US Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona to donate white supremacist’s $1K contribution
Jun 22, 2015, 10:37 AM | Updated: 2:54 pm
PHOENIX — A donation U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona received from a white supremacist whose writing may have influenced the Charleston shooting suspect, is now destined for charity, the senator’s office said Monday.
A British newspaper reported that the leader of a white supremacist group cited by Charleston, South Crolina church murder suspect Dylann Roof made $65,000 in donations to Republicans, including $1,000 to Flake.
A spokesman for Flake said the money, which was donated in 2012, was going to the Mother Emanuel Hope Fund.
The Guardian newspaper reported Sunday night that another Republican, presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, will return the $8,500 he received from Earl Holt, leader of the Council of Conservative Citizens.
An online manifesto purportedly written by Roof, the suspect in last week’s murder of nine blacks at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, said he learned about “brutal black on white murders” from the Council of Conservative Citizens website.
The Guardian also reported that Holt donated to presidential candidates Rand Paul and Rick Santorum. A spokesman for Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, told the paper that Santorum doesn’t condone racist or hateful comments.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
