Donald Trump may claim ignorance of white supremacists from time to time, but it’s so not true as this WaPo story from 2016 about his father's KKK membership makes clear (and yes, I say “membership,” because the man was arrested wearing a long white robe). Trump’s “both sides” rhetoric has influenced Trump Mini-Me Dave Brat, who created a moral equivalency between armed and hateful white supremacists and his own constituents gathering to question and protest his policies. This was noticed by Emily's List and this excellent diary gives the details.
While we in Brat’s district have become somewhat inured to his whingeing and declarations of victimhood — while not once, to my knowledge, expressing sorrow for Heather Heyer’s death — he surpasses himself with his lame statements on Charlottesville, which follow Trump’s timing and rhetoric perfectly. For example, after criticizing white supremacists and neo-Nazis
explicitly (late to the wedding, just like Papa), he just can’t resist saying: “It is important to note that these race-baiting groups have extremist counterparts that also thrive on hate and division.” You can read all of his statements on his website in the FB posting section.
Just like Trump, Brat draws from a white supremacist base. These photos tell the story in brief (though see further below): Jason Kessler, Charlottesville Nazi organizer, loves Corey Stewart (local Virginia white supremacist) who loves Dave Brat and hosted a fundraiser for him.
Brat’s reliance on this base is no doubt also behind his hiding behind the First Amendment and refusing to criticize Nazi Richard Spencer, as if the First Amendment protects people against criticism! On the contrary, it grants the right to criticize! Had Brat sought to keep Spencer from speaking that would have been another story; but nothing prevents him from taking a principled stand against the likes of Spencer. Well, nothing in the First Amendment, at any rate.
Following is a diary I posted last year when Brat was running for re-election. It gives some of the KKK background on Trump and Brat and includes links to articles showing Brat’s intricate ties with Bannon, Breitbart, and other hateful people and groups.
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Dave Brat loves all people - not
I once overheard Dave Brat say sarcastically: "I ran on 'I love all people,' right?". I was at an event of his during his 2014 campaign for the VA-7 seat. He was in a conversation with his staff and was rejecting out of hand the idea that his immigration stance could lead to an accusation of bigotry.
But already then, and increasingly ever since, Brat has been aligned with the Ku Klux Klan and other white nationalist and supremacist hate groups. Brat's unexpected primary victory over Eric Cantor, the first Jewish House Majority leader, was joyfully trumpeted throughout such deeply anti-Semitic and racist social media networks as Stormfront.
Warning: these examples from Stormfront are highly offensive.
In a shout-out to such sentiments, Brat himself said of his victory: "It was basically a miracle, you know, from God straight through the people who worked so hard for me." Subtext: God was working towards having a Christian in office; after all, how could he work through a Jew? You can't expect them to be anything other than "crony capitalists" who want cheap labor.
Just in case this seems uncharitable, let's see who was working so hard for Brat
Brat and the hate-mongering Alt-Right media
And then there were the hate-mongering figures of the Alt-Right media and their allies, who gave Brat hours of air time at the national level and appeared at his fundraisers. These included: Ann Coulter (also on Right Wing Watch's Worst Xenophobes List), virulent anti-immigrationist Laura Ingraham, Dave Bossie (then President of Citizens United), and Steve Bannon (Breitbart); the latter two are now in the top echelons of the Trump campaign. I go into the details of these connections here.
Brat and Trump
But there's more! Brat was an early supporter of Trump's, not formally endorsing him until after the primaries, but issuing numerous statements beginning in April 2015 (coincidentally, shortly after Trump donated to his campaign). You can read more about this here with a link to an amusing radio interview.
Trump and KKK support in Virginia
As readers of this blog are no doubt well aware, Trump receives wide and enthusiastic support from white nationalist, white supremacist, and neo-Nazi individuals and groups. Perhaps less well-known
The same is true of Dave Brat, particularly on immigration, an issue of core concern to people who believe that this country is meant for whites only. Here is one more posting from Stormfront (the last, I promise) showing Brat as crucial to that cause:
Brat thinks the English are White
Brat himself is usually too cautious to say anything overtly racist, though at minute -9:00 of this video, interviewer Alan Colmes presses him on the fact that Trump’s support is coming mainly from white supremacists and the white pride movement. Brat's rather rambling reply includes his saying that he loves it when reporters writing about Brexit refer to “old white Englishmen;” those, says Brat, “are Englishmen.” Sorry naturalized citizens and descendants - you ain't the real deal. England is a white country. A little farther on Brat states of Americans that "we want our country back," and then compares influxes of illegal immigrants to invaders. The notion of a naturally white country, of losing the country to immigrants, and of immigrants as invaders is precisely the language of the white supremacist and white nationalist groups.
Brat given leadership role by Trump
Trump's Virginia campaign recently underwent some turmoil caused by fractiousness within the party ranks. According to Graham Moomaw of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Brat has been appointed to a leadership committee to oversee Trump's campaign operations here. At a time when many religious leaders are condemning Trump (such as the more than 700 female Christian leaders who signed a letter lashing out at his misogyny), and decent Republicans are disavowing him, Brat is doubling down. So, Mr. Brat, to answer your cynical and rhetorical question of two years back: no, you do not love all people. In attaching yourself to Trump, you have allied yourself with this bloody time in our history.