Alaska Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s advisor on “pro-family” policies quit on Tuesday following revelations of insulting and incendiary remarks in an audio podcast.
A look at over 100 hours worth of audio recordings of recordings Alaska Public Media and APM Reports discovered the following: Jeremy Cubas defended Adolf Hitler’s opinions regarding “living together”” claimed that he used an offensive racial slur “on every day” and advised people to “get angry” when confronted by violent transgender activists.
It’s also impossible for a man to commit a rape on his wife.
“When you sign the document, you’ve already signed a consent form,” Cubas said recently.
Cubas has aired these and other extreme viewpoints on the podcast he hosts with his cohosts, Contra Gentiles, whose Latin title means “against those who aren’t believers.”
The show that has been out over the last three years, is available to anyone who wanted to listen via iTunes Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube when Dunleavy in April was promoted in April Cubas to a job worth $110,000 per year as his policy advisor for “pro-family” questions.
Cubas quit on Tuesday, following Alaska Public Media and APM Reports inquired about the office of Dunleavy regarding Cubas remarks as per Jeff Turner, a spokesman for the governor.
“Gov. Dunleavy is convinced that distinctions between people make all individuals stronger” Turner said in the prepared statement. “The governor is a representative of all Alaskans regardless of religion or race, ethnicity or sexual orientation. Discriminatory remarks about individuals and communities within our society don’t at all reflect the views of Governor. Dunleavy as well as his office, and cannot be tolerated.”
Cubas refused to comment on his resignation. However, in a half-hour interview on Tuesday morning, he defended his beliefs.
“The podcast is geared towards those who are more philosophical,” Cubas said. “So when someone isn’t considering it in that manner or is simply trying to make a statement and rage, I have nothing to change that.”
In an interview with the media last month Dunleavy stated that Cubas main job was to build a family-friendly website. Dunleavy said he selected Cubas to fill the position because of his expertise in web development, as well as since he had been the photographer on staff for more than an entire year.
Dunleavy and his team haven’t said if they had vetted his podcast prior to Cubas hiring. However, it is at the top of Google’s results for his name.
Cubas claimed he had submitted to an identity check and gave an account on his Facebook and Twitter in the process of hiring, and the assumption is that someone has checked the accounts.
“They didn’t ask me to answer questions specifically,” he said.
In Cubas’ podcast Cubas said that he considers Dunleavy a “good friend,”” mentioned his travels with the governor and also told his listeners that he had recently gave speeches to an evangelical Christian group on how he has redesigned his “office.”
The promotion was also in line with Dunleavy’s efforts to appeal to conservatives of the social wing in his first term as governorand raises questions about whether Cubas ideas had influence his policies.
Juneau Democratic Senator. Jesse Kiehl, who is Jewish was so frightened after hearing some of Cubas comments that he immediately contacted Dunleavy to warn him to the situation.
“This is a horrible thing,” Kiehl said in an interview with the media on Monday.
“Women would like to be snatched by a male”
The podcast was accessible on the internet for over one year at the time Cubas first began working in the office of the governor in the month of March 2022.
The title, Contra Gentiles, references an important religious document that was written around the time of 13th century an Catholic religious priest as well as saint named Thomas Aquinas, and Cubas claimed that the show draws inspiration from concepts that have been prevalent throughout Western culture for centuries.
“I haven’t said anything that isn’t held by the majority of our civilizationand that includes the United States, at least in its initial form,” he said in the interview on Tuesday.
Cubas co-hosts the show along together with Grant Cook, who said on the show that he worked in the physical therapy clinic and also worked in cafes and a camera shop.
The shows typically last around two hours, but some lasting more than four hours. The conversations are wildly spirited and can range from debates on Catholic philosophical thought to absurd conversation about sex. However, Cubas also has extreme views on social issues, and occasionally is a racist.
APM Reports and Alaska Public Media utilized transcription software to study over 100 shows of the series, and then search for key words. Themes that were disturbing quickly surfaced.
The month of March was when Cubas talked at long length about his conviction that modern society has overemphasized the severity of sexual assault.
“Rape is, at the end of the day is quite far down the list of immoral acts that are grave,” Cubas said. “Because at the end of the day I’m referring to the fact that If you create an infant through rape you’ve completed the crime to an extent that is quite acceptable.”
Cubas explained that’s the reason why Cubas believes “an act of divorce is more sinful than the act of rape.” However, he also claimed that rape is illegal if it involves sexual activity outside of the wedlock relationship However, he also stated that it’s not illegal for a man himself to his wife.
“I do not believe it’s feasible to sexually assault your wife. I consider it to be an unthinkable action,” he said. “When you have signed the agreement, you’ve already signed a consent form. You’re confirming your consent until the time you die or until your death.”
In a different episode that aired in the year 2021, Cubas said that “guys have been taught that everything they do constitutes rape” and, as a result, are becoming more preoccupied with women. “Women,” he said, “want to be taken by a male.”
It was during the conversation that Cubas was able to defend his comments about the issue of rape. “This is the standard view across all of the Western world for a large portion of its existence,” he said. “It’s only been the past 80 to 100 years that this has actually changed.”
In the discussion of marriage and rape in this podcast Cubas adds that “sometimes women should be punished,” and then added “I do not think there’s any crime in that.”
When asked about it, Cubas maintained that he’s never slapped anyone. He claimed that his remarks regarding the topic were in reference to an interview in 1987 by the late anchor Barbara Walters, in which actor Sean Connery said that slapping women is only justified when “all other alternatives don’t work.”
