On this Sunday, August 21 edition of the Alex Jones Show, we discuss the latest in the presidential race as GOP nominee Donald Trump, who recently embarrassed both Clinton and vacationing-Obama by traveling to flood-ravaged Louisiana to help local victims, pulls ahead of Hillary Clinton in the polls. Clinton insider Larry Nichols will also give his input on the presidential race and break down the latest schemes of the Clinton campaign. We'll also cover the growing escalation between the U.S., NATO and Russia and take your calls.
The Outrageously False Charges of Perjury Against Hillary Clinton By John Dean 19 Aug 2016 Endless efforts by congressional Republicans to foil or foul up Hillary Clinton’s run for the presidency have hit a new low. The members of Congress involved cannot be sued for defamation, since they are protected by the “Speech and Debate Clause” of the Constitution, but the fact that they are not merely smearing the former secretary of state but are trying to send her to jail on phony charges of perjury and lying to Congress is beyond the pale of dirty politics. It is an abuse of power and their effort to criminalize politics could one-day blowback on them and result in their going to jail on bogus charges. They are employing a tactic that could undermine democracy, so it is appropriate to get the facts out. Unfortunately, to explain these seamy tactics takes a bit more space than the normal column, but the facts need to be placed on the record. Without understanding the underlying testimony involved it is not possible to appreciate the falsity and absurdity of the charges against Mrs. Clinton. It is easy to call someone a liar or a perjurer. Not so easy to unpack the charges. A smear like this—and Hillary has had a career of them—takes space to address and debunk, which is why it probably has not been done. I really undertook this drill for myself because I wanted to see what was going on. I believe Hillary Clinton is far too savvy and smart to lie to Congress. And as the following information shows, I am correct and she has not done so. [...] https://verdict.justia.com/2016/08/19/outrageously-false-charges-perjury-hillary-clinton [with comment] [also at "The Squalid Case Against Hillary and Her Emails", http://www.newsweek.com/squalid-case-against-hillary-and-her-emails-492017 (with embedded videos, and comments)]
Donald Trump Is Abandoning Every Network But Fox Donald Trump has done several interviews in August with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, though none with CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, and CBS. Donald Trump touts his stamina in race against Hillary Clinton. Where he’s getting a lot of questions about his stamina. 08/22/2016 Updated August 22, 2016 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-fox_us_57bb3ef5e4b0b51733a4f408 [with embedded video, and comments]
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How Donald Trump's New Campaign Chief Created an Online Haven for White Nationalists
Stephen Bannon, Trump's new campaign director Gage Skidmore/Flickr and Danny Moloshok/AP
Breitbart News is "the platform for the alt-right," boasts Stephen Bannon.
Sarah Posner Aug. 22, 2016 6:00 AM
Last week, when Donald Trump tapped the chairman of Breitbart Media to lead his campaign, he wasn't simply turning to a trusted ally and veteran propagandist. By bringing on Stephen Bannon, Trump was signaling a wholehearted embrace of the "alt-right," a once-motley assemblage of anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, ethno-nationalistic provocateurs who have coalesced behind Trump and curried the GOP nominee's favor on social media. In short, Trump has embraced the core readership of Breitbart News.
"We're the platform for the alt-right," Bannon told me proudly when I interviewed him at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in July. Though disavowed by every other major conservative news outlet, the alt-right has been Bannon's target audience ever since he took over Breitbart News from its late founder, Andrew Breitbart, four years ago. Under Bannon's leadership, the site has plunged into the fever swamps of conservatism, cheering white nationalist groups as an "eclectic mix of renegades," accusing President Barack Obama of importing "more hating Muslims," and waging an incessant war against the purveyors of "political correctness."
Exactly who and what defines the alt-right is hotly debated in conservative circles, but its most visible proponents—who tend to be young, white, and male—are united in a belief that traditional movement conservatism has failed. They often criticize immigration policies and a "globalist" agenda as examples of how the deck is stacked in favor of outsiders instead of "real Americans." They bash social conservatives as ineffective sellouts to the GOP establishment, and rail against neo-conservative hawks for their embrace of Israel. They see themselves as a threat to the establishment, far bolder and edgier than Fox News. While often tapping into legitimate economic grievances, their social-media hashtags (such as #altright on Twitter) dredge up torrents of racist, sexist, and xenophobic memes.
