RNC broadcasts white supremacist tweets during Trump’s speech

As Donald Trump accepted the GOP presidential nomination, the RNC aired at least two tweets from racist accounts

By Sophia Tesfaye

Senior Politics Editor

Published July 22, 2016 2:48PM (EDT)

 (Doug Mills/The New York Times)
(Doug Mills/The New York Times)

On the last night of the Republican National Convention, as Donald Trump accepted his nomination for president, two tweets from racist accounts were prominently displayed in the convention hall.

First, Twitter user @EsotericCD noticed a tweet from the racist group VDARE praising Representative Chris Collins for talking about immigration:

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the VDARE Foundation is an extremist group that often hosts anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic and white nationalist viewpoints and columns on its website VDARE.com.

Then, as Trump stepped onto the stage to deliver his 75-minute Willie Horton ad disguised as an acceptance speech, another tweet appeared on four large screens in the Quicken Loans Arena:

According to Time, it was one of a series of tweets by Twitter users that appeared in the hall after being curated by the RNC:

The account bio describes the user as "#AltRight," "#ProWhite" and a "#RaceRealist."

These tweets came hours after a Trump delegate was booted from the RNC for posting racist rants online under the handle “Whitepride”:


By Sophia Tesfaye

Sophia Tesfaye is Salon's senior editor for news and politics, and resides in Washington, D.C. You can find her on Twitter at @SophiaTesfaye.

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Donald Trump Election 2016 Elections 2016 Gop Rnc Trump's Anti-semitic Tweet Twitter Fail White Supremacist