State Rep. Jim Christiana warned Thursday that a report about U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta associating with Holocaust deniers and conspiracy theorists on the far right of the immigration debate was just a hint of what would come if Barletta wins the party’s nomination for U.S. Senate.

Christiana’s comment came after CNN published an account detailing how Barletta, R-11, Hazleton, did an interview, headlined a rally and appeared on a panel with individuals who promoted anti-Semitic and white national views, as well as conspiracy theories denying the Holocaust and questioned the truth behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

“These groups and individuals have some radical beliefs, and to share a stage and a microphone with them on a continual basis leads many people to believe you share an ideology with them, as well,” said Christiana, R-15, Brighton Township, who is running against Barletta and four others for the GOP nomination to challenge Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, in the fall.

“Sen. Casey and the national media have a library full of these statements, acquaintances and relationships from Lou Barletta’s past that are ultimately going to surface if Lou Barletta is the nominee,” Christiana said. “They’d provide a great distraction from Bob Casey’s record in the United States Senate.”

In response to the story, Jon Anzur, Barletta's deputy campaign manager, echoed comments he told CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski and Chris Massie that many of the incidents occurred when Barletta was mayor and lacked a “team of consultants” to vet those interested in interviewing Barletta.

“Lou Barletta has always stood up for racial equality and continues to condemn hate, bigotry and racism in all its forms,” Anzur said.

Barletta, who made his political reputation cracking down on illegal immigrants as Hazleton’s mayor and who has continued to be an immigration hardliner and ally to President Donald Trump, did an October 2006 interview with a publication that labeled the Holocaust a hoax and called the Sept. 11 attacks a “Jewish plot,” CNN reported.

In June 2007, Barletta headlined a rally against immigration reform at Hazleton City Hall that featured the lead singer of a band that denied the Holocaust and championed conspiracy theories about Sept. 11.

But, CNN reported that Barletta’s questionable associations did not end when he entered Congress. In 2011, Barletta spoke about immigration at an event hosted by a journal whose editor supported banning Muslim immigrants and had ties with white nationalists and an anti-Semitic publication.

Anzur blamed the “politically motivated attacks” on Casey and the Democratic National Committee, and he did not respond to any comments made by Christiana.

“Of course, Lou was not aware of these individuals’ backgrounds. When Lou was mayor, he spoke with people from all over the world who came to Hazleton to report on what was happening. This was a global story,” Anzur said.

“As the mayor of a small city, Lou didn’t have the resources or staff to screen everyone who asked him questions. On the first day the story broke, Lou did 27 interviews, from World News Tonight to Tucker Carlson,” Anzur said. “Lou had one assistant, not a team of consultants. He did interviews, not background checks. It would have been impossible to screen every group or reporter who asked him questions.”

Also, Anzur noted that Barletta angered a New Jersey Ku Klux Klan group when he said they were not welcome in Hazleton to support his anti-immigrant ordinance, and he denounced former KKK leader David Duke when he endorsed Barletta in an unsuccessful U.S. House bid in 2008.

Christiana, who has finished a distant second to Barletta in Republican regional caucus straw polls, said party voters “need to nominate someone who has a record of accomplishments that can contrast with Bob Casey rather than a nominee whose associates and language fuel this toxic political environment.”

Barletta, Christiana said, was trying to “brush it off as some isolated incident” on Thursday.

“This wasn’t an isolated incident. He did an interview. He headlined a rally. He spoke on a panel,” Christiana said. “The concerning thing to me is that they would try to convince the Republican voters in this primary this is going to be dismissed so easily.”

Max Steele, the spokesman for the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, said “Barletta’s decision to repeatedly engage with and cater to hateful extremist groups raises troubling questions that need to be addressed immediately.”

Casey’s campaign referred questions to Steele.