Adopting Trump’s campaign message as his own, Duke said he is running for US Senate to “save Louisiana” the same way Trump is running to “save America”.
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White supremacist and former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke has targeted singer Beyonce in a robo call appeal to Louisiana voters in his U.S. Senate.
Duke is running for Senate in Louisiana, and he has recorded an automated call pitching both his and Trump’s campaigns as a way to halt increases in immigration and cure what he calls racial aggression. “We’re losing our country”, he continues.
“Hi, this is David Duke”, the robocall transcript reads. “A blind man told me he was voting for Duke and Trump”.
Trump, who has retweeted white nationalists and used racist “dog whistle” language during campaign rallies, hesitated this past spring when asked if he disavowed Duke’s support.
“Unless massive immigration is stopped now, we’ll be out numbered and outvoted in our own nation. It’s happening”, Duke says in the robocalls. It’s happening. We’re losing our gun rights, our free speech. “Will you do what you can to help us fund the fight against David Duke and Donald Trump?”. Duke praises Trump on a regular basis, and he recently celebrated how the “alt-right” movement has “taken over the Republican Party”.
“Look at the Super Bowl salute to the Black Panther cop killers”, the call states. “We have no knowledge of these calls or any related activities, but strongly condemn and disavow”.
“I am overjoyed to see Donald Trump and most Americans embrace most of the issues I’ve championed for years”, Duke said in a video announcing his candidacy.
It’s also too late for the party to block Duke from appearing on the November ballot as a Republican, but the group could have decided on Saturday to prevent him and other white supremacists from affiliating with their party in future elections.
David Duke was among those who didn’t have a problem with Donald Trump’s anti-Hillary Tweet.
While Donald Trump has repeatedly tried to distance himself from David Duke, Duke has a history of publicly (and likely embarrassingly, at least for Trump) tweeting out support for the Republican presidential candidate.
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Users on Twitter don’t seem to buy Trump’s disavowment.
