Former KKK Leader David Duke Endorses Jill Stein, Trashes Donald Trump

Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke has endorsed Green Party nominee Jill Stein over former President Donald Trump, though Stein has rebuked the endorsement.

Duke, an antisemitic white supremacist, said the candidates’ stances on Israel had led him to make “one of the most important statements that I have ever made politically.”

“I endorse for president of the United States Green Party candidate, Dr. Jill Stein,” Duke said on his radio show on Monday. “Although Dr. Stein and I obviously have our differences on important issues, she’s the only candidate who speaks clearly against the war in the Middle East.”

Duke acknowledged that his endorsement of the far-left candidate would “shock” his supporters, but said that his decision was based on what is “good for white people, Europeans, as well as all humanity.”

He said Stein was the only major candidate “brave enough to call out Israel’s massacre of Palestinians in Gaza, the genocide that is going on right now, and the damage it’s doing to the American people.”

Stein said she rejected the endorsement from Duke.

“A racist troll has ‘endorsed’ our campaign to draw attention to himself, and certain smear merchants are happy to platform this troll to attack us,” Stein wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

“Of course I reject any ‘endorsement’ from a white supremacist like David Duke, unlike Kamala Harris who can’t stop bragging about her endorsement from white supremacist mass murderer Dick Cheney.”

Cheney, a lifelong Republican known for his bullish defense of the Iraq War as vice president, announced last month that he would vote for Harris in November.

Stein’s campaign manager Jason Call told Newsweek on Wednesday: “It should go without saying that we reject any endorsement or association with Duke.”

Call added that media outlets should “be focused on the fact that Democrats are celebrating the endorsement of Dick Cheney, the worst war criminal in recent American history, who has the blood of a million Iraqis and thousands of Americans [on] his hands. Also the fact that Democrats are choosing to smear Dr. Stein using airwaves that should be public, not bought and paid for, rather than engage in the honest debate the American people deserve.”

The Harris and Trump campaigns have been contacted for further comment via email outside business hours.

Israel’s yearlong offensive has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians and caused a huge amount of destruction across the Gaza Strip, The Associated Press reports, citing Gaza’s Health Ministry. It was triggered by Hamas‘ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage.

South Africa brought a case to the International Court of Justice late last year, accusing Israel of violating the genocide convention through its military operations in Gaza. Israel has rejected accusations of genocide, and the case is expected tot take years to reach a final decision.

On his show, Duke slammed Trump’s “full-throated subservience to Israel and to the Jewish lobby in the United States.”

He also accused Trump, who he endorsed in 2016 and 2020, of “making a bully pulpit for Jewish extremism and Jewish mass murder.”

Duke also alleged that “Jewish supremacy on a global level that’s causing these genocides and these wars and this destruction of our economy, our morals, our society, the very essence of what we call Western civilization, is the greatest threat to us and the greatest threat to all mankind.”

Update 10/16/24, 4:10 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.

Update 10/16/24, 6:45 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Jason Call.