Trump grants press credentials to ‘pro-white’ radio show host

by Jesse Byrnes - 03/02/16 1:27 PM ET

Donald Trump’s campaign raised some eyebrows on Wednesday after a radio program host who once wrote favorably of slavery was given press credentials to cover a Trump event over the weekend.

{mosads}New York Magazine first reported that “Political Cesspool” host James Edwards attended a rally in Memphis last Saturday “as a fully credentialed member of the media” to cover the Republican presidential front-runner.

Edwards said that he reported from inside the press pen for his radio program, which represents a “pro-White” philosophy aiming in part to “grow the percentage of Whites in the world relative to other races,” according to its website.

Edwards once wrote while commenting on a Jamaican Observer article: “For blacks in the Americas, slavery is the greatest thing that ever happened to them. Unfortunately, it’s the worst thing that ever happened to white Americans.”

That and Edwards’s previous interviews with guests including former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke, whose support for Trump was a stumbling block for the candidate over the weekend, raised concern among political observers.

Donald Trump Jr. also recorded a 20-minute interview with Edwards set to air on Saturday, according to a blog post on Edwards’s website, which says that “Donald Trump will be the first Republican nominee that I have ever voted for.”

Edwards said in a statement Wednesday that his show “promotes a proud, paleoconservative Christian worldview, and we reject media descriptions of our work as ‘white supremacist,’ ‘pro-slavery’ and other such scare words.”

He said his credentialing and interview with Donald Trump Jr. was in “no way” an endorsement by Trump before accusing the media of taking his past remarks out of context, insisting, “I apologize for nothing and I retract nothing.”

Trump’s campaign said that media credentials were provided to everyone who requested them for the event in Memphis over the weekend, noting that “close to 200 reporters” were in attendance and stating “we do not personally vet each individual.”

“The campaign had no knowledge of his personal views and strongly condemns them,” Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks said in a statement sent to The Hill.

Hicks also denied that Trump’s son, who often appears in interviews on his father’s behalf, gave an interview to Edwards.

“Donald Trump Jr. was not in attendance and although he served as a surrogate for his father on several radio programs over the past week, to his knowledge and that of the campaign, did not participate in an interview with this individual.”

The Hill has reached out to Edwards for further comment.

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