taylor rose mnt
<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><a href="https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2016/10/10/montana-republicans-warmly-embrace-white-nationalists-legislative-candidacy"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2016/10/10/montana-republicans-warmly-embrace-white-nationalists-legislative-candidacy</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">many lnx some vid/docs</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Montana Republicans Warmly Embrace a White Nationalist's Legislative Candidacy</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>October 10, 2016</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>David Neiwert</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Despite a long background in far-right radicalism, youthful Taylor Rose’s campaign enjoys deep and broad support within the state’s GOP.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Taylor Rose likes to project a fresh-scrubbed, wholesome image to his fellow Montanans while campaigning for a seat in the state’s House of Representatives. It’s easy for the blonde-haired, blue-eyed and clean-shaven 28-year-old from the rural Columbia Falls area to do, flashing a toothy grin and ranting about the need to get the federal government out of workers’ hair and open up the state’s timberlands to lumber operations.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The image, combined with a pleasing message (Rose likes to label himself a “pro-labor Republican”) and a slick campaign, have all raised the prospects that Rose might be able to pull off an upset win over incumbent Rep. Zac Perry, a Democrat, in the race for the House seat in District 3, which historically leans Republican.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[pix Taylor Rose]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What many voters may not realize, however, is Taylor’s long history of deep involvement with the white nationalist movement, and the dangerously bigoted worldview he has promoted since his teenage years –– a history well documented by the SPLC and the Anti-Defamation League in the years leading up to his campaign.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But Taylor has now carefully whitewashed his image with the help of the Montana Republican Party. GOP candidates have employed Rose for state campaigns and as a legislative aide. A number of mainstream Republican candidates, including GOP gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte, have contributed to Rose’s campaign. And one leading Montana Republican dismissed concerns about his background, saying “the rest of us think of him as a good conservative.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rachel Carroll Rivas, executive director of the Montana Human Rights Network, said the GOP’s embrace of Rose is taking place in the broader context of a national Republican party that has nominated Donald Trump, whose own alliances with the radical right have radically altered the nation’s political landscape.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"In the current climate it's hard to pick out the most concerning things we see playing out on the ground, but Rose's candidacy makes the list easily,” she said. “The political environment has clearly shifted when there is mainstream party acceptance and grooming of someone with well-documented white supremacist activity in recent years.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Rose first came to enter the movement in 2011 when his activities on behalf of the white nationalist Youth for Western Civilization were reported by the Center for New Community. Rose, then a recent graduate of <b>Liberty University </b>(the college founded by religious-right leader Jerry Falwell), appeared at a YWC-sponsored “March for Freedom” in Cologne, Germany. He also met with members of Vlaams Belang, the far-right Belgian political party, and members of German organizations designated by authorities there as “right-wing extremist.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Rose also authored a book in 2012 titled Return of the Right: How the Political Right Is Taking Back Western Civilization, which argued that <b>Western humanists are attempting to impose a “vision to destroy the nation-state, eliminate religion, break down all defined barriers in society (such as family) and eliminate western civilization from the face of the earth in the attempt to institute a <u>radical, multicultural, New World Order agenda.”</u> </b>In the book, Rose argued that this nefarious plot is failing because “the Western world is coming to realize the complete emptiness and harm of belief systems that are at their core, nihilistic.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The neo-Confederate hate group the League of the South interviewed Rose about the book when it came out. </b>During the interview, Rose continued to warn of the evil nature of “the Left” and predicted that a white nationalist Right would soon rise to the fore in global politics. “You will first see the Right-Wing act as a great power of political influence, mainly upon the center-right, by reorienting the ideas of the center-right to reform immigration policy and take a more hard-line anti-Socialist stance,” he said.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since returning to Montana, Rose has cultivated political ties with an eye toward running for office –– mostly through the auspices of the state’s GOP, which has made no effort to renounce or distance itself from Rose. Indeed, in the years since Rose's radical beliefs surfaced, the Montana GOP has warmly embraced him:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rose worked as the Northwest Montana campaign coordinator for then-GOP candidate Steven Daines in his 2014 U.S. Senate race, which Daines won. Sen. Daines’ office did not respond to Hatewatch’s request for comment or explanation.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In 2015, Rose was hired by Montana Senate Republicans as a legislative bill title reader and as a majority aide, a staff position that enabled Rose to network widely with party officials and senators.