Former KKK leader David Duke endorses Jill Stein and trashes Donald Trump

Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke has endorsed Green Party candidate Jill Stein over former President Donald Trump, although Stein has rejected that endorsement.

Duke, an anti-Semitic white supremacist, said the candidates' stance on Israel prompted him to make “one of the most important statements I've ever made politically.”

“I support United States Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein,” Duke said on his radio show Monday. “Although Dr. “Although Stein and I obviously have differences of opinion on important issues, she is the only candidate who clearly speaks out against the war in the Middle East.”

Duke acknowledged that his support of the far-left candidate would “shock” his supporters, but said his decision was based on what was “good for whites, Europeans and all of humanity.”

He said Stein is the only major candidate “courageous enough to denounce Israel's massacre of Palestinians in Gaza, the genocide currently taking place and the harm it is inflicting on the American people.”

Stein said she declined Duke's consent.

“A racist troll has 'supported' our campaign to gain attention, and certain smear mongers are happy to use this troll to attack us,” Stein wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

“Of course, I reject any 'endorsement' of a white supremacist like David Duke, unlike Kamala Harris who can't stop bragging about her support of white supremacist mass murderer Dick Cheney.”

Cheney, a lifelong Republican known for his optimistic defense of the Iraq War as vice president, announced last month that he would vote for Harris in November.

Stein's campaign manager Jason Call recounted Newsweek on Wednesday: “It goes without saying that we decline any support or association with Duke.”

Call added that the media should “focus on the fact that Democrats are celebrating the support of Dick Cheney, the worst war criminal in modern American history, with the blood of a million Iraqis and thousands of Americans on his hands.” The fact that the Democrats choose to have Dr. “To vilify Stein using airwaves that should be public, not bought and paid for, rather than engaging in the honest debate the American people deserve.”

The Harris and Trump campaigns were contacted for further comment by email outside of business hours.

Israel's year-long offensive has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians and caused enormous destruction across the Gaza Strip, The Associated Press reports, citing Gaza's health ministry. The trigger was the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed and around 250 were taken hostage.

South Africa filed a lawsuit with the International Court of Justice late last year accusing Israel of violating the Genocide Convention through its military operations in Gaza. Israel has denied allegations of genocide and it is expected to take years to make a final decision in the case.

On his show, Duke criticized Trump's “complete subservience to Israel and the Jewish lobby in the United States.”

He also accused Trump, whom he supported in 2016 and 2020, of “creating a bully pulpit for Jewish extremism and Jewish mass murder.”

Duke also claimed that “Jewish domination on a global scale, which is causing these genocides and these wars and this destruction of our economy, our morals, our society, the very essence of what we call Western civilization, is the greatest and greatest threat to represents a threat to all of humanity.

Update 10/16/24, 4:10 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.

Update 10/16/24, 6:45 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Jason Call.