Shooter linked to supremacists
ORGANISATION: Controversial group leader donated money to presidential candidates. MASSACRE SUSPECT ‘DERANGED’
Washington
The head of a white supremacist group cited by the alleged killer of nine people at a black South Carolina church last week has given thousands of dollars to several 2016 Republican presidential candidates, according to media reports.
Earl Holt III, of Texas, leader of the Council of Conservative Citizens, has donated a total of $65 000 (R800 000) to US Senator Ted Cruz, of Texas, former US Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, and US Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, among other politicians in recent years, Britain’s The Guardian newspaper reported.
The New York Times the donations.
According to The Guardian, Holt also donated to campaigns for other Republicans, including US Representative Steve King of Iowa, Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Senator Jeff Flake
also reported of Arizona. Representatives for Cruz told the papers his campaign would immediately return the $8 500 given by Holt.
A spokesperson for Paul said the campaign could not confirm the amount received from Holt but that all contributions would be donated to the Mother Emanuel Hope Fund for victims of the shooting. Last Wednesday’s shootings took place in Charleston during a Bible study session at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Holt has also donated to former congresswoman and presidential candidate Michele Bachmann of Minnesota.
CNN reported that US Representative Mia Love of Utah, the first black Republican woman elected to Congress, would also return three donations from Holt.
According to the media reports, records show Holt, 62, lists himself as president of the group, which the suspect in the South Carolina shootings, 21-year-old Dylann Roof, who is white, reportedly cited in a racist manifesto he appears to have written and that surfaced over the weekend.
The FBI has said it was investigating the website.
Holt said he was not surprised his group helped inform Roof but that it was “hardly responsible for the actions of this deranged individual”. The group, on its website, has said it was saddened by the shootings.
The organisation has been cited by the Southern Poverty Law Centre as an extremist group that has called blacks “a retrograde species of humanity”. – Walmart said it will remove Confederate flag merchandise from its stores as a debate rages around the banner seen by many as a symbol of racial violence in the wake of a deadly att ack on a black church. The move by Walmart, the world’s largest retailer and a staple in the south, came on the heels of a call by the governor of South Carolina for the contentious Civil War battle flag to be removed from its state house grounds. “We never want to offend anyone with the products we offer,” Walmart spokesperson Brian Nick said in a statement. – AFP