Former Congressman Tancredo to Address White Supremacists
Editor's Note: On Wednesday 鈥� a day after failing to respond to Hatewatch's request for comment 鈥� former congressman Tom Tancredo's Team America PAC wrote Hatewatch to say, "Tom Tancredo is not speaking at the Council of Conservative Citizens" (CCC). The unsigned email did not say if Tancredo had withdrawn from the speaking engagement after receiving widespread criticism or had never agreed to speak. Hatewatch has in its possession dated Spring 2012. Its front page article, about the CCC's upcoming national conference, says, "This year's conference features former Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO) as the Saturday luncheon speaker" and features a color photo of Tancredo.
Tom Tancredo has no more secrets.
The former Republican congressman from Colorado, known for his biting anti-immigration rhetoric and campaign ads suggesting Latino immigrants are rapists and drug dealers, is scheduled to be the luncheon speaker at next month鈥檚 annual conference for the white supremacist (CCC). The theme of the conference? 鈥淢ulticulturalism 鈥� the Death of America.鈥�
Sharing the dais with Tancredo will be a rogue鈥檚 gallery of the racist right, including J, who hosts the white nationalist Political Cesspool radio show; , the former Klansman best known for creating , the first major Internet hate site; and Leonard Wilson, a longtime segregationist and Alabama commander for the , a neo-Confederate group that, like Tancredo, staunchly opposes immigration.
For those who have watched Tancredo go through endless contortions to distance himself from his racist friends, speaking at a CCC conference seems to be a turning point. The time has passed to apologize for the company he keeps.
And what company it is.
Tancredo was already honorary chairman of (YWC), an ultraconservative student group that has actively cultivated relationships with white nationalist organizations such as the racist (LOS), whose leader Michael Hill recently describing how white people are endowed with a 鈥淕od-ordained superiority鈥� and professing that it was a 鈥渕onumental lie鈥� that all men are created equal. In 2006, Tancredo delivered an anti-immigrant speech and sang 鈥淒ixie鈥� at a barbecue advertised by the South Carolina chapter of the LOS.
But the CCC?
鈥淗ey, it wasn鈥檛 like he was fooling anyone with his racist trash talk and associations, but [Tancredo] can鈥檛 hide it anymore,鈥� , which first reported on Tancredo鈥檚 scheduled speech, wrote on its blog. 鈥淣ow he needs to explain to everyone why we should still take him seriously.鈥�
Tancredo did not return telephone messages seeking comment on his speech next month in Nashville. But with all that鈥檚 known about the CCC, he would be hard pressed for excuses if he still wanted to call himself anything other than a white nationalist. Since the late 1990s, when prominent Republican politicians like former U.S. Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi and Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia gave important speeches to the group, the veneer that once concealed the CCC鈥檚 racism have all but dissolved.
Founded in 1985 by , a workers鈥� compensation attorney and longtime white-power activist, the CCC rose from the ashes of the White Citizens Councils, a coalition of white supremacist groups formed throughout the South to defend school segregation after the Supreme Court outlawed it in the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision. In recent years, the CCC has devolved into a sounding board for crude racist jokes and baseless claims about blacks.
Somehow Tancredo has managed to stay above that fray, despite a history of racist comments, including one made in the midst of a political campaign in Illinois that vilified immigrants as an invading force 鈥渃oming here to kill you and to kill me and our families.鈥�
But breaking bread with the CCC? Without a doubt, Tancredo has found his comfort zone.
