ARKANSAS (KFSM) – Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, said he gave back donations from a white supremacist leader on Monday (June 22), officials say.
On Monday, Politico reported that a white supremacist leader mentioned by Charleston church shooting suspect Dylann Roof in his alleged manifesto donated to Cotton’s congressional campaign.
Cotton released a statement saying that he had “initiated a refund of Holt’s contribution.”
“I do not agree with his hateful beliefs and language and believe they are hurtful to our country,” Cotton said.
According to Politico, Holt is the president of the St. Louis-based Council of Conservative Citizens. Provocative statements in his name have been posted online, including on the conservative news site The Blaze, under the user name Earl P Holt III.
“Jared Taylor, a former director of the Council of Conservative Citizens, told The Guardian, which first reported the donations, that ‘if there’s a statement that is ‘Earl P Holt III,’ he probably made it,’” Politico reported.
In a 2011 comment, Holt referred to black people as “the laziest, stupidest and most criminally-inclined race in the history of the world,” according to Politico.