</b> According to Carroll Rivas, Rose used that position not only to make political connections but to actively tamper with the political process: “He was so bad and out of line that there were times in committee that he would actually say a vote in the back of the room – they would be voting in committee, and he would say ‘yea’ or ‘nay’ in the back of the room.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When asked about Rose’s candidacy during a roundtable political talk show in June, Rep. Matthew Monforton of Bozeman, a leading House Republican, dismissed concerns about Rose’s white nationalist background, saying “the rest of us think of him as a good conservative.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rep. Matthew Monforton insists he's just a 'good conservative.'</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On his campaign Facebook page, Rose has boasted of his broad engagement with the local Republican Party, including posing for photos with local leaders at the Flathead County Fair.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Several mainstream Republican candidates have donated to Rose’s campaign, notably GOP gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte, who gave a $170 donation to Rose that was matched by his wife. Rose also received donations from Republican Sen. Mark Blasdel of Kalispell and Rep. Greg Hertz of Polson.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hatewatch attempted to reach a number of Montana GOP officials, including Monforton and Daines.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition to coverage by the SPLC, Rose’s white nationalist background has been detailed at Montana Cowgirl, Raw Story, and Wonkette. However, most Montana media coverage of his race and his candidacy (such as Rose’s profile at the Missoulian) has omitted any mention of his history of radicalism.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Taylor has never renounced or apologized for his radical past, which is extensive. Indeed, he has continued to embrace it, even appearing last fall on a young-conservative website's podcast discussing his candidacy with a “Montana Sovereign” banner proudly displayed behind him – referencing his apparent involvement in the far-right sovereign citizens movement as well. In a recent interview in the Flathead Beacon, Rose denied that he was a racial supremacist and focused on defending the traditional cultural values of Western Civilization.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I am not affiliated with white supremacist groups or leaders,” Rose told the newspaper. “To say otherwise is slanderous. YWC was a cultural group, not a racist group. We defined Western civilization by the classic definition of ancient Greeks and Romans, and we were pro-Christian. We did not say it was exclusively white. We were also very critical of Islam, but that is an ideological issue, not a racial issue. I can promise you that Liberty University would not have tolerated a white power group on its campus.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In reality, YWC was an overt white nationalist organization with multiple connections to white supremacists, though it often used code words such as “cultural identity” and “racial chauvinists” to disguise its racism, arguing that white people face rampant discrimination at the hands of multiculturalism. Some of its better-known members and associates –– Matthew Heimbach and Kyle Bristow –– have gone on to found their own white nationalist groups.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the meantime, Rose has been busily voicing racially and ethnically incendiary sentiments on social media over the past year. He expressed revulsion at the prospect of a white couple giving birth to two black babies via artificial insemination. He also bitterly complained when it was announced that Harriet Tubman, the black woman who helped lead the Underground Railroad during the Civil War, would replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill. In one of his Facebook posts, he compared the action to the removal of Confederate monuments around the nation in the wake of the mass shooting at a black church in Charleston, S.C., by a white-supremacist Confederacy admirer.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of his commenters chimed in: “It’d be a lot quieter if they were all hanging from nooses.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Rose’s campaign Facebook page, he has openly indulged in Islamophobic attacks on Muslim immigrants and Syrian refugees. In one post published in March, he wrote, “Terrorism in Europe during the Cold War was mostly conducted by homegrown, native European Leftist terrorist groups. Now it is committed by Islamic immigrants or the decedents of Islamic immigrants. If we stop the importation of the jihadies, we won't have these attacks.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Rose also posted a racially incendiary rant about “domestic terrorism by the black supremacist group ‘Black Power Political Organization,'</b>” and called for legislation making it a hate crime to assault a police officer. The BPPO is an obscure group that claimed responsibility for the shootings of seven police officers in Dallas earlier this summer, but which subsequent investigations showed had no known connection to the shooter, Micah Xavier Johnson, though Johnson in fact was apparently enamored of several other black nationalist groups (the BPPO was not among his Facebook “likes”).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Rose also wrote an article that appeared in the Citizens Informer, the official newspaper of the Council of Conservative Citizens,</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> a white nationalist group that is the heir of the white citizens' councils during the 1960s. Materials on the CCC website helped Dylann Roof, the alleged killer of nine African American churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, radicalize in his white nationalist beliefs.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The article, which was published in the Jan.