The Hill News

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R) will appear in Ohio Saturday with Rich Iott, the Republican House candidate who has come under fire for dressing as a Nazi officer in historical reenactment events.

Photos showing Iott in Nazi garb surfaced earlier in October, drawing criticism from both Democrats and House Minority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) who denounced Iott during a recent appearance on Fox News.

Responding to another Fox News guest, Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-Fla.), Cantor said "She knows that I would absolutely repudiate [Nazi reenactments] and do not support an individual that would do something like that ... You know good and well that I don't support anything like that."

Still, Iott was removed from the GOP's "Young Guns" website shortly after the fla! p, although Boehner continued to solicit funds for the campaign through his own Freedom Project PAC website.

On Wednesday, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) released a statement condemning Boehner's continuing support for Iott.

"Not only has John Boehner recruited and financed a disgraced Nazi enthusiast running for Congress, but now even more outrageous Boehner is attending a campaign rally with him," said Ryan Rudominer, spokesman for the DCCC. "John Boehner’s stubborn embrace of this Nazi enthusiast insults the memory of the six million Jews who died during the Holocaust and our nations’ veterans who sacrificed to defend our freedom."

Freedom PAC spokesman Don Seymour responded that Boehner's appearance is meant to "support the local Republican party's get-out-the-vote efforts."

"Boehner has been on the road headlining rallies for Republican candidates in Ohio and across the country ... and he’ll continue his busy campaign schedule into the final weekend before Tuesday’s referendum on Democrats’ jobs-killing policies," Seymour said.

Iott is challenging Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) in the state's ninth district. Saturday's rally will take place in Toledo.