Republicans Return Donations From White Supremacist

Republican presidential candidates, GOP lawmakers and the lone black Republican in the House are returning donations from the leader of a white supremacist group cited by Charleston church murder suspect Dylann Roof or giving the money to charity.

Rep. Mia Love of Utah, an African-American Republican woman who was elected to the House last year, said through a spokesman that she had returned $1,000 in donations from Earl Holt, leader of the Council of Conservative Citizens.

The campaigns of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Rick Santorum said they would donate the money received from Holt to a fund set up by Charleston’s mayor to assist the victims’ families.

“I abhor the sentiments Mr. Holt has expressed,” Santorum said in a statement. “These statements and sentiments are unacceptable. Period. End of sentence.”

Holt has contributed more than $60,000 to Republicans since 2010, including several White House hopefuls, Federal Election Commission records show.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who is expected to announce his presidential candidacy next month, has received $3,500 in donations from Holt since 2011. Walker will donate the money to charity, said his spokeswoman, AshLee Strong, in an email.

An online manifesto purportedly written by Roof, the suspect in last week’s murder of nine blacks at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, said he learned about “brutal black on white murders” from the Council of Conservative Citizens website.

Another presidential hopeful, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, said he will return the $8,500 he received from Holt.

In a statement posted online Sunday, Holt said that it “was not surprising” that Roof credited his group with his knowledge of black-on-white crime. But he added that the Council of Conservative Citizens is “hardly responsible for the actions of this deranged individual merely because he gleaned accurate information from our website,” and said that the group doesn’t condone illegal activities.

This article appeared in print on page 2 of the June 23rd, 2015 edition of Hamodia.