Trump's new campaign chief denies that the alt-right is inherently racist. He describes its ideology as "nationalist," though not necessarily white nationalist. Likening its approach to that of European nationalist parties such as France's National Front, he says, "If you look at the identity movements over there in Europe, I think a lot of [them] are really 'Polish identity' or 'German identity,' not racial identity. It's more identity toward a nation-state or their people as a nation." (Never mind that National Front founder Jean Marie Le Pen has been fined in France for "inciting racial hatred.")
Bannon dismisses the alt-right's appeal to racists as happenstance. "Look, are there some people that are white nationalists that are attracted to some of the philosophies of the alt-right? Maybe," he says. "Are there some people that are anti-Semitic that are attracted? Maybe. Right? Maybe some people are attracted to the alt-right that are homophobes, right? But that's just like, there are certain elements of the progressive left and the hard left that attract certain elements."
A Twitter analysis conducted by The Investigative Fund using Little Bird software found that these "elements" are more deeply connected to Breitbart News than more traditional conservative outlets. While only 5 percent of key influencers using the supremacist hashtag #whitegenocide follow the National Review, and 10 percent follow the Daily Caller, 31 percent follow Breitbart. The disparities are even starker for the anti-Muslim hashtag #counterjihad: National Review, 26 percent; the Daily Caller, 37 percent; Breitbart News, 62 percent.
Bannon's views often echo those of his devoted followers. He describes Islam as "a political ideology" and Sharia law as "like Nazism, fascism, and communism." On his Sirius XM radio show, he heaped praise on Pamela Geller, whose American Freedom Defense Initiative has been labeled an anti-Muslim hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Bannon called her "one of the leading experts in the country, if not the world," on Islam. And he basically endorsed [ http://http//www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/08/19/donald-trump-s-new-chief-steve-bannon-called-republican-leaders-c-ts.html ] House Speaker Paul Ryan's primary challenger, businessman Paul Nehlen, who floated the idea [ ] of deporting all Muslims from the United States.
During our interview, Bannon took credit for fomenting "this populist nationalist movement" long before Trump came on the scene. He credited Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.)—a Trump endorser and confidant who has suggested [ https://newrepublic.com/article/61363/closed-sessions ] that civil rights advocacy groups were "un-American" and "Communist-inspired"—with laying the movement's groundwork. Bannon also pointed to his own films, which include a Sarah Palin biopic and an "exposé" of the Occupy movement, as "very nationalistic films." Trump, he said, "is very late to this party."
At Breitbart News, one of the most strident voices for the alt-right has been Yiannapolous, who was banned by Twitter during the RNC for inciting a racist pile-on of Ghostbusters actress Leslie Jones. Published back in March, his "Establishment Conservative's Guide to the Alt Right [ http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/03/29/an-establishment-conservatives-guide-to-the-alt-right/ ]" featured an illustration of a frog taunting an elephant—the frog image being a meme white supremacists had popularized on social media. The piece praised the anti-immigrant site VDare, the white nationalist site American Renaissance, and white nationalist leader Richard Spencer, as the alt-right's "dangerously bright" intellectual core.
On the RNC's opening day, Yiannapolous spoke at a "Citizens for Trump" rally [ http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/07/trump-roger-stone-alex-jones-convention-crazy ]. He also co-hosted a party featuring anti-Muslim activist Geller and the Dutch far-right nationalist politician Geert Wilders. Yiannopolous has proved to be Breitbart's most vitriolic anti-Muslim presence, erasing the distinction many conservatives draw between Islam and "radical Islam." After the Orlando shootings, Yiannopolous told Bannon on his weekly radio show that "there is a structural problem with this religion that is preventing its followers from assimilating properly into Western culture. There is something profoundly antithetical to our values about this particular religion."
