On June 27, Breitbart published an expose of private messages of Pedro Gonzalez, a right-wing influencer, who had also appeared frequently on the now-canceled Fox News program of Tucker Carlson. Gonzalez is currently supporting the candidacy of Fl. Gov. Ron DeSantis, and other DeSantis supporters have been speaking out against Breitbart's piece. Deace has also spoken out in favor of DeSantis.
Watch BlazeTV host Steve Deace spend 13 minutes defending pundit whose racist and antisemitic messages were published by Breitbart
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From the June 28, 2023, edition of BlazeTV's The Steve Deace Show
STEVE DEACE (HOST): I wanna discuss the Pedro Gonzalez story.
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I think this is a very important story for our industry and our movement. And I know, at times, I am not pleased with what I see from our industry and our movement. This morning I am. I am -- I'm very pleased with what I see. Because I see other people that see the precedent that this is set that we cannot allow. So, I have never met Pedro Gonzalez. I first interacted with him a few months ago. We had him on the show for the first time. Is that the only time he's been on?
TODD ERZEN (CO-HOST): No, he's been on several times.
DEACE: He's been on two times. He's been on twice then, okay. I've long admired his work. I've found out about him -- long admired, like, over the last couple of years. Found out about him from his appearances with Tucker Carlson. That's how I found out who Pedro Gonzalez was --
ERZEN: Just to protect you, I'm pretty sure he's been on more than twice. He hasn't been on a handful. I think he's been on three times.
DEACE: Okay.
ERZEN: One of them was a bit more of a stretch back, but I do believe so. Just to protect you, because I'm the one who books him. I'm pretty sure I've booked him more than two -- but it's been two very recently.
DEACE: Okay. I don't know a lot about what he was into prior to the time that he was with -- with -- I saw him with Tucker and American Greatness. And I didn't even read the Breitbart article. I didn't even read it. Here's why. Because even though I've had very limited direct interactions with Pedro, I think we have texted twice and spoken mostly via DM other than the few times he's been on the show. That's it. I've never met him personally. I don't know him at all.
He came to me over a week ago to give me a heads up that this kind of a story was coming out. He came to me over -- and in that conversation, he said that some -- they're gonna come after him with things he said that he's ashamed of, that he's not happy with. He's a different person now.
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He did not have to do that. This was just out of respect, mutual respect -- came to me yesterday to tell me that the story was coming later that evening.
And you can tell when someone's -- when someone's turn is real by the way they behave in light of it, and after the fact, and that's different from, say, a jailhouse confession. Okay? Now this stuff is out in the open, and I'm -- I'm sickened by it, you know, now that people have me. And it's -- it's very clear that Pedro Gonzalez believes he got involved in a faction of MAGA world that put him in a -- into a dark place. And, if anything, he's gone so -- he's gone so far the other way to break away from that that at times, frankly, I find myself thinking, I don't -- I think that's probably an unfair criticism of Trump, actually. You know? But that -- I think, though, that is a demonstration of the sincerity of his concern about the world he was contemplating getting into and the things he was thinking of embracing.
Here's the thing, though. Nobody in Trump world cared about any of Pedro Gonzalez's problematic views and words until he stopped slurping Donald Trump, and then they -- now they did certainly care. That is a precedent that cannot be allowed to be established. That's how the left operates. That's not -- that is a level of identity politic we can't have. That's a cult, folks. That's what that is. That's not any different than Jason Whitlock, Delano Squires, Thomas Sowell, Clarence Thomas - they're not Black anymore because they're not Democrats. Dave Rubin, not gay anymore because he's not a Democrat. We sit here and mock and pan that stuff. We point out that identity cult, identity politics cult all the time.
We cannot -- and I have seen -- I've -- I've seen our good friend Matthew Peterson and others -- whoever is -- whoever is a part -- whoever's a part of this is professionally dead to me. Lots of people recognize that this is a precedent we cannot set. If you are uncomfortable -- if you believe Pedro Gonzalez's past viewpoints are problematic and have no place on the right, then you should address them just for that reason. But these messages are from a while ago. That's not what this is about. This is about the fact that he's being very critical of Trump. We can't have that.
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It cannot happen that the plum line for fealty to our industry and movement is what you think about one particular person. That can't happen, that's an identity politic cult. That is exactly what we're up against, and that's what they tried to install via Pedro Gonzalez.
That has to not just be a no, but you-know-what no. Nope. Nope. Not doing that. I am pleased to see the amount of my colleagues this morning -- in fact, I wasn't even gonna comment on this. I mean, I didn't think it was that big of a story. Pedro came and addressed it with me personally. I didn't really think it -- most of my audience probably wouldn't even know or care. And last night, I saw a lot of our colleagues around the industry jumping on this saying -- going the full Gandalf. This will not pass. We're not doing this. Not setting this example, don't.
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By the way, credit to Matt Gaetz for calling this out.
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And I am very pleased -- and that's the only reason I'm talking about it this morning, is I saw a lot of my colleagues step up last night, when I was just gonna say, I don't think it's a big deal, move on. But a lot of, like, my colleagues were like, no, this is a big deal and cannot happen. And you know what? They're right. It can't. And that's why I wanted to address it this morning. There has to be a better standard than will you pet my politician the way I will? Will you -- will you love my monkey? Will you -- will you polish the same idol I will? If not, then we're done here.