WASHINGTON (JTA) — Joe Biden’s presidential campaign forcefully denounced the Democratic nominee’s endorsement by a white nationalist, Richard Spencer.
“When Joe Biden says we are in a battle for the soul of our nation against vile forces of hate who have come crawling out from under rocks, you are the epitome of what he means,” campaign spokesman Andrew Bates said Sunday on Twitter, responding to a tweet by Spencer. “What you stand for is absolutely repugnant. Your support is 10,000% percent unwelcome here.”
Spencer, a prominent white nationalist, said in a conversation that he was shifting his support to Biden from President Donald Trump, whom he supported in 2016, not for ideological reasons but because Biden was more competent.
“I plan to vote for Biden and a straight democratic ticket,” Spencer tweeted. “It’s not based on ‘accelerationism’ or anything like that; the liberals are clearly more competent people.”
“Accelerationism” is a white nationalist strategy that advances liberal policies as a means of sowing chaos, which white nationalists believe will bring about a white supremacist revolution.
In 2016, Trump at first declined to reject the endorsement of white nationalist and former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, then did so on multiple occasions.
