment.
The leaked chat dump included some 3,400 messages posted by Bressman.
Bennett Bressman Says He Regrets The Posts & Is Disgusted By What He Wrote
@TPM In the chats, young Nebraska GOP staffer Bennett Bressman encouraged his fellow white nationalist travelers to seek posts in local government and “take this whole apparatus over” t.co/dY01Pm32gN
Bressman admitted that he published the messages but insisted that they were not representative of him as a person in an interview with the Lincoln Journal-Star.
“Yes, that was my profile,” Bressman told the outlet. “I’m not denying it. I understand how they look really bad and are really bad on their face. I regret what I said.”
“When you think you have anonymity, it’s easy to become desensitized to what you’re saying,” he said. “I regret what I said. They aren’t indicative of who I am as a person.”
“It makes me sick to my stomach to go back and read,” he added. “There’s a big disconnect between those words and who I am. I am disgusted by them and a lot of what I said is sick and twisted.”
Pete Ricketts Condemns Bressman’s Statements
Statement from @GovRicketts re: Bennett Bressman, a staffer who admitted to making racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic statements on a white nationalist Discord server.
Ricketts issued a statement saying he was “shocked and horrified” by his former aide’s comments.
“I unequivocally denounce his hate-filled views towards Jewish people, LGBT people, African-Americans, journalists, women, and others,” Ricketts said in a statement.
“Anti-Semitism has no place in society no matter where it hides,” he added.
But the Nebraska Democratic Party pointed to similar offensive statements by Ricketts’ father Joe Ricketts that were leaked last month. The 77-year-old billionaire wrote that Islam was a “cult” and that Muslims were “naturally my (our) enemy.”
“A pattern has emerged from Ricketts’ campaign staff and family email exchanges,” Nebraska Democratic Party chair Jane Kleeb told The Journal-Star. “Nebraska expects our leaders to speak out against hate and it is shocking the Republicans stay silent.”
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