White nationalist apologises for anti-gay robocall campaign
The white nationalist who sent robocalls to Utah voters last week claiming that independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin is gay has issued an apology.
Former Trump delegate William Johnson said he is “truly sorry” for the message, which slammed McMullin for being single in his 40s and accused him of being a “closeted homosexual.”
“I am sorry for the mean-spirited message and I humbly retract its contents,” Johnson said in a press release.
“I sent the robocalls out because Utah is a strong family-values state and America and the West is gripped by an extreme and fatal malady: failure to marry and have children.
“The white birthrate is so astonishingly low that Western Civilization will soon cease to exist. I felt Evan McMullin typified that perfidious mentality.”
Johnson is the chairman of the American Freedom Party and a staunch Trump supporter.
The robocall cost Johnson’s Super PAC $2,000 and was sent out to tens of thousands of Utah voters on Monday and Tuesday this week.
“Evan has two mommies. His mother is a lesbian, married to another woman. Evan is okay with that. Indeed Evan supports the Supreme Court ruling legalising gay marriage,” the call claimed.
“Evan is over 40 years old and is not married and doesn’t even have a girlfriend. I believe Evan is a closet homosexual.”
McMullin, a former Republican now running as an independent, does indeed have a lesbian mother – though he doesn’t support same-sex marriage rights.
He also insists he’s straight, and blames being single on spending his 20s and early 30s working for the CIA, which made dating tough.
He slammed the calls as “exactly the narrative and the approach that the Donald Trump campaign has had.”
Despite that, Trump’s team was quick to disavow the calls. GOP strategist Sean Spicer called them “disgusting” and “reprehensible,” and shot back at McMullin for linking them to Trump.
“For Evan to turn it back on the Trump campaign is really not in good keeping.”
The disavowal from the Trump campaign seems to have shaken Johnson into issuing his public apology.
“Donald Trump’s campaign has repudiated my robocall and many people from Utah and beyond have excoriated me for it as well.
“Just as Donald Trump has issued a heartfelt apology for his past locker-room talk, I too issue a heartfelt apology for this robocall. I should not have sent it out. I am truly sorry.”
Johnson’s apology was issued while McMullin was speaking at the University of Utah. After the talk he said the apology was “interesting,” but declined to comment further.
