A white nationalist is trying to swing Utah for Donald Trump.
William Johnson, a white nationalist leader of the American Freedom Party, is sending out a wave of robocalls to 193,600 landlines in Utah in hopes of trashing Trump's biggest threat in the state -- independent conservative candidate Evan McMullin.
In the personal attack, he says McMullin is a "closet homosexual" and demonizes his mother's relationship with a woman.
SEE ALSO:Meet the the pillars of the white nationalist alt-right movement“Evan has two mommies," Johnson says on the call. "His mother is a lesbian, married to another woman. Evan is OK with that. Indeed Evan supports the Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage. Evan is over 40 years old and is not married and doesn’t even have a girlfriend. I believe Evan is a closet homosexual."
McMullin, a member of the Mormon church, has said he is against legal same-sex unions but has accepted his mother's marriage.
In the robocall, Johnson also says McMullin supports "open borders" and concludes the call by saying Trump will "respect all women."
McMullin may not want to build a long wall between the U.S. and Mexico, but he does support walls "in some places" and wants to hire 20,000 more agents to patrol the border." While, Trump's respect for women has been well documented.
The American Freedom Party hasn't responded to a request for comment. When The Daily Beastasked Johnson where he got his information, he cited Wikipedia and Reddit.
Johnson is a lawyer in California, according to his brief biography on the American Freedom Party's website. The Trump campaign selected him to be a delegate for the Republican primary in California. In previous robocalls supporting Trump, Johnson has said, "The white race is dying out in America and Europe because we are afraid to be called 'racist.'"
Utah is traditionally a state Republicans don't have to worry about in presidential elections, but McMullin is threatening to win it and become the first independent candidate for president to win electoral votes in around 50 years. Without Utah, Trump's shaky path to victory would become more tenuous.
McMullin hasn't been shy about responding to attacks from Trump and his supporters. He responded to attacks via Twitter over the weekend, and got back on Twitter to do the same thing this time.
Tweet may have been deleted
This attack is consistent with @realDonaldTrump's bigoted, deceitful campaign and vision for America. Utahns won't be fooled.
— Evan McMullin (@Evan_McMullin) October 31, 2016
.@Reince @GOP, this is your nominee and your supporter. They're defining you with white nationalism. Will you continue to embrace them?
— Evan McMullin (@Evan_McMullin) October 31, 2016
Will Utah GOP leaders continue to stand with @realDonaldTrump and white nationalists' as they attack my faith and spread baseless lies?
— Evan McMullin (@Evan_McMullin) October 31, 2016
I've stood for liberty and equality in this race; it's natural for @realDonaldTrump's white supremacists to attack me. A fight worth having.
— Evan McMullin (@Evan_McMullin) October 31, 2016
Prominent white nationalists in the United States such as former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke have been open about their support of Trump this election season. The Republican presidential nominee has been a loud voice advocating (at times) for the deportation of undocumented immigrants, has proposed a ban on Muslims entering the country and has called for a giant wall along the nation's southern border since the start of his campaign.
White nationalists, who fear an America that is no longer dominated by white people, support Trump policies that would remove non-white people from the country and keep non-white people out.
Trump has flirted with white nationalists throughout the election, but his campaign disavowed Johnson's robocall, saying in a statement that "we strongly condemn this rhetoric and these activities of which we have no knowledge."
TopicsDonald TrumpElections