February 21, 2016
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A South Carolina group dedicated to “defense of the proudly Confederate South” rallied at the State House here on
Saturday, showcasing a mixture of Confederate flags and signs supporting Donald Trump as the Republican presidential primary unfolded across the state.
Saturday, showcasing a mixture of Confederate flags and signs supporting Donald Trump as the Republican presidential primary unfolded across the state.
The
South Carolina Conservative Action Council said the event was held in
observance of the anniversary of the burning of Columbia after Union
soldiers invaded the city in February 1865. Along with marking the
burning of Columbia, the rally promoted the group’s recent endorsement
of Trump’s presidential campaign.
Several neo-Confederate and white supremacist groups have expressed support for Trump.
His campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment from
Yahoo News asking whether it accepts the SCCAC’s endorsement and why
such groups are drawn to Trump.
Donald
Trump supporter John Maclean at a rally hosted by the South Carolina
Conservative Action Council on Feb. 20, 2016. (Photo: Hunter
Walker/Yahoo News)
South
Carolina Conservative Action Council Chairman William Carter told Yahoo
News his group decided to back Trump because of “his conservative
position on the border.” Trump has called for a wall to be built on the
U.S. border with Mexico.
“I’ve
told a lot of people, if Donald Trump, if his four years in office, if
he only is there four years, if he only closes the border — that’s more
than we could ask for,” Carter said.
Carter
also praised Trump’s proposal to ban Muslim immigrants from entering
the country. He noted the SCCAC has fought against the resettlement of
Syrian refugees in South Carolina. Carter described this as “the
importation of Muslims.”
“We
like our country like it is, and we don’t want it permanently changed
by a bunch of people who have a lot of different opinions about things,
and are really opposed to us in a lot of ways,” Carter said.
Last year, Trump expressed support
for removing the Confederate flag from the South Carolina State House.
Carter explained why his group was still supporting Trump in spite of
his opposition to the flag.
“I think Trump’s even made a few statements — not against the flag so much, but saying it ought to be put in a museum or something like that, so I mean, he’s not supporting our issue on that anyway,” Carter said. “But our organization has two basic issues: one was the preservation of Southern heritage and the honorable heritage of our ancestors who fought to preserve their Constitutional rights as Americans … and the other was to close the border and defend the country from unlimited immigration.”
“I think Trump’s even made a few statements — not against the flag so much, but saying it ought to be put in a museum or something like that, so I mean, he’s not supporting our issue on that anyway,” Carter said. “But our organization has two basic issues: one was the preservation of Southern heritage and the honorable heritage of our ancestors who fought to preserve their Constitutional rights as Americans … and the other was to close the border and defend the country from unlimited immigration.”
The
council touted its endorsement of Trump on the front page of its
newspaper, The Conservative Action Report. Carter said he had given
copies of the paper, which is dated “February-March 2016,” to Trump’s
campaign staff to “make sure he sees it.”
“We want him to see that were working for him,” Carter said.
Along
with the endorsement of Trump, the paper’s front page features an
article that asks in a headline, “Is Barack Obama a Muslim?”
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