A Missouri Republican Gubernatorial candidate wants to set the record straight about his affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan. But his connection to the white supremacy group appears to be too close even for the Missouri GOP.
On Thursday, the Missouri Republican party announced that they were working to remove Darrell Leon McClanahan III from the primary ballot. The decision was prompted by a tweet from a Black former Republican state representative who shared a photo of McClanahan doing what appears to be a Nazi salute in front a burning cross.
To be clear, McClanahan acknowledges that he attended “private Christian Identity Cross lighting” — but he says calling it a cross burning is inaccurate. The photo was first discovered by the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism — which posted an article about his extreme views.
McClanahan sued the ADL for defamation, arguing that he was never a member of the KKK. He was, get this, just granted an “honorary” membership for 1 year.
The lawsuit was tossed out by a magistrate judge who found that the article about his views were pretty accurate. The lawsuit “itself reflects that Plaintiff holds the views ascribed to him by the ADL article, that is the characterization of his social media presence and views as antisemitic, white supremacist, anti-government, and bigoted,” he wrote.
After the state GOP tweeted that they planned to remove McClanahan from the ballot, he fired back, arguing that they knew about his KKK affiliation the entire time.
“The GOP knew exactly who I am. ... What a bunch of Anti-White hypocrites.” he wrote in a tweet obtained by NBC News.
While you really don’t have to give anything to McClanahan — seeing as there was an entire ADL article about this and a lawsuit—but the idea that no one knew about this before he started running for governor does stretch credulity.