Confederates For Donald Trump Warn Of White Ethnic Cleansing

A commemorative event hosted by advocates for the Confederate flag and the Confederate narrative of American history turned into a rally for Donald Trump on the day of the Republican primary in South Carolina.

Prior to the event, Pastor Michael Reed placed Donald Trump yard signs in the ground outside the South Carolina capitol building in Columbia. And, during a program of speeches from the capitol steps, William Carter, editor and publisher of The Conservative Action Report, announced his paper's endorsement for Mr. Trump.

The event took place on Feb. 20, 2016 as Republican voters were going to the polls the choose a presidential nominee. It was also the first Saturday following the 151st anniversary of the burning of Columbia, many say, at the hands of General William T. Sherman's Union army.

The grievances of Trump voters at this event mirrored the concerns expressed by Trump voters in Northern states, focusing on things like "political correctness," terrorism, and immigration. However, we found a deeper sense of white racial anxiety here, expressed with stronger language than what we'd heard in New Hampshire, Iowa, Vermont, and Massachusetts. Whereas northern Trump supporters feel that the unfair treatment of white Americans can best be summed up with the term "political correctness," this group preferred the term "ethnic cleansing," perhaps because of the bitter fight last summer that led to the removal of the Confederate flag from South Carolina's state capitol grounds. A state senator named Rev. Clementa Pinckney had been the target of a white supremacist terrorist who gunned down the senator, and 8 of his parishioners during Bible Study at the Mother Emmanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston. When it was learned that white supremacy had motivated the killer, and that he saw the Confederate flag as a symbol of his hatred, Sen. Pinckney's colleagues in the Senate authored legislation to remove the flag from the state capitol grounds.

We then traveled to Spartanburg, SC for the Trump Campaign's victory party. We were blocked by the campaign from interviewing supporters. But, after the event, we asked 3 people 2 questions. Was the president born in the United States? And should the flag have come down? All 3 of them answered the same way as the folks you see in the video above.

@EricByler @JordanChariton