former vice president mike pence gestures as he speaks during a republican jewish coalition annual leadership meeting in las vegas on nov 18 2022 fuentes has a history of racist sexist and antisemitic comments and has been banned on all major social media platforms even assuming the former president didnt realize mr fuentes was coming to maralago for him to refuse to condemn fuentes and his bigoted words after the dinner is appalling and it is dangerous the dinner and trump choosing not to directly denounce fuentes as the controversy has unfolded also became fuel for criticism from democrats he also said he did not know who fuentes was when fuentes came to maralago just ridiculous beyond washington trump also faced criticism from his former vice president and potential 2024 primary opponent mike pence to give an antisemite even the smallest platform much less an audience over dinner is pure evil i dont believe hes a racist or a bigot thats just a bad idea on every level wade vandervortafp via getty images file im gonna take at face value that the president didnt know who the guy was mccarthy is a legislative ally of trumps the dinner was attended by fuentes ye who recently lost major business deals over his own antisemitic remarks and florida republican political operative karen giorno it was wrong and inappropriate to have that meeting still he said i think trump should be talking about what he did as president and how he could fix the problems that america is living with and any day he is not doing that is a bad day for him and sen lindsey graham rsc said the meeting was bad but accused the press of a double standard because he said that democrats didnt face similar coverage when associating with polarizing figures more thats all im going to say sen joni ernst riowa added its antithetical to everything we stand for as americans retiring sen rob portman rohio said monday some republican lawmakers on monday declined to criticize trump directly but said the meeting was still wrong and that it indicates trump is not being served well by his aides mcconnell has previously criticized trump over the jan 6 insurrection but declined to comment on the maralago meeting trump has maintained that meeting with fuentes was not intentional he said in multiple statements that he only sought to meet with ye and that the rapper brought fuentes to the twohour dinner without his knowledge abc news sarah kolinovsky contributed to this report senate majority leader chuck schumer speaks to reporters at the capitol in washington nov 15 2022 j scott applewhiteap file for a former president to sit down and have dinner with an antisemite is disgusting and dangerous senate majority leader chuck schumer of new york said monday whoever allowed anyone with his background to get that close to the president should not have a job in the trump team said sen