Mahoning Dem chairman dismayed over GOP chair's mention of KKK

By David Skolnick | October 1, 2016 at 12:10a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Mahoning County Democratic Party Chairman David Betras said he was “dismayed” to read a comment from Columbiana County GOP Chairman Dave Johnson that if a Ku Klux Klan member were at a public rally, the Donald Trump campaign wouldn’t throw that person out.

Johnson made the statement in a Vindicator column Friday about Trump’s campaign rejecting the comments of Kathy Miller, the Republican presidential nominee’s former Mahoning County chairwoman, who resigned after making controversial comments about race and black Americans.

On a Friday conference call with local black leaders, Betras said the Trump campaign “should do everything they can to keep the KKK out of their rallies.”

The black leaders spoke primarily about Miller and Trump’s campaign embracing racism, something Johnson has said isn’t accurate.

Johnson said, “I should not have said ‘the KKK,’” but criticized the columnist for including his statement.

“The way the article appeared, I resent it,” he said.

Johnson said he was merely trying to clear up any assertions from Betras that Miller was an invited guest or received preferential treatment because she was in the front row at a Wednesday rally for Republican vice-presidential candidate Mike Pence at Leetonia High School.

Miller garnered international attention last week with comments she made that racism didn’t exist until President Barack Obama, and, “If you’re black, and you haven’t been successful in the last 50 years, it’s your own fault. You’ve had every opportunity; it was given to you.”

The statements led to Miller’s resigning her volunteer position as Trump’s Mahoning County campaign chairwoman and as a Republican member of the Electoral College.

Johnson condemned Miller’s statements, saying they don’t represent him or the Trump campaign.

David Duke, a former KKK leader, and other white supremacists have said Trump’s candidacy gives their cause credibility.

Though Trump publicly disavowed Duke and others, the Rev. Kenneth L. Simon, pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church in Youngstown, said Friday that the GOP presidential nominee’s campaign “embraces racist attitudes.”