Bannon has stoked racist themes himself, notably in a lengthy July post [ http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2016/07/10/sympathy-devils-plot-roger-ailes-america/ ] accusing the "Left" of a "plot to take down America" by fixating on police shootings of black citizens. He argued that the five police officers slain in Dallas were murdered "by a #BlackLivesMatter-type activist-turned-sniper." And he accused the mainstream media of an Orwellian "bait-and-switch as reporters and their Democratic allies and mentors seek to twist the subject from topics they don't like to discuss—murderers with evil motives—to topics they do like to discuss, such as gun control." Bannon added, "[H]ere's a thought: What if the people getting shot by the cops did things to deserve it? There are, after all, in this world, some people who are naturally aggressive and violent."
Some Breitbart staffers who resisted the site's transformation into a pro-Trump alt-right hub eventually resigned in protest. Several jumped ship [ https://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/michelle-fields-ben-shapiro-resign-from-breitbart?utm_term=.ey53A3PdJP ] after Corey Lewandowski, then Trump's campaign manager, manhandled Breitbart News reporter Michelle Fields at a rally. (The site appeared to side with Lewandowski, and staffers were reportedly told not to question his account.) Among the departing staffers were Fields, who now writes for the Huffington Post, and Shapiro, who has emerged as one of Breitbart's most vociferous conservative critics.
After Shapiro called out the anti-Semitism, Breitbart News published [ http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/05/18/little-benji-throws-twitter-tantrum/ ] (under the byline of Pizza Party Ben) a post ridiculing Shapiro for "playing the victim on Twitter and throwing around allegations of anti-Semitism and racism, just like the people he used to mock."
Back at the RNC, Bannon dismissed Shapiro as a "whiner…I don't think that the alt-right is anti-Semitic at all," he told me. "Are there anti-Semitic people involved in the alt-right? Absolutely. Are there racist people involved in the alt-right? Absolutely. But I don't believe that the movement overall is anti-Semitic."
This article was reported in partnership with The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute. Additional reporting was done by Kalen Goodluck, Josh Harkinson, and Jaime Longoria.
The ‘race realist’ theory of how Trump can win, explained Donald Trump holds a Hispanic advisory roundtable in New York on Aug. 20. At right is Jovita Carranza, former deputy administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration. August 22, 2016 In the days since he added Breitbart News chief executive Stephen K. Bannon to his campaign, Donald Trump has made a considered pitch to black voters, and held a meeting with around two dozen Latino leaders from politics, business and faith where he reportedly hinted that his immigration policy could be tapered. None of that has rattled Trump's fans on the "alternative right," or among "race realists." In a speech at American Renaissance's annual conference this year, VDare editor Peter Brimelow said outright that the movement could not simply trust Trump on anything but the construction of a border wall — "he does love to build things." In this wing of the conservative movement, Trump is seen as a frustrating messenger who is nonetheless more aware of the problems facing civilization than anyone else in politics. At VDare, a clearinghouse for immigration restrictionists, the news [ http://www.vdare.com/articles/trump-on-refugees-and-legal-immigrants-the-vdare-com-annotated-transcript ] is not what happened in a meeting, but that the media keeps missing Trump's passionate attacks on crime caused by undocumented immigrants. The alt-right, in other words, is constantly focusing on the trees and not the forest. And their theory of how 2016 can be won, or how the Republican Party could save itself, is that a supermajority of white voters can be moved by the Democrats' support of mass legalization of immigrants and greater Syrian refugee acceptance. "The single biggest issue of the 21st century is whether the First World has the will to resist being inundated by the Third World," said Steve Sailer, an influential writer for VDare and Taki's Magazine. "If we do preserve our borders, the Third World will figure out how to control its own fertility like everybody else has. If we don’t, though, we’ll become Rio with worse weather and scenery. But [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel’s [mistake] last year of letting in a million Muslim mob shows how badly the ideology of borderlessness has warped the judgment of the ruling class." [...] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/08/22/the-race-realist-theory-of-how-trump-can-win-explained/
A White Lives Matter protest outside the NAACP office in Houston on Sunday. (Courtesy of Andre Smith)
(Image via Twitter @Snapperred)
By Michael E. Miller August 22, 2016
White Lives Matter staged a rally outside the NAACP’s Houston headquarters on Sunday, sparking controversy and counterprotests in a city where racial tensions remain high after a string of recent incidents.
