A white nationalist super PAC that recently made automated phone calls in Iowa in support of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has turned its attention to New Hampshire, urging voters there to support the businessman in next week’s first-in-the-nation primary.
“We don’t need Muslims. We need smart, well-educated white people,” a voice says on the New Hampshire robocall.
“I am a farmer and a white nationalist. Support Donald Trump,” says another.
The calls were first reported by CNN on Friday. The telephone campaign is led by the American National Super PAC, which was created by the chairman of the American Freedom Party, William Daniel Johnson. The group didn’t immediately respond to requests from MSNBC for comments on the robocalls.
The Southern Poverty Law Center reports the American Freedom Party is a group “initially established by racist Southern California skinheads that aims to deport immigrants and return the United States to white rule.” On its website, the party said it “represents the interests and issues of European-Americans.”
Jared Taylor, an editor at the white nationalist media outlet American Renaissance, is one the voices on the robocalls. He told CNN that Trump’s anti-immigration and Islamophobic messages resonate with him.
“Most white people would prefer to live in majority white neighborhoods and send their children to majority white schools. And deep in their bones, they are deeply disturbed by an immigration policy that is making the United States majority non-white,” said Taylor. “So when Donald Trump talks about sending out all the illegals, building a wall and a moratorium on Islamic immigration, that’s very appealing to a lot of ordinary white people.”
Trump’s campaign didn’t immediately respond to MSNBC’s requests for a statement. But campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks told CNN that Trump has rejected “all super PACs offering their support and continues to do so.”
The super PAC told CNN that it has had no communication with Trump.
After launching his presidential bid last June, Trump emerged as the front-runner in the Republican nominating contests. The business mogul triggered nationwide anger after making controversial remarks in his speech declaring his candidacy, when he said Mexican immigrants are “bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”
And months later, he said the United States should ban Muslims from entering the country, pointing to the San Bernardino shooting in California last December, which were carried out by a Muslim couple.
Khorri Atkinson