Neo-Nazis rally with swastikas outside Florida conservative youth conference
Turning Point USA Student Action Summit, attended by Trump, says it has no connection with group handing out antisemitic leaflets; Holocaust museum calls incident ‘indefensible’
A group of neo-Nazi demonstrators rallied outside a conservative conference in Florida on Saturday, where they displayed swastikas and handed out antisemitic material.
Dozens of demonstrators reportedly waved Nazi flags and swastikas, displayed antisemitic caricatures and distributed antisemitic leaflets outside the building where the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit was taking place in Tampa.
Among those who attended the summit were former US president Donald Trump, who headlined the event, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Turning Point USA told Business Insider that it had no connection to the Nazi group, which carried banners declaring the state “DeSantis Country,” a reference to Florida governor Ron DeSantis who is seen as a potential future presidential candidate.
The organization said it was unable to have the activists moved away because they were standing in a public area.
Local media outlet Creative Loafing Tampa Bay reported that some of the group handed out flyers declaring “every single aspect of abortion is Jewish.”
The leaflets were distributed by activists from the Goyim Defense League, the report said, an organization the Anti-Defamation League has identified as being behind dozens of antisemitic propaganda incidents in 2021.
White supremacists carrying Nazi flags march outside of the Tampa convention center, where the Turning Point USA conference is being held.
They tell people to vote for Ron DeSantis.#DeSantisDestroysFlorida pic.twitter.com/8yvbdigfHK
— Leia???? (@TheSWPrincess) July 24, 2022
Florida Holocaust Museum director Mike Igel said in a statement Sunday that “openly and proudly displaying genocidal symbols is a direct threat to the Jewish community.”
“Carrying the Nazi flag, or that of the SS, the organization responsible for some of the worst atrocities of the Holocaust, is an indefensible act of pure hatred,” he said.
“This should matter to everyone,” he said, and called for widespread condemnation of the activists.
Former Florida governor US Rep. Charlie Crist, whose district includes the Florida Holocaust Museum, said “the reprehensible anti-Semitic hate and neo-Nazi demonstrations on display this weekend have no place anywhere in our state.”
He accused DeSantis of “coddling antisemitism” for not immediately condemning the incident.
