NEW YORK (Press Release)–The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Tuesday, May 10, called on Donald Trump to renounce the support of William Johnson, one of the country’s most well-known white supremacists, who recently applied to and was accepted by the Trump campaign as a state delegate to the Republican presidential primary in California.
Johnson’s name was reportedly included on a list of 169 delegates the Trump campaign forwarded to the California secretary of state.
“The American Freedom Party is a hate group that ADL has been tracking for years,” said Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL CEO. “We call on Donald Trump to renounce the support of the American Freedom Party and to remove its leader, William Johnson, from the Trump delegate slate in California.”
Johnson is the head of the white supremacist American Freedom Party and has previously financed robocalls and radio time in support of Donald Trump’s candidacy. While he projects a suit-and-tie image as a lawyer and activist, Johnson has long courted hardcore members of the white supremacist movement and spoke last year at a white supremacist event in Bakersfield, California, that included racist skinheads.
For years, Johnson has promoted the idea of a white ethno-state in America. In the 1980s, under the pseudonym “James O. Pace,” he promoted a scheme that would have eliminated the Fourteenth Amendment and limited American citizenship to whites only.
As a 501c3 nonprofit organization, ADL takes no position on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for office.
*
In another action Tuesday, the ADL welcomed powerful statements from Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, announcing that the U.S. was suing North Carolina for violating the fundamental civil rights of transgender individuals.
“We commend Attorney General Lynch and Assistant Attorney General Gupta for not only taking action to ensure that our nation lives up to the promise on which it was founded – a promise of equal rights for all – but for their profound statements to transgender people, reassuring the community that ‘We see you. We stand with you. We will do everything we can to protect you going forward,’” said Marvin Nathan, ADL National Chair. “It is inspiring to hear such a powerful message from the administration.”
“The Justice Department’s civil rights complaint filed in federal court in North Carolina sends an important message that discrimination against transgender people is both unlawful and unacceptable,” said ADL CEO Greenblatt. “Just as importantly, Attorney General Lynch and Assistant Attorney General Gupta’s words to the nation affirmed the dignity of transgender people, exposed the lies underlying North Carolina’s H.B. 2, and connected this struggle to the history of discrimination in our nation. We are confident that the law will not survive court scrutiny and that this controversy will end with the recognition that – as the assistant attorney general said – all North Carolinians ‘deserve to live with dignity.’”
In order to provide a safe, inclusive, and respectful environment for all students, ADL provides resources for educators to discuss transgender and gender non-conforming identity and issues in schools and classrooms.
*
Preceding provided by the Anti-Defamation League
I seem to recall recently reading that Trump has renounced this support. ADL, which is controlled by politically Liberal leadership, gives the appearance of trying to do a hit piece on Trump. It is permissible to disagree with him, but to resort to dirty tricks is despicable. This is one of the reasons I no longer support ADL. There are other Jewish organizations out there that do the same job, but more effectively and with less politics.
–Jerome C Liner, Cincinnati, Ohio