Clutching Confederate flags, white supremacist signs and, in several cases, assault rifles, roughly 20 White Lives Matter members stood on the sidewalk of a historically black neighborhood to denounce the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Reed, who was wearing a “Donald Trump ’16” hat and a “White Lives Matter” shirt with white supremacist symbols, said protesters were “not out here to instigate or start any problems,” despite the weaponry and body armor on display.
“Obviously we are exercising our Second Amendment rights but that’s because we have to defend ourselves,” he told the Chronicle. “Their organizations and their people are shooting people based on the color of their skin. We’re not.”
As police arrived and set up barricades around the White Lives Matter protesters, locals stood across the street. Some shouted, while others shook their heads in disbelief that Confederate flags were flying in front of an NAACP office in a black neighborhood.
Comments by the White Lives Matter protesters Sunday also seemed to echo opposition to the removal of the Confederate flag from the grounds of the South Carolina statehouse last summer. The flag was taken down after avowed white supremacist Dylann Roof allegedly killed nine African Americans at a church in Charleston.
In videos posted online by local news outlets, bystanders and counterprotesters, Reed appeared to be the leader of the demonstration.
He had appeared on television the day before to promote the rally.
“Attacks on white officers, the calling for the murder of white officers, the burning down of cities, the stopping of traffic in streets,” Reed told Fox26 [ http://www.fox26houston.com/news/194457417-story ]. “A cop or ambulance could be trying to take someone to the hospital where a matter of minutes matters, and [Black Lives Matter protesters] are stopping them from going. The NAACP is not speaking out against this and if you aren’t speaking out against it you are, in our eyes, condoning it.”
Whites were under attack, he claimed.
“We’re being told that it’s bad to be white,” he told the television station. “Every other race is encouraged to promote their heritage and culture, but as soon as a white person does it they are labeled as evil or racist.”
On Sunday, he stood out front of the NAACP office on Wheeler Avenue with a bullhorn.
Reed said he thought whites were receiving unequal treatment and had been drowned out by Black Lives Matter.
“We’re out here just to show White Lives Matter has the right to support our rights and our heritage and culture, just as they do,” he told the Chronicle. “But they do not have the right to kill, they do not have the right to assault, they do not have the right to threat[en] and they do not have the right to damage personal property.”
One sign simply read “14 words,” a reference to the white supremacist motto: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”
The protest struck many in the neighborhood as nonsensical and offensive.
Quintana Richardson, who is black, said Reed’s demand for equal rights for whites didn’t fit with historical fact.
Jose Grinan @JoseGrinanFOX26 White supremacists protest @naacp_houston and Black Lives Matter.Is this a part of what some call the "Trump effect? 3:24 PM - 21 Aug 2016 [ https://twitter.com/JoseGrinanFOX26/status/767457358255493120 (with embedded video, and comments)]
And whatever message White Lives Matter might have had, it was obscured by the symbols on display, Richardson said.
“The Confederate flag throws me off,” she said. “You’re saying Black Lives Matter is a racist organization but when you’re throwing the Confederate flag up and you’re saying White Lives Matter, are you saying you’re racist as well?”
Adding to the tension were the assault-style rifles, which could be seen slung over the shoulders of at least two women and one man during the protest. Several protesters also wore body armor.
Some locals said they felt like the White Lives Matter crowd had descended on Houston with no intention of holding a dialogue.
“They didn’t even want to talk,” Trevor Clark, who is black, told KPRC2. “Things like this are going to continue to happen, tragedies are going to continue to happen if we don’t have an open dialogue.”
Brandon Walker, a reporter for the TV station, also said that there was little communication between groups literally on either side of the street.
“Organizers of the White Lives Matter movement say they held this protest and were here to spark dialogue on both sides of the street,” he said. “Also, people who were here in response to the rally said they hoped to have some dialogue too. Neither side, though, said they were able to accomplish that. The rally ended before any conversation on either end of the street was slated to take place.”
It was much the same online, where there was lots of heated comments but little exchange of ideas.
By Sunday night, “White Lives Matter” was trending nationwide on Twitter.
Many poked fun at the protest.
