White House candidates race to distance themselves from white supremacist

WASHINGTON — Republican presidential candidates moved Monday to quickly distance themselves from the leader of a white supremacist group whose views appear to have influenced Dylann Roof, the suspect in the murders of nine African Americans at a Charleston, S.C., church.

Earl Holt, who describes himself as president of the Council of Conservative Citizens, has contributed tens of thousands of dollars to Republican candidates in recent years, including to four current White House contenders: Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, and former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, according to news accounts and campaign-finance records.

By late Monday afternoon, all four said they were donating Holt's contributions to charity.

Cruz, who initially planned to refund the campaign contributions, the funds would be better used to help the victims' families and will instead contribute $11,000 to the Mother Emanuel Hope Fund, said Rick Tyler, his spokesman, in a statement.

Paul's leadership PAC has received $2,250 from Holt. In an email Monday, Paul's spokesman Doug Stafford said the PAC also is donating the contributions to the victims' fund.

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Santorum said he also would give away the money. "Rather than put more money back in the pockets of such an individual, my 2012 campaign committee will be donating the amount of his past donations to the Mother Emanuel Hope Fund to support the victims of this tragedy," he said in a statement.

"I abhor the sentiments Mr. Holt has expressed," he added. "These statements and sentiments are unacceptable. Period. End of sentence. Our campaign is about, and has always been about, uniting America, not dividing her."

Walker, who has received $3,500 from Holt since 2011, will give the money to charity, his spokeswoman AshLee Strong said.

The Guardian first disclosed the Holt contributions.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil-rights group based in Alabama, has described the Council of Conservative Citizens as a "hate group."

The organization's "statement of principles" includes the goal of ensuring that "the American people and government should remain European in their composition and character." The council also opposes "all efforts to mix the races of mankind."

In a "manifesto" on a website linked to Roof, the murder suspect said he learned details about black-on-white crime from the Council of Conservative Citizens' website.

The council has condemned the killings. In a statement posted Sunday on the council's website, Holt said it "was not surprising" that Roof credited his group for information on black-on-white crime. But he added that his organization is "hardly responsible for the actions of this deranged individual merely because he gleaned accurate information from our website."

On Monday, the council's spokesman, Jared Taylor, said Holt was not granting interviews.

Taylor said the shedding of donations amounted to "grandstanding" by candidates and said they were infringing on Holt's free-speech rights. "Are they really trying to deny Mr. Holt the ability to donate to campaigns?"

Asked about the group's mission, Taylor said: "We don't hate anyone... We take the view that whites as a group have legitimate interests, and it's entirely good and proper that they should get together to discuss them."

Holt, whose occupation is sometimes is listed as "slumlord" in federal election records, has donated more than $60,000 to GOP candidates in recent years, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

Federal campaign records list Holt as living in Longview, Texas. The council is based in St. Louis, Mo., and in a 2014 article, Holt said he lived in St. Louis between 1983 and 2009.

Other recipients of Holt donations include Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, former Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann, former GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney, and Utah Rep. Mia Love, the first black Republican woman elected to the U.S. House, federal records show.

As the news of Holt's ties to the council spread Monday, congressional candidates quickly announced they were dumping the contributions. Portman's aides, for instance, said they already had donated to charity the $250 that the Ohio Republican received from Holt in 2010.

Contributing: Donovan Slack and Deirdre Shesgreen