An unabashedly “pro-white” radio host interviewed four Republican congressmen about their support for Donald Trump last week at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
In conversations with James Edwards, host of the “Political Cesspool” podcast, Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT), Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) and Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL) praised Trump’s family and contrasted the GOP nominee with Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. The interviews were first flagged by Media Matters.
Edwards promotes a “pro-White,” “America first” brand of politics that calls for the white birthrate to be revived to “above replacement level fertility.” Though he insists he isn’t a white nationalist, he spoke at the white nationalist American Renaissance conference in May and is associated with a large network of writers and activists who promote white nationalism.
He’s praised Trump for his anti-immigrant rhetoric and landed the Trump campaign in hot water in March, when he broadcast an interview with Donald Trump Jr. after attending a Tennessee rally as a fully credentialed member of the press. Trump Jr. later said that he would “never have done” the interview with Edwards had he known of his beliefs.
Edwards touched on his views on race during his interview with Yoho, asking if the mainstream media distorted Rep. Steve King’s (R-IA) claim last week that white people contributed more to civilization than any other “subgroup.”
“The took it out of context, absolutely,” Yoho replied.
“I took it as a breath of fresh air that he did not apologize,” Edwards said. “To me any compliment of the founding stock of this nation is immediately decried as racist or xenophobic or whatever the buzzword of the day is.”
“I appreciate you bringing that up,” Yoho said.
At the GOP convention, Edwards also called it a “pleasant surprise” to see a tweet from anti-immigrant hate group Virginia Dare broadcast on the screens at Quicken Loans Arena.
In a blog post accompanying the interviews with Republican congressmen, Edwards wrote that he was invited to broadcast live from both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, although he said he rejected the DNC’s offer.
Spokespeople for the RNC and DNC did not immediately respond Monday morning to TPM’s requests for comment.