Jerry Ford Jr., a Black Lives Matter activist who appeared alongside Reed on TV the day before, linked the protest to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Jerry Ford, Jr. @JerryFordJr Trump got these folks bold as hell holding a White Lives Matter protest outside of Houston NAACP @rolandsmartin 1:07 PM - 21 Aug 2016 - Houston, TX, United States [ https://twitter.com/JerryFordJr/status/767422817663066113 (with comments)]
Some White Lives Matter supporters, however, suggested the movement was a tit-for-tat response.
“Very few blacks were on board with All Lives Matter, so we are doing our own thing now,” wrote one on Twitter. “White Lives Matter.”
“We expect every race to be proud of who they are,” Reed said on Fox26 [ http://www.fox26houston.com/news/194457417-story ]. “We’re out there fighting for our rights just like everyone should.”
Many portrayed White Lives Matter and Black Lives Matter as equivalents.
Critics, however, said equating the two movements was absurd as it ignored centuries of slavery and institutionalized racism in America.
a girl is no one @OhNoSheTwitnt The fact that "White Lives Matter" is even a thing just proves that too many white people don't understand what "Black Lives Matter" means. 5:02 AM - 22 Aug 2016 [ https://twitter.com/OhNoSheTwitnt/status/767663324377022464 (with comments)]
David Harris-Gershon @David_EHG "White Lives Matter" has a silent "only," whereas "Black Lives Matter" has a silent "also." One is racism, the other a call for equality. 7:53 PM - 21 Aug 2016 [ https://twitter.com/David_EHG/status/767525117379371008 (with comments)]
Raquel Willis @RaquelWillis Anybody who thinks White Lives Matter is at all on the same level as Black Lives Matter is a lost cause. I don't have the energy anymore. 7:58 PM - 21 Aug 2016 [ https://twitter.com/RaquelWillis_/status/767526315566198785 (with comments)]
Perhaps the most powerful response came from Andre Smith, a young black man and the son of NAACP Houston’s executive director, Yolanda Smith.
“So this is what the Houston branch of the NAACP looked liked today,” he wrote [ https://www.instagram.com/p/BJZOdcPDjz-/ ] under a photo of the protest posted on Instagram. “White supremacist protested with Confederate flags and banners that read ‘White lives matter.’
“Little did they know the executive director of this particular branch birthday was today, which so happens to be my mom. So we spent the day celebrating a black life that did matter and will continue to do great work at this place you protest! Thank you and try again! #blacklivesmatter #NAACP”
Is White Lives Matter a movement or white supremacist group?
The Confederate flag was displayed at the White Lives Matter demonstration. (Photo: David Goldman, AP)
The organizer of Sunday's protest outside an NAACP office said the group is not racist, but their clothing and signs may send a different message. Video provided by Newsy Newslook
Mary Bowerman 4:04 p.m. EDT August 22, 2016
Armed protesters donning ‘White Lives Matter’ signs stood outside the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's Office in Houston on Sunday in protest of the organization’s response to the Black Lives Matter group, according to local reports.
One of the protestors held a sign that simply said "14 words," in reference to the white supremacist slogan: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children."
NAACP President and CEO Cornell William Brooks said to his knowledge the White Lives Matter group has not reached out to the NAACP beyond the protests over the weekend.
"It is not a welcome mat for engagement to brandish a Confederate flag and bring an assault weapon to the NAACP,” Brooks said in a phone interview.
But while the group touts that it formed organically as a direct response to the Black Lives Matter movement, which is a civil rights campaign against police killings of black men across the country, White Lives Matter actually has roots in white supremacy, according to Mark Potok, senior fellow at Southern Poverty Law Center.
“It’s not a real movement at all," Potok said. "These are a few very small Neo-Nazi, Klan, and similar groups that have formed to push this narrative into the main stream."
The Southern Poverty Law Center tracked the group’s inception to 2015 [ https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2016/white-lives-matter ], and found that often members of the Texas-based Neo-Nazi group Aryan Renaissance Society (ARS) ran White Lives Matter Facebook pages and encouraged white people interested in White Lives Matter to contact ARS members.
And the protest in Houston was not the first. Potok said they’ve found Aryan Renaissance Society members distributing White Lives Matter fliers around Houston, and several held up signs at the funeral service for a Harris County Sheriff’s Deputy who was gunned down in 2015 by a man who had multiple encounters with law enforcement [ http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/08/30/houston-deputy-killing-suspect/71413962/ ].
