It feels like a distant memory now, but back in 2023, then-presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis faced widespread condemnation and ultimately fired a campaign staffer who circulated a video that featured Nazi imagery.
Backlash to the video at the time came from liberals and MAGA types alike, as you can see in the replies and other posts addressed to Republican strategist Luke Thompson, who first highlighted the video. As NBC News noted, the fired staffer, Nathan Hochman, had been seen as something of a thought leader in the MAGA movement and had previously praised neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes’ influence on young men (in 2022, Hochman distanced himself from those remarks and from Fuentes, saying he thought Fuentes’ “politics are both wrong on the merits and profoundly immoral”).
At the time of his firing, the campaign declined to specify to NBC News why Hochman had been let go, and Hochman would not comment on the video to Semafor. In 2024, Hochman suggested to political blog Florida Politics that he was unaware the imagery was connected to Nazis when he promoted it.
But it appears that since his departure from Team DeSantis, Hochman has gone up in the world — from staffing a failed presidential campaign to a position with a sitting senator. The newsletter Liberal Currents and The Guardian both report that Hochman now works for Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri. And the public affairs website LegiStorm, which maintains a database of congressional employees, lists Hochman as a policy adviser in Schmitt’s office. (Schmitt’s office didn’t immediately respond to MSNBC’s request for comment.)
And at the same time the senator employs this man who promoted Nazi iconography, Schmitt is aiding the Trump administration’s authoritarian assault on campuses and universities. Schmitt has promoted — both online and from the Senate floor — the bogus claim that diversity measures fuel antisemitism. The hypocrisy is glaring: If only the senator were as dogged in rooting out bigotry in his own office, perhaps Hochman would not be working there.








