A video recorded at the America Fest conference in December by Will Gifford, a 21-year-old journalism student nominated in May by Republicans for the General Assembly, shows Gifford nodding in seeming agreement as a white Christian nationalist figure tells him Judaism is “evil.”
The top Democrat in the Connecticut House said Monday the video is evidence of antisemitism that should end Gifford’s campaign. The House Republican leader defended the candidate, saying the video reflected on the subject of the brief interview and not the student journalist who posted it.
The video was not quite a minute, posted on Instagram by Gifford. In it, he asks Joshua Haymes, who has developed a following by urging conservative Christians to apply their faith to politics and the culture wars on his Reformation Red Pill podcast, a single question about the nature of antisemitism.
“As a white Christian man, is it antisemitic to not like someone because they are Jewish, because of their religion, because they are Jewish and what the Jewish religion says against white Christian men?” Gifford asks.
“OK, it’s difficult, because I don’t exactly know what you mean by ‘not like them.’ Because for me, I am called to love everyone,” Haymes replies. “Anyone who is in front of me, I am called to love them. Now, the Jew who is in front of me, I love that Jew, and I love him enough to say, ‘Your religion is evil. Your religion leads people to hell. It rejects Christ, and I want you to repent and believe the gospel, because I love you. And I hate what your religion promotes. I hate that your religion denies the truth of the gospel. I hate that, but I love you.’”
At the moment Haymes called Judaism evil, Gifford nodded and said, “Yes.” In the video, Gifford asks no follow up question, nor does he react to Haymes’ depiction of Judaism.
Gifford interviewed Haymes at America Fest 2025, the four-day annual conference in Phoenix organized by Turning Point USA, the conservative group cofounded by Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated three months earlier at a TP USA event in Utah.
He posted the video at Christmas, four days after the conference. He offered no comment with the post other than a New Testament quotation from Matthew: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
Facing questions and criticism about what message was intended by the Instagram post, he added a disclaimer at midday Monday: “I interviewed this man as a journalism student. I let him talk so his own words would show who he is, and they did. What he says about Jewish people is hateful and false, and I reject it completely.”
Gifford, who lives in Columbia, is a junior at the University of Connecticut studying journalism and communications. He also leads the UConn chapter of Turning Point USA.
He filed in late May as a candidate for the 8th House District seat held by Rep. Tim Ackert, R-Coventry. Ackert had been running for lieutenant governor instead of reelection to the House.
Ackert failed at the state convention to qualify for a primary for lieutenant governor, but he refused entreaties to accept a House nomination the GOP had been keeping open should Ackert reconsider.
Ackert, who has endorsed Gifford, said the college student was the only candidate to seek nomination to succeed him.
Gifford said in an interview Monday he understands the optics of him seeming to agree with Haymes, but he said that was not the case.
“The reason I was saying ‘yes’ and kind of egging him on was to continue the conversation and ultimately get a response out of him that is true and authentic, something that is real. Because in journalism, the goal is to take what is true and authentic and the real response, and not something fake and misconstrued,” Gifford said.
He said the question was suggested to him by someone else, whom he did not identify.
“I try, especially in that specific video, I try to keep a nonbiased point of view,” Gifford said. “I ask the question. I let them talk, and honestly, that is a lot of the time of what I do. Obviously, there’s some videos where I say my own political opinion, of course, because I’m running for politics.”
House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, said he was unpersuaded by the assertion Gifford was just asking a question.
“I don’t have the words to describe how disappointed, angry and hurtful I find his interview and his remarks. And I’m watching it,” Ritter said. “I was just aghast as somebody who is married to a Jewish woman, as somebody whose family, like most families, have people of different religions.”
Ritter said he found it “surreal” to be discussing it on Yom Kippur, and he assumed House Minority Leader Vincent J. Candelora, R-North Branford, would be similarly offended by the Instagram video. He was not.
Candelora did not hesitate recently to denounce a homophobic Republican House candidate who embraced Old Testament strictures against homosexuality, including death. Candelora and other Republicans recruited another candidate who easily won a GOP primary.
He saw no analogy in Gifford’s Instagram post.
“He was interviewing him as a reporter. I don’t think that connotates agreeing with the statement. I think throughout the entire interview he was nodding yes. So I think it was just the affect of the interview,” Candelora said.
Candelora said he was more offended by Rep. Geoff Luxenberg, D-Manchester, posting a video that denounced Gifford, then concluded with a fundraising appeal. Ritter said the race is now on his radar.
“I think after these comments, I think it becomes a very competitive race,” Ritter said “We will invest in this race. We will because we’re not going to let these kind of comments go unchecked and unmatched. So the district is going to learn about this individual and the things that he has said or condoned.”
