Donald Trump’s presidential campaign on Tuesday denied naming a prominent white nationalist to its slate of California delegates, saying the man’s inclusion on the list was the result of a “database error.”
“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,” the Trump campaign said of William Johnson’s inclusion on the delegate list, which was released Monday night.
Trump camp says “database error” led to inclusion of white supremacist on CA delegate list https://t.co/wVJs099SoO pic.twitter.com/lafEFu3h4X
— Ali Vitali (@alivitali) May 10, 2016
Mother Jones reported Tuesday that Johnson, the chairman of the white nationalist American Freedom Party and a vocal Trump backer, was approved by the campaign as a delegate in California.
The New York Daily News’ Cameron Joseph said that Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks told him the report was “totally false” before the campaign sent the statement ascribing Johnson’s inclusion to a “database error.”
FWIW, before blaming “database error” here’s what Trump spox Hope Hicks emailed first: “The report is totally false” pic.twitter.com/mEaElFdAkw
— Cameron Joseph (@cam_joseph) May 10, 2016