We Must Confront a New White Nationalism and Its Alignment With Many GOP Leaders

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Rep. Ted Cruz were featured on The Daily Show juxtaposed with Ku Klux Klan leaders like David Duke and former Imperial Wizard Bill Wilkerson .

Julian Zelizer : Despite the all-too-obvious convergence of the perspectives of the Republican far right and the white supremacists of the Klan , as well as avowed racists, Republican party leaders continue to vehemently deny any identification with the KKK.

Frida Ghitis: The Klan played a small but meaningful role in the transition of the Democratic South from blue to red.

She says there was a correlation between the rise of Klan activity and the southern shift to the Republican Party .

Ghitis says the Klan and the GOP got new life when GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy thought it a good idea to liken Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley to what he called “ the modern grand wizards of the modern KKK”.

David Duke was one of the star attendees of that infamous “Unite the Right’s rally in Charlottesville , Virginia , that brought together neo-Nazis, white supremacists, antisemites , and far-right extremists from around the nation.

Trump knew just who Duke was, having discussed him in other interviews in previous years .

He's never been aggressively challenged to explain why Duke would have endorsed him in the first place.