-June 2013 issue of the paper, sings the praises of <b>UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party), headed by Nigel Farage, </b>who, according to a former classmate, once sang a song with the lyrics "gas 'em all, gas 'em all" and liked that his initials were the same as the neo-Nazi National Front.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rose wrote that UKIP "provides the best model on how Anglosphere right-wing parties should run," and then noted that "we must tactically concede that conservative libertarians offer us the best hope for delaying the destruction of our people." "If American nationalists, Rose wrote, "decided to show up at Tea Party rallies and meetings and push for white working class advocacy, the debate and structure would change in favor of the American right” and, according to Rose, the national debate “could change from amnesty to deportation and from multiculturalism to nationalism.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Taylor Rose, Citizens Informer</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"UKIP: The Model Right Movement," written by Taylor Rose and published in the Citizens Informer, the publication of the Council of Conservative Citizens.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And while he’s running for a legislative seat, Rose nonetheless appears not to be a fan of democratic republics. He’s a member of a Facebook public group called Monarchists, which “exists for the purpose of civil discussion between monarchists and those interested in monarchy as the ideal form of human governance.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rose also conducted an interview in April with the “Patriot” movement website NorthWest Liberty News’ weekly podcast (though the link for that interview appears to be broken).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In an interview for a podcast with Ryan Girdusky of the young-conservative website Red Alert Politics, Rose lightly brushed over his radicalism and focused mostly on his status as a “young millennial” running for office. However, behind Rose for the duration of the interview was a banner declaring “Montana Sovereign – Don’t Tread On Me,” clearly indicating that Rose considers himself an antigovernment “sovereign citizen,” a movement that has been part of the Montana scene since the 1990s, in the heyday of the Montana Freemen and the Militia of Montana.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rose’s description of his warm welcome by the Montana GOP in that interview made for a stark contrast with the banner behind him. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In interview with 'Red Alert Politics.'</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ROSE: Local Republican leadership in the county, and I’ve spoken with a lot of the Republican leadership across the state, is very, very excited. They really have been very nice to young people rising up. In the current Legislature, we already have several millennials sitting in House seats across the state, and so when I decided to throw my hat in the ring and started talking to people about this, the leadership was very excited. They’ve been very helpful, they’ve been very excited at the idea that there are more young people that want to get involved, and they don’t want to get in our way. There’s definitely – they’re not being restrictive. The old guard of the party is being very helpful and very nice to us young people in helping us rise up and have a voice and speak for millennials.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In his interview with the Beacon, Rose touted his broad acceptance by the local and state GOP as proof that accusations about his radicalism “don’t add up.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“I was open about my past involvement with YWC, and I was vetted by the Republican Party,” he told the newspaper. “I wouldn’t say that I am a mainstream candidate, but I’m not on the fringe either. The minute you reject multiculturalism, you become a target for the left, and that is what’s happened here.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rivas said that Rose’s embrace by the GOP represents an unfortunate evolutionary shift in the state’s politics, in which such extremists, always present in the background, had typically been relegated to the fringe.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“In previous years, the Montana Republican Party distanced themselves from candidates like Rose who had ties groups like the Klan and National Socialist Movement,” she said. “The times have changed. The efforts by the Alt-Right to put a nice suit on their racism may be viewed as effective in this case. And, while Rose’s views seems aligned with the Richard Spencers of the world, his vision isn’t so different than April Gaede’s Pioneer Little Europe.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“This is the reality of what the people of the Flathead Valley are facing right now –– a triangulation between two white supremacists on the national stage and a candidate for state house that just might win. I fear to imagine what’s next.”</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/gianforte-on-donating-to-suspected-white-nationalist-i-was-unaware/">https://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/gianforte-on-donating-to-suspected-white-nationalist-i-was-unaware/</a></font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Gianforte on donating to suspected white nationalist: 'I was unaware of some of his views'</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">JAYME FRASER jayme.fraser@lee.net May 18, 2017 </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">[pix:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Taylor Rose poses with a campaign sign of his from the 2016 race for House District 3 in the Flathead Valley.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Taylor Rose for House District 3 Facebook</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Congressional candidate Greg Gianforte is one of several prominent Montana Republicans who contributed money or support to the 2016 legislative campaign of a Columbia Falls man described by watchdog groups as a white nationalist.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I was unaware of some of his views and we supported him because we supported all (Republican) candidates in the last election,” Gianforte said Wednesday.