BREAKING: Winsome Earle-Sears Took Money From Known Nazi Sympathizer and Cosplayer

From DPVA:

BREAKING: Winsome Earle-Sears Took Money From Known Nazi Sympathizer and Cosplayer

VIRGINIA – New reporting from Forward details how Winsome Earle-Sears accepted money from a known Nazi sympathizer and “cosplayer”, Richard Iott. Iott said Nazi Germany “accomplished incredible things” and participated in SS reenactments for 35 years.

Forward: Virginia GOP gubernatorial hopeful linked to Nazi sympathizer donor

• A Nazi cosplayer who praised Hitler’s military for having “accomplished incredible things” is a donor to the Republican nominee for Virginia’s governor.

• Richard Iott, a former Ohio congressional candidate with a history of dressing up as Nazis, donated a total of $900 in ten monthly installments since last year to the Winsome PAC, which supports Winsome Earle-Sears, currently the state’s lieutenant governor. His last contribution was made in May, according to recent filings.

• Iott, a colonel in the Ohio Military Reserve and a Tea Party favorite during his 2010 congressional run, spent years donning a German Waffen SS uniform and participating in re-enactments of the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking. The unit assisted in the genocide of Hungarian Jews and has been accused of numerous war crimes.

• “I’ve always been fascinated by the fact that here was a relatively small country that, from a strictly military point of view, accomplished incredible things,” Iott said of Nazi Germany in a 2010 interview with The Atlantic. The National Republican Congressional Committee removed Iott from a preferred list of candidates and the Republican Jewish Coalition said the candidate was unfit for office.

• A spokesperson for the Earle-Sears campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

• Republicans are reportedly growing concerned about the viability of their gubernatorial nominee […]

• Iott was a member of Wiking, a group devoted to re-enacting the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking. Iott said he participated intermittently in re-enactments for about 35 years.

• One cannot “sit here and judge” the Nazis,” Iott said, although that is precisely what the Allies did at Nuremberg. “We were not there the time they made those decisions,” he said.