He notes small gatherings of White Lives Matter protests have popped up across the country, though the groups are “small and scattered.”
In Houston, protester Ken Reed told the Houston Chronicle [ http://www.chron.com/houston/article/White-Lives-Matter-group-protests-outside-NAACP-9176142.php ], the NAACP failed to adequately respond to the Black Lives Matter movement, which he and other protestors believe have resulted in the "attack and killing of police officers, the burning down of cities and things of that nature."
"If they're going to be a civil rights organization and defend their people," he said, "they also need to hold their people accountable."
Brooks said the NAACP has always maintained the Black Lives Matter is not a negation of white lives, but "rather an assertion of our shared humanity."
He points to the wide variety of Black Lives Matter protestors, with members coming from the Urban League, the NAACP, National Action Network, as well as protestors who don't belong to any groups.
While a common, though infrequent, criticism of the Black Lives Matter movement has been the sometimes destructive protests, Brooks notes that the White Lives Matter protestors are misguided in blaming the NAACP.
"To blame the violent excess of a small fraction of demonstrators in the country is both logically wrong headed and morally wrong-hearted," he said. "It doesn't make sense."
On social media, many noted that White Lives Matter missed the point of Black Lives Matter.
Ugene's Politics @UgenesPolitics Here's the problem with "White Lives Matter" Black Lives Matter = Fight for equality White Lives Matter = Fight for superiority 11:42 PM - 21 Aug 2016 [ https://twitter.com/UgenesPolitics/status/767582819757465600 (with comments)]
Others criticized Black Lives Matter and said the group was "divisive."
Paul Joseph Watson @PrisonPlanet #BlackLivesMatter created 'White Lives Matter'. If you build a movement on racism & division, you're going to create more racism & division. 4:11 AM - 22 Aug 2016 [ https://twitter.com/PrisonPlanet/status/767650468290068480 (with comments)]
Brooks said while the group is small, they are speaking to the sentiments of some angry, working class people.
"Let's not overestimate their numbers, or underestimate their appeal to the thoughts of many Americans," Brooks said.
USA TODAY has reached out to White Lives Matter protestors for comment.
Full Show - HILLARY PUSHES TO CENSOR CRITICS/STEVE QUAYLE VISITS INFOWARS - 08/22/2016
Published on Aug 22, 2016 by The Alex Jones Channel
On this Monday, August 22 broadcast of the Alex Jones Show, questions on Hillary's health go viral as former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani points out "she looks sick!" Meanwhile more doctors emerge asking she be independently evaluated by an impartial panel of physicians. On today's show, Amerigeddon producer Gary Heavin visits the studio to discuss the elections and more. Also, renowned researcher Steve Quayle joins the program to break down the latest on Hillary's health and what he thinks the next shoe to drop will be.
Racism and talk of religious war: Trump staff's online posts
This combo shows two examples of some of the social media postings by Trump campaign staff members discovered by the Associated Press in an online search. Trump’s paid campaign staffers have declared on their personal social media accounts that Muslims are unfit to be U.S. citizens, mocked how Mexicans talk, called for Secretary of State John Kerry to be hanged and stated their readiness for a possible civil war, according to a review by The Associated Press of their postings. (AP Photo)
By JEFF HORWITZ Aug. 22, 2016 2:23 PM EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump's paid campaign staffers have declared on their personal social media accounts that Muslims are unfit to be U.S. citizens, ridiculed Mexican accents, called for Secretary of State John Kerry to be hanged and stated their readiness for a possible civil war, according to a review by The Associated Press of their postings.
The AP examined the social media feeds of more than 50 current and former campaign employees who helped propel Trump through the primary elections. The campaign has employed a mix of veteran political operatives and outsiders. Most come across as dedicated, enthusiastic partisans, but at least seven expressed views that were overtly racially charged, supportive of violent actions or broadly hostile to Muslims.
A graphic designer for Trump's advance team approvingly posted video of a black man eating fried chicken and criticizing fellow blacks for ignorance, irresponsibility and having too many children. A Trump field organizer in Virginia declared that Muslims were seeking to impose Sharia law in America and that "those who understand Islam for what it is are gearing up for the fight."
