Pence Tells Trump to Apologize for Dinner With Nick Fuentes

Former Vice President Mike Pence said Donald Trump should apologize for dining with white nationalist Nick Fuentes.

Trump is facing a flurry of bipartisan backlash for last week's dinner with Fuentes, a Holocaust denier—as well as rapper Kanye West, who has recently made several antisemitic remarks—just one week after announcing his 2024 presidential campaign. The former president has defended the meeting, saying he did not know who Fuentes was prior to the dinner.

Pence, who served as Trump's second-in-command during his tenure and is seen as a potential 2024 rival, called on Trump to apologize for the dinner during an interview with News Nation that will air later Monday evening, according to Leland Vittert, who interviewed Pence.

"President Trump was wrong to give a white nationalist, an antisemite and a holocaust denier a seat at the table," Pence reportedly said. "And I think he should apologize for it."

The full exchange will air during the interview on News Nation at 7 p.m. ET.

Pence, whose relationship with Trump soured after he declined to block President Joe Biden's Electoral College victory in January 2021, is the latest high-profile Republican to denounce the dinner with Fuentes, whom the Anti-Defamation League describes as a "white supremacist leader and organizer and podcaster who seeks to forge a white nationalist alternative to the mainstream GOP."

Pence Joins Growing List of Republicans Condemning Fuentes Dinner

Several other high-profile Republicans have also condemned Trump's dinner with Fuentes.

"First, @RepMTG and now, @realDonaldTrump hanging around with this anti-Semitic, pro-Putin, white supremacist. This isn't complicated. It's indefensible," tweeted Representative Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Republican.

Meghan McCain, a conservative commentator and former co-host of The View, said the dinner shows Trump is "unfit to run" for president again.

"First and foremost, he shouldn't be meeting with Kanye West, period, after the virulent antisemitic bile he's been saying and tweeting and doing for weeks on end," McCain said during an appearance on Fox News' Media Buzz. "We've all, unfortunately, had a front-row seat to watching this extremely dangerous bile at a time when antisemitic hate crimes are at an all-time high."

Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson said on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday that Trump dining with Fuentes is "empowering the extremes."

The dinner has also faced rebuke from Jewish groups.

"Nick Fuentes is among the most prominent and unapologetic antisemites in the country. He's a vicious bigot and Holocaust denier who has been condemned by leading figures from both political parties, including the Republican Jewish Coalition," said Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League.

Despite increasing backlash, Trump has defended dining with Fuentes, arguing he did not know who the far-right influencer was before the dinner.

"We got along great, [West] expressed no anti-Semitism, & I appreciated all of the nice things he said about me on 'Tucker Carlson.' Why wouldn't I agree to meet? Also, I didn't know Nick Fuentes," Trump wrote on Truth Social, responding to the backlash.

Newsweek reached out to Trump's office for comment.