Republican convention speaker pulled after pushing anti-Semitic tirade

WASHINGTON  — A speaker who had been scheduled to address the second night of the Republican National Convention has been pulled from the lineup on Tuesday after directing her Twitter followers to a series of anti-Semitic, conspiratorial messages.

“We have removed the scheduled video from the convention lineup and it will no longer run this week,” said Trump campaign spokesperson Tim Murtaugh.

Hours before her scheduled appearance at the convention, Mary Ann Mendoza shared a months-long thread posted by a feed called WarNuse that includes multiple anti-Semitic slanders, including arguing that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a notorious forgery that claims Jews control the world, is not a fabrication.

“Do yourself a favor and read this thread,” she posted.

Virtually every tweet in the thread, posted by an adherent of the QAnon conspiracy theory, reflects anti-Semitic tropes. After The Daily Beast published a story about Mendoza’s tweet, she deleted it and said she had not paid attention to everything in the thread.

Here's Trump advisory board member Mary Ann Mendoza, set to speak tonight at the RNC, boosting an anti-Semitic QAnon claim about Jews plotting to enslave gentiles and cause world war. Normal stuff, via @willsommer: https://t.co/8fJ9uCr4xC pic.twitter.com/C3xXVQCtWa

— Andrew Kirell (@AndrewKirell) August 25, 2020

Mendoza wrote that she “retweeted a very long thread earlier without reading every post within the thread” and said it “does not reflect my feelings or personal thoughts whatsoever.”

A Republican familiar with the plans who spoke on condition of anonymity cited controversy as the reason for pulling Mendoza. The Republican wasn’t authorized to speak about the matter publicly.

Mendoza had been scheduled to deliver remarks Tuesday night to highlight the president’s fight against illegal immigration. Mendoza’s son was killed in 2014 in a head-on collision by a man who was under the influence and living in the US illegally.

She and and other parents whose children have been killed by people in the country illegally have labeled themselves “Angel Moms” and have made frequent appearances at the White House and Trump campaign events.

Trump has embraced candidates who have affiliations with QAnon, even as top Republican Party officials have distanced themselves from the theory and its adherents. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a congressional nominee from Georgia, said Tuesday she would be present Thursday at the White House when Trump accepts the nomination. Greene, a onetime QAnon enthusiast, has also dabbled in anti-Semitic tropes.

Also speaking is Abby Johnson, an anti-abortion activist who in 2017 said on Twitter, “I have a hard time understanding how people can’t see the connection between abortion and the Jewish holocaust.”