The AP's findings come at a time when Trump is showing new interest in appealing to minority voters, insisting he will be fair in dealing with the 11 million people in the U.S. illegally and explicitly pitching himself to African-Americans, saying "what do you have to lose?"
Since Trump declared his candidacy last summer, he has paid about 120 people on his campaign, according to Federal Election Commission filings. Over the weekend, the campaign reported about 70 people drawing salaries, a number that did not include a few dozen more working as consultants. A slew of hires in early August were not yet reflected in Trump's filings.
The AP was able to review the accounts of only a minority of Trump staffers: Others set their accounts to private, some could not be found or identified with confidence as Trump campaign employees.
The AP also reviewed the public social media accounts of more than three dozen employees of Hillary Clinton's far larger campaign staff and found nothing as inflammatory. One staffer said Trump's style of speaking reminded him of a roommate who had taken too many hallucinogenic mushrooms. AP also reviewed images attached to more than 19,000 stolen internal emails from the Democratic National Committee for racially or religiously inflammatory memes, finding nothing of note.
The Clinton campaign declined to comment on its procedures for vetting staff. It employs more than 650 people, according to its FEC filings.
One month ago, the AP sent written questions to the Trump campaign with examples of the posts. The campaign has not commented, despite several requests since.
Veteran Republican campaign operatives said keeping an eye on staffers' social media postings has long been a standard practice.
"In vetting a prospective staffer, I'm not sure where the line would be for not hiring someone or simply asking them to take something down from social media, but there is a line," said Beth Myers, a former top Mitt Romney campaign aide.
During Myers' work for Mitt Romney in the 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns, she said, social media was newer, so indiscrete or embarrassing photos were more often concerns than inflammatory views. Even outside social media, she stressed to the campaigns' staffers that what they said and did would reflect on the candidate who employed them. "Don't put anything in an email that you wouldn't want on the front page of The New York Times," she recalled telling staff. "The same thing I told my kids, I told my staffers."
The AP found little questionable content in the ranks of Trump's top officials. The campaign's social media director, Dan Scavino, tweets prolifically but avoids discussing race and religion. Field organizers representing Trump's campaign around the country, however, have had no such reservations, either before or during their employment with the campaign. Their judgment matters beyond the campaign because the paid staff of winning presidential candidates often receives jobs in the next administration.
Before being tapped as statewide director of coalitions, Craig Bachler of Bradenton, Florida, posted jokes in 2015 about Mexican accents superimposed over pictures of an overweight man wearing a sombrero. Bachler was named by the campaign as official staff in November, though there is no record he has been paid for his work. Bachler did not respond to a request for comment via Facebook or a message left at his office voicemail. After AP's inquiries, Bachler blocked access to an AP reporter, and his Facebook account — which included a photo of Bachler with Trump — was scrubbed to remove the offensive post.
Teresa Unrue, a field organizer and graphic designer in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, for Trump's advance team, shared a video on her Facebook account July 11 — the week before the Republican National Convention — of a black man eating fried chicken while shaming fellow black people.
"Why are you mad about slavery?" the man asks. "Y'all weren't no damn slaves."
"Had me crack'n up!! Thank you!" Unrue wrote of the video. "Please share this with people."
In a short phone conversation, Unrue said she tried to keep her personal social media comments positive and referred questions to the campaign.
Some posts fixated on stories of black-on-white violence with claims that news about such crimes was being suppressed.
"How about this little white boy being murdered by a black man," grassroots organizer Annie Marie Delgado of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, wrote in December 2014 post, one of a number highlighting crimes against white people before Trump declared his candidacy. Delgado also shared a discredited, hoax photo of the State Department's Kerry with Jane Fonda, and commented: "I say hang them!" She was paid $11,146 through April, according to campaign records.
Fear or dislike of Muslims was a recurring theme. Though Trump at one point proposed temporarily barring foreign Muslims from entering the country and scrutinizing the activities of mosques, he has sometimes distinguished Islamic extremists who pose a risk and those who don't. "I love the Muslims," Trump said in September, expressing willingness to appoint one to his Cabinet.
