Rob Smith, the Black conservative podcaster who said that a group of "white supremacists" harassed him with racist and homophobic insults at a conservative event last December, now alleges that a Missouri Republican state congressman joined in on the taunting.
Over the weekend, Newsweek reported that Smith had provided previously unreleased video of the December 17, 2023, incident at a Phoenix, Arizona, bar during Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest. The footage showed Missouri State Representative Chris Lonsdale (R) among the crowd around Smith chanting “gay sex” and an anti-gay slur.
On Monday, Smith shared the video on X. Lonsdale can clearly be seen at the beginning of the clip wearing a red tie and a specific plaid suit — which he also wears in a photo at the top of his own X profile. Most of the video is shot from behind Lonsdale, but the Missouri Republican can be seen pointing at Smith and moving to the rhythm of the crowd’s chants.
“Also present at the Phoenix incident where I was harassed by White Nationalists who shouted racist and homophobic slurs at me is @ChrisLonsdaleKC who is a Republican State Representative for Missouri District 38,” Smith wrote on X. “Does @MissouriGOP condone this behavior?”
Smith first posted about the incident late last year. He wrote in a December 18 X post, “Last night in Phoenix, I was confronted and surrounded by some White Supremacists that don’t like gays or blacks in the Republican Party.”
“However, I served in Iraq,” he said, after detailing the slurs that were hurled at him. “I never back down. Ever.”
Video included in the post showed a group of young white men mocking Smith as he recorded a video of himself on his smartphone repeatedly saying, “I’ve got fans!” The men then started chanting, “Gay sex.” Smith replied, “Yes, [white nationalist broadcaster] Nick Fuentes loves gay sex.” The crowd then booed him. One man in the crowd can be heard saying, “No, he doesn’t,” before another led the group in chanting, “fa***t.” The group then started chanting, “America First.”
Neither the video Smith posted in December nor the one posted today includes the racial slur Smith said he was called.
According to Newsweek, Turning Point USA denounced the actions of the men in Smith’s initial video, but noted that the confrontation occurred at a “separate bar/venue that is some distance from the convention center after the program had concluded for the day.”
“These people started yelling disgusting slurs at [Smith],” the far-right organization said in a statement. “He responded well and held his ground, but this should have never happened to Rob. What’s captured in the video posted by Rob is truly abhorrent, disgusting behavior and it’s unacceptable anyone should have to endure that type of treatment.”
Smith, a U.S. Army veteran and former contributor to LGBTQ Nation sibling site Queerty, “came out” as a conservative in 2018, telling The Daily Mail that he had switched to the Republican party.
On Monday, Smith made an announcement that he had departed from the Republican party.
“The Neo-Nazis wanted me OUT of the Republican Party,” he stated on X along with a preview of his new podcast Can’t Cancel Rob Smith. “Guess what? I’m GONE. And being Independent of all the BS feels SO GOOD.”
