IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
The Cedar Rapids Gazette has a troubling story exposing Steve King’s silence on his white supremacist donations while elected leaders across the country moved quickly to return theirs.
ICYMI: White supremacist donates $2,500 to Iowa’s Steve King
Cedar Rapids Gazette
By Erin Jordan
June 22, 2015
A Texan whose white supremacist writings apparently inspired a South Carolina church shooting last week has donated tens of thousands of dollars to top Republicans, including Iowans U.S. Rep. Steve King and U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst.
Earl P. Holt III, 62, made five donations of $500 each, totaling $2,500, to King between Sept. 30, 2012, and Oct. 6, 2014, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Holt gave $1,000 to Ernst, R-Red Oak, on Sept. 27.
Holt is president of the Council of Conservative Citizens, a Missouri-based activist group cited in a manifesto believed to have been written by Dylann Roof, accused of fatally shooting nine people last Wednesday during a prayer meeting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. The manifesto said the author first learned of “brutal black-on-white murders” from the council, the New York Times reported.
Several Republican presidential candidates announced plans Monday to reject Holt’s donations, rerouting the money to victim support funds in Charleston.
“Rather than put more money back in the pockets of such an individual, my 2012 campaign committee will be donating the amount of his past donations to the Mother Emanuel Hope Fund to support the victims of this tragedy,” said former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, who received $1,500 from Holt in the 2012 election cycle. Santorum is also running for president in 2016.
Neither King’s staff nor Ernst’s staff immediately responded to The Gazette’s questions about donations from Holt.