February 25, 2016

Former KKK Grand Wizard Urges Followers to Get Off Their “Rear End” and Support Trump

AP

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David Duke, a white supremacist and former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard, added his name to Donald Trump’s ever-growing list of racist supporters when he urged listeners of his radio show on Wednesday to volunteer to help elect the real estate magnate to the White House.

“Voting against Donald Trump at this point is really treason to your heritage,” Duke said.

Duke sought to shame his listeners into mobilizing and getting off their “rear end that’s getting fatter and fatter for many of you every day on your chairs.”

He stopped short of an official endorsement. “But I do support his candidacy, and I support voting for him as a strategic action,” he said. “I hope he does everything we hope he will do.”

While Duke did not detail exactly which of Trump’s campaign promises he was referring to, it’s safe to assume they include the Republican front-runner’s pledges to ban Muslims from entering the United States and to build a wall along the Mexican border.

Duke’s call to arms on Wednesday fits squarely into a recent analysis of Trump’s base. According to that analysis, 20 percent of his supporters think freeing slaves after the Civil War was a wrong move for the country, and 70 percent would love to see the Confederate flag flying above state grounds again.

The audio clip from Duke’s show was first reported by BuzzFeed and can be heard below:

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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