Far-left podcaster Emma Vigeland raised eyebrows this month with her reaction to Maine oysterman Graham Platner’s political collapse.
Vigeland, a former Young Turks correspondent who now co-hosts The Majority Report With Sam Seder podcast, said on a separate Vox podcast that she doesn’t care if a progressive or socialist candidate has “Nazi” skeletons in their closet.
“I am wary of over-focusing on an individual’s personal character over their platform. You know, I’ve said this before. I don’t really care if say like Bernie Sanders or AOC go home and they’re a secret Nazi, but they go out and they vote for the right things. Like we’re talking about politicians…” the Democratic Socialists of America member said during the podcast, which published earlier in July.
“You don’t care?” Vox host Astead Herndon cut in as Vigeland trailed off.
Vigeland added that that was an “extreme example” but that candidates and politicians are a representation of a party’s platform such as “taxing billionaires [and] bringing material differences to people’s lives.”
“And that’s what I value more than anybody’s individual conduct because … how many horrible people are in Washington right now who are centrist or center-right.”
Herndon later said some voters do view moral character of a candidate as a qualification for office, while Vigeland replied that people taking a “victory lap” over Platner’s fall also supported former President Bill Clinton and ex-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo — both of whom were previously accused of sexual misconduct, which they denied.
Reaction on X was fierce, as one user posted an image of Vigeland in a Schutzstaffel uniform, writing “In the 1940s, Emma Vigeland would have volunteered to the SS.”
Another critic called socialism and communism a “dark road these people are going down,” noting the party platform includes extremist proposals like abolishing the US Senate and branches of federal law enforcement.
“It is sold to the people with false claims and utilizing those base instincts that are powerful but difficult to manage in a civil society.”
Vigeland’s comments come after years of socialist and far-left groups and individuals repeatedly derogatorily branding conservatives and Trump supporters “fascists” — a political movement invented by then-Italian “Duce” Benito Mussolini; a close ally of German Chancellor Adolf Hitler during World War II.
Fox News Digital reached out to Vigeland via her Majority Report program and to Platner’s campaign for comment.
