WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — On Monday, media outlets reported that a right-wing group, the Council of Conservative Citizens led by Earl Holt, whom accused Charleston mass killer Dylann Storm Roof noted as a factor in his radicalization, donated thousands of dollars to US Republican presidential candidates.
Roof admitted killing nine African-Americans attending a Bible study in Charleston, South Carolina on June 17, 2015.
Ganguly expressed concern that elements in the Republican Party were flirting with groups representing a threat to American democracy.
“When you have American organizations that are patently racist, they constitute a threat to American democracy,” Ganguly said. “It’s appalling [that] three of these presidential candidates have taken the money from such a reprehensible organization.”
The British newspaper The Guardian first reported that the presidential campaigns of former senator Rick Santorum, Senator Ted Cruz and Senator Rand Paul had all received and accepted contributions from racist groups. The Paul and Cruz campaigns returned those contributions after the reports appeared. The Santorum campaign has yet to do so.
Ganguly said none of the Republican presidential candidates had expressly condemned the Charleston massacre as motivated by racial hatred.
It is unlikely US Republican presidential candidates will look deeper into the personal histories of their campaign contributors, Boston University Assistant Mass Communications Professor John Carroll said.
“They might start looking deeper into the background of their campaign contributors, but I doubt it,” Carroll said.
Carroll explained in a US presidential campaign, there are a limited amount of resources candidates can go to and they would take resources to look into the background of their opponents rather than look their campaign contributors.