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Montana congressional candidate Greg Gianforte</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Thom Bridge,thom.bridge@helenair.com</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Taylor Rose of Columbia Falls had worked as a regional field rep for the Montana Republican Party during U.S. Sen. Steve Daines' first Senate run in 2014 and served in 2015 as an aide to the GOP in the Montana Senate before running for a Montana House seat this past fall, losing to Democrat Zac Perry.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Rose has not held any Republican Party jobs since, even as the GOP and newly elected officials scrambled to find enough party loyalists to fill posts.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti-Defamation League, which monitor hate groups, have posted a handful of summaries about their research on Rose since 2010, calling him one of several young white nationalists avoiding discussion of their most controversial views during bids for public office around the country.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Those analyses highlighted Rose’s affiliation with groups that promote a return to “traditional European values” and a revival of “western civilization” that the watchdogs consider feeder organizations offering sanitized versions of white nationalist and racist philosophies. Rose has repeatedly denied those claims, arguing his views are based on political and religious histories, not race.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“I am not affiliated with white supremacist groups or leaders,” Rose told the Flathead Beacon in October. “To say otherwise is slanderous. <b>Youth for Western Civilization was a cultural group, not a racist group. </b>We defined Western civilization by the classic definition of ancient Greeks and Romans, and we were pro-Christian. We did not say it was exclusively white. We were also very critical of Islam, but that is an ideological issue, not a racial issue. I can promise you that Liberty University would not have tolerated a white power group on its campus.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During the 2016 campaigns of Rose and U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke, the watchdog group reports fueled critiques by liberal-leaning blogs like MT Cowgirl and Intelligent Discontent. A joint mailer featured Rose on one side and Zinke, now U.S. Interior Secretary, on the other.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Those blogs have again highlighted the watchdog reports on social media, but this time to criticize Gianforte.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">They also have highlighted 2016 reports by the Billings Gazette about <b>another Republican legislative candidate, Robert Saunders</b>, who came under fire for past comments seen by some as racist or insensitive.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Former classmates at <b>Patrick Henry College recalled Saunders telling a black peer that earlier in America's history he would have owned her and that he once said President Barack Obama and his family should be “sent back to the fields to pick cotton," claims he both denied to the Gazette.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Saunders later apologized for a Facebook post in which he said vandals during the Ferguson protests and riots should have been shot with "two rounds through the brain" because "elimination of those people in self-defense would probably have cut Missouri’s welfare handouts — and long-term crime rate — considerably.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Saunders also received campaign support from Gianforte and has since contributed the maximum $2,700 to his congressional bid.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“Back in 2015 and 2016 when Gianforte was trying to buy the Montana Legislature he and his wife donated to Flathead-area white supremacist Taylor Rose and Billings-area white supremacist Robert Saunders. </b>While both lost their bids to bring their retrograde values to the Legislature, it’s troubling that Mr. Gianforte would financially support men like this and astonishing that the statewide press hasn’t pressed him to explain his donations,” Helena High School English teacher Don Pogreba recently wrote on his blog Intelligent Discontent.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a letter to the Missoulian, Laurie Franklin, the spiritual leader of Har Shalom Synagogue, wrote about Rose and Saunders, as well as Idaho's Doug Wilson, whom some have called a neo-Confederate after he wrote in 1996 that black families might have been their strongest during slavery. He founded the Association of Classical & Christian Schools. Gianforte once sat the group's board because of his leadership of a private Christian school in Bozeman that his children attended.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Mr. Gianforte never spoke against these two men to whom he had donated money, never denounced their racist words and actions,” Franklin wrote. “It’s not normal to support white supremacists. White supremacy is not a Montana value.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">Gianforte has previously distanced himself from Wilson, telling The Huffington Post through a campaign spokesman last fall that he was “unfamiliar with Mr. Wilson’s writings outside of their mutual involvement” in the Christian school organization that reports more than 200 members.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Asked twice Wednesday if he would have contributed to Rose’s campaign if he had known as much about his views as he does now, Gianforte would not say, but did denounce racism and discrimination generally.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I will say clearly that hatred is wrong and it has no place in politics or government. I completely reject it," he said.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Gianforte said his contribution to Rose’s campaign was simply one of several such donations to Republican races across the state. Since 2000, he and his wife have made more than 500 contributions in Montana elections. Of those, 134 were made to support 114 Republicans on the November 2016 ballot.