New AV Analysis: In Year Since Buffalo Attack, More than 550 Examples of Republicans Using Same “Replacement” Theory Conspiracy Espoused by Shooter
Washington, DC – Two new reflections from America’s Voice commemorate the one year anniversary of the Buffalo shooting and Republicans’ continued dangerous role in amplifying, mainstreaming or tacitly approving the same white nationalist conspiracies that the racist Buffalo shooter espoused.
- In new analysis posted to the America’s Voice website, AV Political Director Zachary Mueller writes: “One Year After the Buffalo Terror Attack, Republicans Have Fully Embraced Racist Conspiracy Theories Espoused by Domestic Terrorists,” detailing that despite the horrors in Buffalo and the shooter’s racist screed filled with conspiracy theories, Republicans have continued to use and mainstream dangerous white nationalist conspiracies:
“One year ago, on May 14, 2022, a mass murderer traveled to a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, and murdered ten people at the Tops grocery store. All of his victims were black – people who the murderer believed to be ‘replacers.’ …The shooter’s racist screed was filled with white nationalist and antisemitic propaganda and conspiracy theories, mainly surrounding what is called the ‘great replacement theory.’
As Mueller details, Republicans have continued to advance and mainstream the same dangerous conspiracies and falsehoods in the past year: America’s Voice’s ongoing message tracking project has found more than “550 examples of elected Republicans or top campaigns that employed the white nationalist great replacement conspiracy theory from May 14, 2022 through May 10, 2023” as well as “22 examples of House Republicans amplifying the great replacement conspiracy theory in a congressional hearing this year” while inviting “9 witnesses who had previously promoted the racist fiction.”
- America’s Voice editor Gabe Ortiz also writes his own reflection on Buffalo: “On One Year Anniversary of Terror Attack, Biden Calls White Supremacy ‘The Most Dangerous Terrorist Threat to Our Homeland’ as GOP Leaders Stay Silent or Echo Racist Theories”:
“…top Congressional Republicans, including New York Rep. Elise Stefanik and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz were silent on the anniversary of the racist terror attack that took the lives of Black Americans going about their day, one year ago this past Sunday. The mass shooter had purposefully targeted a predominantly Black area, driven by the racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory, which posits that Jews and others are replacing white people through immigration.
The silence from GOP leaders this past weekend was even more deafening considering how fervently they pushed the kind of dangerous rhetoric that led to this domestic terror attack on ordinary shoppers.”
Compounding Republican leaders’ silence on the Buffalo anniversary, Ortiz also highlights that “they have allowed their conference to spew this racist rhetoric from Congressional hearings, paid advertisements, and official social media accounts … In just one recent example, Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar last week amplified replacement theory in a Twitter message that all but called for mass violence, Mueller noted. Subsequent reporting has revealed that Gosar’s digital director is reportedly a “Groyper” and key supporter of notorious white nationalist Nick Fuentes. Hunter Walker from Talking Points Memo, who broke the story, reports that Vanderbilt University historian Nicole Hemmer ‘described the situation with Gosar’s office as unprecedented in the modern era.’”