On Facebook, Mark Kevin Lloyd of Lynchburg, Virginia, who has been paid $36,000 as Trump's field director in the state, shared a post June 30 calling Islam "a barbaric cult." He shared a meme June 16, four days after the Orlando nightclub shooting by a heavily armed Muslim who professed allegiance to the Islamic State group. The meme said people should be forced to eat bacon before they can purchase firearms.
Lloyd declined to talk to the AP without the Trump campaign's permission, citing his nondisclosure agreement with the campaign.
Other campaign staffers also singled out Muslims for special scrutiny.
Unrue shared the statement, "We need Islam control, not gun control."
During her time with the campaign, Delgado deplored the appointment of a Muslim-American judge in New York.
"Step by step... this is how American culture will end," she wrote Feb. 27, saying it was only reasonable to believe that the judge would implement Sharia law.
Delgado said in a telephone interview she stopped working for the campaign in April. She said she did not recall making some of the posts the AP asked her about and does not stand by others.
"If I read the whole thing, I probably wouldn't have posted it," she said of one post she shared, a short essay declaring that Muslims are inherently incapable of being good Americans.
Phillip Dann, a field organizer in Massachusetts who recently relocated to Florida, was paid $6,153 between January and March. He shared a meme mocking "Muslim sympathizers." He also shared an article about Trump threatening to bring back waterboarding "or worse," and added "where is the gasoline?" Dann told the AP in a phone interview he had no antipathy against Muslims in general.
Dann attributed inflammatory comments of other Trump staffers to the fact that the campaign had drawn on people inexperienced in politics. While he has been politically active for decades — originally as a leftist, he said — he described the field staff Trump acquired in the primary as unfamiliar with traditional campaign rules.
"We get hired because there was no one left," Dann said. In a later email, he acknowledged some of his and other staff postings were "clearly over the top" — but said that criticism of the posts would amount to intimidation.
Scott Barrish, who earned $12,250 as Trump's political director for the Tampa Bay, Florida, region, took his views beyond social media posts. In 2011, he drew local press coverage for writing to the head of the nonprofit Council on American-Islamic Relations, an advocacy group for Muslims in the U.S., saying he was wise to its plans to establish a totalitarian theocracy in the United states.
"This is us vs. you," wrote Barrish. "In the great words of the late President Ronald Reagan, 'I win, you lose!'"
Separately, Barrish tweeted in 2013 that he hoped America wasn't headed for civil war, but "if our freedoms must be defended against a tyrannical government, so be it."
"Those comments at that time were made by me and were my own personal view," Barrish said in a brief interview with AP. He said he stopped working for Trump's campaign after the Florida primary. "I don't want to detract anything from the campaign."
Barrish separately complained to editors at AP about its review of publicly accessible material on Trump employees' social media accounts, saying "the liberal media, yellow journalists are really grasping at straws with their ad hominem circumstantial logical fallacies!"
Many accounts AP reviewed embraced conspiracy theories. Lloyd, the Virginia field director, said Obama is aiding the Iranian nuclear program as part of the president's "'final solution' to the Israel problem," a phrase evoking the Holocaust.
Delgado, the Florida organizer, circulated a theory that the company Edible Arrangements LLC is funneling money to Hamas, a claim that the Anti-Defamation League, a U.S. Jewish organization, has repeatedly dismissed as false.
Unrue posted a link to a website that alleged that the U.S. government assassinated Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who died earlier this year after a history of heart trouble.
Racially charged social media posts from Trump campaign employees and associates have already been a repeated source of embarrassment. Trump fired one adviser who had used a racial slur to describe Obama's children, and the campaign denounced Trump's longtime Mar-a-Lago butler for saying he would support dragging Obama from the White House and hanging him.
Katie Packer, a 2012 Romney deputy campaign manager who opposes Trump, said the social media posts AP reviewed would have all been immediate disqualifiers for anyone who had applied for a campaign job — even if the postings weren't visible to the public. "A comfort level with people who think this is OK is indicative of what you think is OK," Packer said. "Maybe the campaign just doesn't know about this, but that's malpractice."
Associated Press writers Chad Day and Ted Bridis in Washington and Nick Riccardi in Denver contributed to this story.
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