Kandiss Taylor’s Podcast is Hosted on the Stew Peters Network
On the recent Conspiracy Theory Episode of Peach Pundit the Podcast™, Pye took some time to offer a dramatic reading of a tweet from Georgia Republican Party State Committee member and 1st District Chair, Kandiss Taylor. That episode of our podcast explored the how-and-why-and-where-do-we-go-from-here aspect of how people who peddle conspiracies such as weather manipulation gain a following and are allowed to remain in leadership positions within the GAGOP.
Since Taylor consistently pushes ideas like globes are propaganda, birtherism, and “they” control the weather, she naturally came up in the conversation. But because I wanted to make sure I was not misquoting her, I had to go and find her episode of Jesus Guns Babies podcast, which by the way search engines do not make easy to find, and make sure she actually said the things our tipster alerted us to. Finding the latest episode isn’t easy as search results tended to present episodes that are a couple of years old. And then when I did find it it became obvious why search engines bury her.
Kandiss Taylor’s podcast is hosted on the Stew Peters Network. Yes, that Stew Peters. The same one that Georgia Republican Party Chairman, Josh McKoon, pointed out was labeled by the Anti-Defamation League as, “a Florida-based antisemitic conspiracy theorist, radio show host, and self-proclaimed ‘Christian nationalist.’ He also regularly promotes… white supremacist beliefs on his show and social media, and he has engaged in Holocaust denial.” McKoon went on to acknowledge in that statement that Taylor affirmed antisemitic comments made by Peters during one of the latter’s shows. Even so, she has been allowed to remain in her leadership position because she apologized, as if an apology after she denied any wrongdoing somehow makes up for the damage she does to the Republican brand by remaining in that position.
Now back to the dramatic reading by Pye. I thought it was clip worthy and funny, so I made a reel out of it and posted it to Facebook. Taylor was none too pleased and decided to post the following series of comments on it.
Now at this point, I try to give the benefit of the doubt. She thought I meant that he was the host of Jesus Guns Babies, not her. Maybe she didn’t understand that in this context hosting meant that Stew Peters provided the service to her to publish her podcast. As in a webhost. Trying to put myself in her shoes, I can see how I may not have clearly communicated that I was talking about a webhost. So I attempted to clarify.
And it is true that you cannot post links from Stew Peters’ network on Facebook. It was an instant community standards violation when I tried and Facebook immediately disallowed it. Which means you cannot post links to the Jesus Guns Babies podcast when they are hosted on that site. That is how heinous that site is. I am probably on some watch list now just for googling and attempting to post links to it as evidence that what I am writing is true. This speaks to the quality of the person who is allowed to offer an apology for affirming antisemitism (McKoon’s words) and remain in her GAGOP leadership position. McKoon has acknowledged that Peters is unsavory and does not share the values of the Republican Party, but the only thing he has done to distance himself and the party from someone who is so closely tied to Peters is offer a milquetoast statement that she doesn’t speak for the party. But she does. He never condemned Taylor for what many saw as hate filled comments.
Taylor wasn’t done.
Kandiss Taylor has praised Stew Peters as one of her closest friends. Her podcast continues to be hosted on his servers and he promotes her show to his audience. Hate sells and is capable of drawing a large following. Even though she went on to claim I must be jealous of her huge following, which is laughable, I am actually very concerned that she draws from Stew Peters and his brand of hate to build that following. It isn’t envy I have, it is disgust.
I cannot possibly be the only one who sees her continued official role within the GAGOP as problematic and toxic to the organization’s long term health.
Taylor’s last response, shown below, on the reel speaks for itself. No, she does not have shame. The rest of it is just nonsensical, as I have never run for a state party position. I once held a county level position that I resigned from when I ran for State House so as to not create conflicts of interest within the board of my local party. As for her assertion that it is chilling that I call myself a Republican, I have been wondering what has happened to the GOP. The party I signed up for would have never tolerated anyone to ascend to a leadership position while simultaneously having such close business relations with someone like Stew Peters. It would of simply been impossible.
“I have been wondering what has happened to the GOP”
I’m trying to figure out how to write a response here that doesn’t stray into my usual sophomoric attempts at humor and sarcasm.
I think that deep down inside a lot of self-identified conservatives that there is a strong desire for authoritarianism. I think that conservative people like simplicity and organization and order, which democracy/republics don’t offer. Politics and running a government is messy, even chaotic at times. It’s the worst system of government, other than every other system, to paraphrase Churchill.
The problem that we have is which authority figure has risen. We have a spoiled, narcissistic man-child at the head of one of our 2 major political parties. A man (and I use that term very loosely) who preaches hate, division, racism, misogyny, and yes fascism. And if you don’t play along you get kicked out of the tribe. So the members of the party who want to curry favor, who want to rise to the top, who want the gold star to take home to mommy will echo everything that he says and excuse everything that he does in order to scratch and claw their way up the hill, in an attempt to sit at his right hand.
That’s why you have Kandiss Taylors, Matt Gaetzs, Marjorie Taylor Greenes, and every other 2-bit whack job that currently populate the GOP. That’s why you have Nikki Haley who went from publicly stating how unfit Trump is to hold office to endorsing him. She wants to keep her spot on the team. Honestly, Brian Kemp and Brad Raffensberger both are showing incredible bravery in what they have done and continue to do in Georgia in what could only be described as defiance of Trump and his followers. I hope for the country’s sake, and for the Republican party’s sake that 1: Trump loses, and 2: they decide to rebuild behind people like Brian Kemp. I won’t vote for the guy, but I won’t worry that he will try to burn the country to the ground to make himself more powerful (and stay out of prison).
But ultimately, Republicans have to stop looking for a daddy figure. There was (and is) still far too much hero worship of people like Ronald Reagan. There are too many people on the right who just want a “strong man” in charge. Personally, I’d like to have a decent man (or woman) in charge. Just once.