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A $170 contribution from Gianforte and a matching one from his wife are among about a dozen such personal donations from Republican leaders or state legislators to Rose’s failed legislative bid. <b>State campaign finance records show most of that money came to the Rose campaign after the Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti-Defamation League reports gained traction on social media in Montana.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rose received strategic support from the GOP legislative campaign committee along with 20 other Republicans, most of whom were also new to the party or running in swing districts. It is not clear why, but after four strategic planning calls in July the committee stopped assisting Rose’s campaign, at least in a way that appears on public disclosure forms, even as they continued to support other candidates.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Two Flathead County GOP groups contributed a total of $700 in August and then Rose reported no more contributions until almost two dozen fellow Republicans donated in October, most in the days after the first report about his potential ties to white nationalists appeared in a local newspaper.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Although Rose has since deleted many of his social media accounts, they once featured photos with Gianforte and other top Republicans at party events and elsewhere around the state.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">*</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Some Republicans defended Rose publicly. Others quietly distanced themselves. From the start of his legislative campaign, Rose had been viewed as an odd Republican; it is unusual, for instance, for any Flathead-area conservative to campaign on a pro-union platform.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But some Republicans refused to believe Rose was racist, saying in mostly private conversations that the claims made by SPLC and ADL were false or at least misleading. In particular, some sympathized with Rose’s writings that are critical of Islam and speak to fears about immigration from Muslim countries.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The watchdog organizations are seen by some as being sympathetic to Democrats, especially when their research on hate groups is picked up as campaign attacks by liberal blogs.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Former Bozeman legislator Matthew Monforton said as much when asked about Rose being a white nationalist during a Face the State television panel a year ago.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“Uh, yeah, according to your phony Cowgirl blog, yes, but the rest of us think of him as a good conservative.”</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Montana Speaker of the House Austin Knudsen, a Culbertson Republican who also chairs the Republican party’s legislative campaign committee, said Tuesday: “Frankly, I have a really hard time taking SPLC very seriously on anything.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He did not remember much about Rose’s comments or how the committee reacted to learning about them “fairly late into the campaign,” directing questions to the group’s senior adviser, Jake Eaton.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Eaton, a Republican consultant and former director of the Montana GOP, likewise said he didn’t remember much, aside from a vague recollection of a local newspaper story. He said it might have been one published in October by the Flathead Beacon. All in all, he said whatever the discussion was during the campaign it wasn’t viewed as serious enough to warrant any response from the party’s leaders or its legislative campaign committee.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“To be honest with you, I don’t even remember it being a topic of conversation. I don’t think it was anything anybody was super aware of. It was one story in one legislative race,” Eaton said. “I feel like I’ve certainly seen a few stories at this point that definitely, if true, would be a little bit troubling.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He said if the information had come out sooner in the campaign or drawn more attention from GOP leaders, party officials likely would have talked to Rose to see “what he actually thinks and believes and to decide if that’s an issue or not.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As far as he knows, that never happened. GOP Chairman Jeff Essmann did not return multiple calls seeking comment.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“To suggest, like, that we recruited or groomed him or something would be a total mischaracterization. It’s somebody who paid $15 and ran as a Republican, ran as our candidate. That’s the process,” Eaton said, noting the legislative campaign committee does not vet candidates who advance from the primaries. Rose had no Republican challenger.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Is this really a story?” Eaton asked. “That because Greg Gianforte wrote a check to a legislative candidate, when he wrote one to every candidate, that’s a thing? It seems pretty thin to me.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><a href="https://www.rawstory.com/2016/05/trumpism-goes-local-montana-republicans-are-helping-this-white-nationalist-get-into-office/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.rawstory.com/2016/05/trumpism-goes-local-montana-republicans-are-helping-this-white-nationalist-get-into-office/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="margin: 0px 76px 20px 70px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.55; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Liberty University-educated white supremacist is <a href="http://mtcowgirl.com/2016/05/09/montana-candidate-outraged-over-harriet-tubman-and-white-people-who-adopt-non-white-babies/" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; opacity: 1; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s; box-shadow: rgb(221, 175, 175) 0px -4px 0px inset;">running for a seat</a> in the Montana statehouse — and his campaign has attracted support from some prominent Republicans in the state.