The telephone campaign is led by the American Freedom Party, which
on its website says it "shares the customs and heritage of the
European American people." The calls featured the spokesman of a
white supremacist group that Dylann Roof, who is accused of gunning
down nine people at a black church in South Carolina in June, had
reportedly cited as inspiration.
"We don't need Muslims. We need smart, well-educated white people
who will assimilate to our culture," Jared Taylor, editor of the
supremacist magazine American Renaissance, says on the call.
Taylor is also spokesman of the Council of Conservative Citizens, a
supremacist group with historic links to the White Citizens Council,
a segregationist organization set up in Mississippi in 1954.
The group also attempted to buy radio time in Iowa but was rebuffed.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for
comment.
The group has placed about 200,000 "robocalls" in Iowa and may also
target New Hampshire, organizers said. The American Freedom Party
published an audio recording of the call on its website.
Iowa kicks off the voting in the nominating contests leading up to
the November 2016 presidential election with its caucuses on Feb. 1.
New Hampshire holds the country's first primary elections on Feb. 9.
The campaign by the American National Super PAC injects another
controversial wrinkle into a presidential campaign that has been
more racially charged than any in recent memory.
Trump has emerged as a surprise front runner in the Republican
nominating contest after calling Mexican immigrants "rapists" in his
speech declaring his candidacy and saying the United States should
ban Muslims from entering the country, following the massacre in San
Bernardino, California, last month by a young Muslim couple.
Republican rivals have condemned those remarks as inflammatory, but
they have not dented Trump's popularity among Republican voters, who
are overwhelmingly white.
"I can’t say it surprises me," said Dave Zbaracki, a former
Republican who was attending a campaign event for Democrat Hillary
Clinton in Waterloo, Iowa. He said many of his Republican friends
were "mortified" by events in the race.
The group bought airtime on a Des Moines Christian radio station to
broadcast its message but the station says it will not broadcast the
show.
"They're not on our air," Praise 940 AM general manager Jeff Delvaux
told Reuters. "ENERGIZED BY TRUMP"
Trump has not sought the backing of white supremacist groups but
several say his success has helped them win new supporters.
[to top of second column] |
"Clearly our movement has been energized by Trump," said Richard
Spencer, director of the National Policy Institute, a far-right
group dedicated to promoting the interests of white Americans.
The chairman of the American Freedom Party, William Johnson, who
also appears on the call, told Reuters he has spent about $9,000 on
the effort and plans to spent another $10,000 of his own money. He
said others have volunteered to pay for the effort as well.
The group, which originally registered in November as the American
National Trump Super PAC before changing its name, also planned to
run pro-Trump radio programming from Jan. 12 through Jan. 22, but
was notified on Monday morning that the station would not accept its
$2,100 payment.
"We've been advised by our attorney NOT to run the For God & Country
program on KPSZ," an employee wrote, according to email
correspondence forwarded by Johnson.
Delvaux, the station manager, declined to say why the station opted
to return the money.
Other white supremacist leaders said that while many of their
supporters supported Trump, they did not plan to formally campaign
on his behalf.
Michael Hill, president of the League of the South, said his members
were most excited about Trump's potential to disrupt the American
political system, which could make it easier for them to accomplish
their goal of breaking the South away from the rest of the United
States.
"I'm looking for American politics to become pure chaos," he said.
Spencer, of the National Policy Institute, said he planned to vote
for Trump but thought white nationalist groups would actually hurt
the real-estate billionaire's prospects if they campaigned for him.
"Most white people are afraid of our ideas," he said.
"We're not going to really help candidates by giving them our seal
of approval," he added.
(Additional reporting by Alana Wise; Editing by Jason Szep and
Leslie Adler)
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