GOP Senate candidate says slave owners just wanted to 'protect the rights of the minority'

04 October 2024

Royce White, who is the Republican candidate in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race, is now attempting to rewrite the history of the Civil War by defending slave owners.

On the most recent episode of his podcast, White – who is Black — was speaking about the importance of protest in a democracy before delving into the defining issue of the Civil War. Journalist Chris Ingraham of the Minnesota Reformer posted to the social media platform Bluesky that around the 1 hour 43 minute mark of White's October 3 podcast, the GOP Senate hopeful defended slave owners after talking about the right of a "minority" in a democratic society to protest the majority voting to do something "self-destructive."

"Actually, the slave owners were the minority. Black people weren't the minority," White said. "They were the racial minority, but the slave owners were the super minority and what they were fighting for in a sense was to protect the rights of the minority to say, 'just because we're the minority doesn't mean that we have to do what everybody else says.'"

White used his point about slave owners as a jump-off point to argue about the importance of state and local government to protect citizens from the "mob rule" of the federal government. He then complained that "you can't even have these conversations with people" because the public school system is "f—ed three ways from Sunday."

Earlier in the podcast, Ingraham also noted that White "uses an Italian slur for gay men" around the 1 hour 35 minute mark of the episode, in which he complained about "finocchio omnisexual egalitarian shills and puppets in the political world and the media world." He specifically referenced Vice President Kamala Harris, Minnesota Democratic Governor Tim Walz and MSNBC hosts Joy-Ann Reid and Rachel Maddow before using the slur.

White — a former NBA player who played just three games with the Sacramento Kings before moving to the G League – has a history of controversial remarks. Before running for Senate, White was a frequent guest on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' Infowars program and on former President Donald Trump's chief White House strategist Steve Bannon's War Room podcast. In one Infowars appearance, White suggested that American police could soon forcibly go door-to-door to vaccinate babies.

"You’re awesome, you’re dead-on and we’re going to learn a lot from you," Jones said in response.

While there are numerous high-profile Senate races this year, White's campaign to oust Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) is not considered competitive. FiveThirtyEight's aggregated polling data shows that Klobuchar is currently leading White by anywhere from eight to 14 percentage points in the most recent polls.

White could also soon find himself in the midst of a federal investigation for potential campaign finance violations. In June, the Daily Beast reported that the Minnesota Republican may have spent thousands of dollars in donor funds for personal use, including at a strip club. Citing the watchdog group Campaign Legal Center (CLC), the Beast reported that White allegedly "misappropriated over $157,000 from his 2022 campaign committee, Royce White for Congress, to pay for personal expenses."

The CLC further accused White of "siphoning over $100,000 through checks, wire transfers, and cash withdrawals from the campaign’s account, as well as making dozens of payments for entertainment, clothing, cosmetics, fitness clubs and other expenses of a personal nature, which would have existed irrespective of White’s campaign." Should White be investigated and found guilty, he could face fines or even imprisonment.

Click here to view Ingraham's full thread on Bluesky.

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