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 76px 20px 70px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.55; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Taylor Rose, the former vice-president of the white nationalist Youth for Western Civilization (YWC) campus group, spent significant time as a college student in Europe — where he made contacts with far-right and anti-Muslim groups — before returning to the U.S. and<b> working as a <a href="http://www.wnd.com/author/trose/" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; opacity: 1; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s; box-shadow: rgb(221, 175, 175) 0px -4px 0px inset;">staff reporter</a> for the right-wing World Net Daily.</b></font></p><div class="rs_ad_block story_page_incontent_p2" style="margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: center; max-width: 728px;"><div class="teadsNative1" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /></div><p style="margin: 0px 76px 20px 70px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.55; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><p style="margin: 0px 76px 20px 70px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.55; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The 29-year-old Rose became enamored by European right-wing nationalism during the 2008 presidential campaign, saying he was <a href="http://dixienet.org/rights/taylor_rose_interview.php" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; opacity: 1; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s; box-shadow: rgb(221, 175, 175) 0px -4px 0px inset;">attracted to its focus</a> on cultural and identity issues instead of economics and politics.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 76px 20px 70px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.55; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Christianity will become the unifying religious force for the Right-Wing movements in Europe and the USA, for the only way to have a true revival of Occidental power both inwardly and outwardly is for the Occident to return to its historical foundations rooted in Christianity,” Rose said, referring to the West in opposition to the Oriental east. “Humanism is a failure and the only hope for a restoration of strength and liberty is a conviction in the inspiration of Christianity’s absolutes.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 76px 20px 70px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.55; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He wrote a 2012 book, “Return of the Right: How the Conservative Movement is Taking Back Western Civilization,” that is promoted by white nationalist groups such as the <b>Council of Conservative Citizens </b>— the group that <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/2015/06/white-nationalist-who-inspired-dylann-roof-wants-you-to-know-hes-not-racist-because-he-likes-bb-king/" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; opacity: 1; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s; box-shadow: rgb(221, 175, 175) 0px -4px 0px inset;">inspired racist killer Dylann Roof</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 76px 20px 70px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.55;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Rose co-founded a Liberty campus chapter of YWC, a right-wing, anti-immigrant group that had branches at seven universities — including Towson University, whose chapter was founded by white nationalist Matthew Heimbach.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 76px 20px 70px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.55; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Heimbach, who recently <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/2016/03/white-nationalist-admits-shoving-black-woman-at-trump-rally-but-protesters-could-face-charges/" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; opacity: 1; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s; box-shadow: rgb(221, 175, 175) 0px -4px 0px inset;">made national news</a> for shoving a black woman at a Donald Trump rally, has gone on to become one of the nation’s most prominent young white supremacists.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 76px 20px 70px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.55; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Rose is running against state Rep. Zac Perry, a moderate Democrat who recently defeated Tea Party Republican Jerry O’Neil, and has drawn the support of several prominent Republicans.</b></font></p><div class="rs_ad_block story_page_incontent_p6" style="margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: center; max-width: 728px;" /><p style="margin: 0px 76px 20px 70px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.55; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><p style="margin: 0px 76px 20px 70px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.55; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.dailyinterlake.com/news/local_montana/local-campaign-spending-ramps-up-for-primary/article_9341090e-13c3-11e6-b64a-77466a69baf5.html" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; opacity: 1; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s; box-shadow: rgb(221, 175, 175) 0px -4px 0px inset;">As of last week</a>, Rose had raised $3,805 and spent $1,511, while the incumbent Perry has raised $4,587 and spent $490.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 76px 20px 70px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.55; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Greg Gianforte, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, gave Rose $170 in campaign contributions, and he got the same amount from GOP state Sen. Mark Blasdel.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 76px 20px 70px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.55; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He also received $100 from GOP state rep. Greg Hertz.