Cubas comments directly conflict with Dunleavy’s platform for political change. While Cubas legitimately defended unwanted sexual sex on his show, Dunleavy has prioritized domestic violence and prevention of sexual assault in his tenure as governor.
In the State of the State speech, Dunleavy said that ending the “scourge of domestic violence and sexual assault” is an “moral necessity.” In the same month through an executive proclamation, Dunleavy said “no person has the right to intimidate, force or coerce anyone into engaging in sexual activities.”
Cubas defended Hitler, called MLK “a loser”
In in addition to his extremist views on rape Cubas often stood up for Adolf Hitler. He often joked about Hitler’s birthday and downplayed his role in the murder of six million Jews and praised his beliefs regarding keeping people from different races separated.
“He wasn’t just a crazy person who was looking to murder Jews. I believe he was someone who was aware of the advantages of living a life that was homogeneous,” Cubas said in January — just a couple of months prior to being elevated. He also said: “I think some of the ideas are worth speaking about.”
On the advice by Cook and his co-host, Cubas agreed that he did not support the Holocaust However, he claimed his fellow Nazi leaders had more responsibility for the murder of Jews more than Hitler did. He also said that Hitler did better that Martin Luther King Jr. whom he described as an “loser” that “accomplished virtually nothing.”
In the same show, Cubas argued that “anti-semitism is not real,” saying that Hitler was a target for Jews not due to their race, but rather due to the fact that they were “homeless people simply invading the nation.”
“He would like the races within their respective regions to be pure, which is why Europe is Europe,” Cubas added.
Cubas and Cook mentioned Hitler In at the very least, two dozen of the episodes as per an study of the tapes. In their interview Cubas maintained his assertions regarding the Nazi leader.
“Many people are in favor of the virtues of living in a homogenous way,” he said. “I can’t imagine why that should be considered offensive, simply because of Hitler accepting it.”
Although Cubas frequently mentions that his parents hail origins from Peru as well as that the maternal grandparents of his mother were Black He’s also referred to as himself as a “white Latino” and a “race realist.” He also invoked racist stereotypes that are racially insensitive to minorities. In a number of episodes Cubas often employed the word “N-word.
“I use it often,” Cubas said on an episode in 2021 in which Cubas used the racist expression. “The more they insist that I not say it and the more I’m tempted to declare it.”
In a show in March titled “Satanic gender-based violence” Cubas also called for the use of force against LGBT activists “yelling in the face of people” and “forcing you to submit to these demands.”
“Just be violent with the other person,” he said. “If someone yells at you in you, then there’s no need to shout back. Just take your fist and start punching them.”
Andrew Gray, the first openly gay person chosen to serve in the Alaska Legislature, said that Cubas remarks are “absurd” in addition to “beyond imaginative.”
“If this were a movie you would not believe it,” Gray, an Anchorage Democratic state House member spoke in an interview on Monday. “You wouldn’t think someone employed by the governor would make this video in any public forum, or in any private meeting.”
What are you? Jeremy Cubas?
Cubas 40, who is married to a woman, has nine dependent children according to financial disclosures which he filed with the state. He also is the owner of an Anchorage photography company called MadMen Studios.
From 2017 to 2021 the professor taught philosophy classes on his University of Alaska Anchorage Mat-Su campus. He also did his doctoral work on philosophy in an Catholic Research university located in Belgium.
In the podcast, Cubas said he was born into an Democratic family, but didn’t get attracted to the political scene prior to the time Donald Trump ran for president. In the interview, he said that he got hired into his first job in the governor’s office following an application through the normal channels.
Cubas is a member of Wasilla’s Sacred Heart Church with Dunleavy as well as his undergraduate degree was from the same Catholic university that is the governor’s office: Misericordia University, two hours to the north of Philadelphia.
As Dunleavy’s photographer Cubas kept a low profile photographer; he started taking photos during events and also helped set up audiovisual equipment for news conferences.
The promotion in April was amidst Dunleavy’s increased focus to social problems throughout his second term.
Dunleavy’s office didn’t announce Cubas appointment to the policy advisor position until the end of last month. The only indication that was made public was the financial disclosures states law obliged Cubas to make after he was appointed to the job at a higher level.
In an interview following Cubas promotions, Dunleavy said Cubas’ principal job was to establish a pro-life, profamily web site for state.
“All the work Jeremy does is creating the website. I’m the one who is responsible for policy behind this strategy. So, I’ll address any questions you have about the subject,” Dunleavy said, in answer to a question regarding Cubas description of his job and the reason he was chosen.
However, Cubas on his podcast, said his portfolio is more extensive than Dunleavy suggested.
In a show this month, Cubas mentioned having the “office that is a part of the family.” He also mentioned that it was his turn to introduce “the workplace” in two separate dinners thrown by Alaska Family Council, a well-known group that promotes traditional Christian views.
Before Dunleavy hired him Cubas stated in his show, expressing opinions that were controversial like his would end his career.
“Try to find a reputable job, and then walk into the office and say”You know I believe is that Black people are naturally lazy. See how long you can survive at that job,” Cubas said in 2021. “From the moment you close your mouth it’s over.”
This story was written in collaboration with Alaska Public Media and APM Reports as part of the Public Media Accountability Initiative, which promotes investigative reporting by local media outlets across the nation.
