Hours after it was revealed that a white supremacist was a Donald Trump delegate for the Republican National Convention, the Trump campaign blamed a “database error” for the mistake.
William Johnson, head of the white nationalist American Freedom Party, has been politically active since a failed 1989 congressional campaign.
The Trump campaign has earned enthusiastic support from white supremacists many of whom feel the campaign speaks directly to them. When Trump was slow to distance himself from the Ku Klux Klan earlier this year, many white supremacists took that as a subtle signal of approval.
But Johnson’s inclusion as a delegate, according to the Trump campaign, was simply a computer glitch.
“Yesterday, the Trump campaign submitted its list of California delegates to be certified by the Secretary of State of California,” spokeswoman Hope Hicks told the press in a statement. “A database error led to the inclusion of a potential delegate that had been rejected and removed from the campaign’s list in February 2016.”
Johnson, who previously made robocalls on behalf of Trump that bemoaned “the white race is dying out,” said he on Tuesday that he will resign as a Trump delegate.
Mother Jones, which originally reported the story, noted that Johnson and Trump’s California delegate coordinator, Katie Lagomarsino, was corresponding with and congratulating Johnson as recently as Monday.
Johnson’s resignation, however, may come too late.
NEW: White Nationalist William Johnson remains on Trump's delegate list. Statement from CA Secretary of State Spox: pic.twitter.com/v7DNg0QE7v
— Candace Smith Chekwa (@CandaceSmith_) May 11, 2016
See you at the convention.
H/T Mother Jones