</font></p><div class="rs_ad_block story_page_incontent_p10" style="margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: center; max-width: 728px;"><div id="incontentp10_ll_target" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /></div><p style="margin: 0px 76px 20px 70px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.55; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><p style="margin: 0px 76px 20px 70px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.55;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Rose’s campaign website claims he managed U.S. Sen. Steve Daines’ (R-MT) “campaign in the Northwest,” and he also claims he worked for state Sen. Jennifer Fielder, the vice-chair of the Montana Republican Party and CEO of the</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Koch-linked <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/2016/02/koch-backed-lobbying-group-is-spreading-ammon-bundys-lies-misspellings-and-all/" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; opacity: 1; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s; box-shadow: rgb(221, 175, 175) 0px -4px 0px inset;">American Lands Council</a>.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 76px 20px 70px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.55; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He’s among a <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2015/10/19/meet-new-wave-extremists-gearing-2016-elections" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; opacity: 1; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s; box-shadow: rgb(221, 175, 175) 0px -4px 0px inset;">handful of right-wing extremist</a> candidates <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/2016/05/this-trump-loving-kentucky-republican-shares-some-troubling-views-with-racist-gunman-dylann-roof/" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; opacity: 1; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s; box-shadow: rgb(221, 175, 175) 0px -4px 0px inset;">campaigning this year</a>, although not all of them boast the same connections to the GOP establishment.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 76px 20px 70px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.55; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Watch this interview with Rose posted online by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efoBTg9j3-s" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; opacity: 1; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s; box-shadow: rgb(221, 175, 175) 0px -4px 0px inset;">Ryan Girdusky</a>:</font></span></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gianforte on donating to suspected white nationalist: 'I was unaware of ...</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>https://missoulian.com/.../article_fc11afb9-518a-5f98-b637-5dc08c3a51b2.html</div><div>May 18, 2017 - Taylor Rose poses with a campaign sign of his from the 2016 race for ... Steve Daines' first Senate run in 2014 and served in 2015 as an aide to ...</div><div>Montana Republicans Warmly Embrace a White Nationalist's ...</div><div>https://www.splcenter.org/.../montana-republicans-warmly-embrace-white-nationalists-...</div><div>Oct 10, 2016 - Taylor Rose likes to project a fresh-scrubbed, wholesome image to his .... a number of Montana GOP officials, including Monforton and Daines.</div><div>Taylor Rose – The Montana Post</div><div>https://themontanapost.com/blog/tag/taylor-rose/</div><div>Back in June, I identified three ways Matt Rosendale could keep the race with Jon Tester competitive. One was Trumpian mendacity, a willingness to lie about.</div><div>Let's Talk about Greg Gianforte's Support For and ... - The Montana Post</div><div>https://themontanapost.com/.../lets-talk-about-greg-gianfortes-support-for-and-from-w...</div><div>May 11, 2017 - Since his college days, Taylor Rose has been deeply active in white .... Donald Jr, Steve Daines, Ryan Zinke, and VP Pence would support him ...</div><div>Images for taylor rose montana daines</div><div>Image result for taylor rose montana daines</div><div>Image result for taylor rose montana daines</div><div>Image result for taylor rose montana daines</div><div>Image result for taylor rose montana daines</div><div>Image result for taylor rose montana daines</div><div>Image result for taylor rose montana daines</div><div>Image result for taylor rose montana daines</div><div>Image result for taylor rose montana daines</div><div>Image result for taylor rose montana daines</div><div>Image result for taylor rose montana daines</div><div>View all</div><div>More images for taylor rose montana daines</div><div>Report images</div><div>Web results</div><div>CSGOPOTD: Taylor Rose - Daily Kos</div><div>https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/1/4/1729848/-CSGOPOTD-Taylor-Rose</div><div>Taylor Rose is a columnist for the World Net Daily with ties to militia groups, White ... Rose has also worked on the campaign of GOP Senator Steve Daines, and ...</div><div>MT GOPer Outraged Over Harriet Tubman–and People Who Adopt ...</div><div>mtcowgirl.com/.../montana-candidate-outraged-over-harriet-tubman-and-white-peopl...</div><div>May 9, 2016 - Taylor Rose (left) with MTGOP Vice-Chair and American Lands Council CEO ... He reports that he “managed Steve Daines's campaign in the ...</div><div>Taylor Rose - MT Cowgirl</div><div>mtcowgirl.com/tag/taylor-rose/</div><div>Some initial thoughts: After Stunning National Disaster, Montana Wins Even ... Taylor Rose (left) with MTGOP Vice-Chair and American Lands Council CEO ...</div><div>Missing: daines ?| Must include: daines</div><div>Taylor Rose - Ballotpedia</div><div>https://ballotpedia.org/Taylor_Rose</div><div>Taylor Rose was a 2016 Republican candidate for District 3 of the Montana House of ... Incumbent Zac Perry defeated Taylor Rose in the Montana House of ...</div><div>Missing: daines ?| Must include: daines</div><div>Trumpism goes local: Montana Republicans are helping this white ...</div><div>https://www.rawstory.com/.../trumpism-goes-local-montana-republicans-are-helping-t...</div><div>May 13, 2016 - Taylor Rose, the former vice-president of the white nationalist Youth for ... Steve Daines' (R-MT) “campaign in the Northwest,” and he also ...</div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div>