Sometimes I get confused and let myself think that moderate Republicans exist. For example, I tell myself, maybe you can find reasonable Republicans in places like Southern California. But actually you’re more likely to find Nazis there. Let me explain.

For 14 years, the head of the San Diego GOP was a man named Tony Krvaric. He resigned in 2020 right around the time a video emerged of him that was a bit disconcerting. After Republican County Supervisor Dianne Jacob viewed it, she said “I’ve certainly had several concerns with Mr. Krvaric’s leadership of the local Republican party and his troubling background has been highlighted in the past, but I wasn’t aware of this disturbing video.”

The video’s existence was first reported by local station, KPBS:

The KPBS report on Friday said the video shows an image of Hitler floating between photos of three young men, among them an image of a young Krvaric wearing dark shades.

The video was produced by a group called Fairlight that was founded during the late 1980s in Sweden, according to KPBS. The 49-year-old Krvaric has previously acknowledged he was at one point a leader of the group.

If you visit Mr. Krvaric’s Gab page you’ll see that he describes himself as “Croatian by blood, Swedish by birth, American by choice!” He also says he is “Chairman Emeritus of the Republican Party of San Diego County.” So, he may no longer be in charge, but he’s hardly persona non grata with the local GOP.

Before we go on, let’s take a look at that video.

Perhaps you think this video was made a long time ago when Mr. Krvaric was young and foolish. But his belief system hasn’t changed. The man refers to his car as a Panzer, the name of a formidable Nazi Germany tank.

 

And he’s imparted these Nazi values to his children.

Let’s consider first the youngest son, Victor Krvaric. In 2022, while serving as a Marine reservist, Victor was investigated and exposed as a white supremacist and raving anti-Semite. Specifically, he interviewed to be accepted in a group called Patriot Front.

…Patriot Front was founded in the wake of the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., after breaking off from neo-Nazi group Vanguard America. Its founder, Thomas Rousseau, led Vanguard America members at the rally. A man photographed holding a Vanguard America shield, James Fields Jr., went on to drive his car into a crowd of anti-racist protesters, killing one. In 2019, Fields was convicted of murder and federal hate crimes and sentenced to life in prison…

…In a membership interview report, “Interviewee 441515” told the hate group he believed in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and that non-Europeans shouldn’t be allowed in the U.S. unless they were “doctors” or a “net positive” to the economy.

The Marines investigated and while they weren’t forthcoming with details, they confirmed he had been disciplined. They also indicated he’s a problem in other unrelated matters.

“The investigation concluded misconduct had occurred and the command has taken disciplinary actions,” said Marine spokesman Lt. Col. Craig Thomas in a short written statement. “The findings have been documented in his military record.”

…Military rules ban service members from actively participating in extremist groups, including liking or sharing radical social media posts, but they do not bar membership. Reservists aren’t subject to the same rules unless they engage in extremist activities while on duty.

Regardless, Krvaric may not be in the Marine reserves for long. A separate investigation into the reservist has exposed other wrongdoing, which could lead to a discharge, according to Thomas.

“The individual is being processed for administrative separation from the Marine Corps for prior misconduct,” Thomas said.

He added that the wrongdoing is unrelated to the recent investigation into Krvaric for white supremacist ties. But Thomas would not reveal the nature of the previous misconduct.

Then there is the older son, Oliver Krvaric, a former president of the College Republicans at San Diego State University. Online sleuths have exposed him as a January 6 insurrectionist who actually breached the Capitol.

Asked whether he was at the Jan. 6 riot, Krvaric initially told USA TODAY he was not. Pressed about the photos that online researchers say show him that day, Krvaric acknowledged he attended former President Donald Trump’s speech, but said he didn’t go inside the Capitol. Asked about images that appear to show him inside the Capitol, he then said he didn’t remember whether he went inside. Sent copies and links to the footage, he stopped responding.

There are two reasons to care that Oliver rioted on January 6. The first is that “an email address in Krvaric’s first and middle names was used in 2016 to create a profile on a neo-Nazi website. That user praised Adolf Hitler, backed deportation of non-white people and expressed disgust of the LGBTQ+ population.”

And the second is that he was actually working for the Trump administration at the time.

A USA TODAY review of arrests concluded Krvaric would be the first full-time employee of the Trump administration identified entering the Capitol in the insurrection. On Jan. 6, 2021, Krvaric was working for the Office of Personnel Management on a short-lived Trump executive order that sought to rid federal agencies of certain diversity and inclusion training.

Imagine that. The son and brother of a Nazi is a Nazi who working for the Trump administration to craft racist executive orders.

The moderate Republicans left the party a while ago.

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