Donald Trump’s endorsements before the Nevada primary consisted mainly of non-political people, meaning those who do not hold and have not held public office. Preachers, celebrities, etc. After Nevada, he has begun to pick up political endorsements, including some members of congress.
Today Trump picked up the most famous political person to endorse him so far: former one-term Republican Louisiana State Representative, white nationalist, and former KKK grand wizard David Duke.
Here is a transcript from Duke’s radio program, courtesy of BuzzFeed:
“Voting for these people, voting against Donald Trump at this point is really treason to your heritage,” Duke said on the David Duke Radio Program Wednesday, referring to Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. “I’m not saying I endorse everything about Trump, in fact I haven’t formally endorsed him. But I do support his candidacy, and I support voting for him as a strategic action. I hope he does everything we hope he will do.”
That “formally endorse” caveat basically means that Duke is endorsing him, but he isn’t calling it an endorsement, because for some reason Duke believes that his “formal” endorsement would be bad for Trump’s campaign.
The heritage betrayal is the key component in Duke’s endorsement. The large white nationalist following that Trump “enjoys” use the word heritage a lot, so this is both an explicit and implicit endorsement of not only Trump’s campaign, but for their belief that it will benefit the cause of white nationalism.
Buzzfeed did not have any comment from the Donald Trump campaign in their news item. Trump has declined in the past to denounce, object to, or even disagree with, other KKK, alt-right, white nationalist types and will likely follow that same pattern here. Disagreement would undermine the work he has put in to this point courting the group, which is not trivial. And they’ve been working hard for him in return.
Duke encouraged them to work even harder, telling his fans to out and volunteer to do whatever they can for Trump.
You can listen to the audio of the Klansman’s pitch for Trump as the protector of White Heritage over at BuzzFeed.
Addendum: You know, I was going to be kind of snarky and sneering about this, considering I am a blogger and that’s our milieu, but I really think the facts just speak for themselves. Notice how I didn’t even bring up the fact that Obama was forced to eventually talk about Reverend Wright but Trump gets to keep playing dodgeball? Wasn’t even necessary.
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