On the house web page of his marketing campaign, Rep. Steve Knight of Palmdale has posted a TV advert displaying a veteran praising the Republican congressman for assisting him in getting a lung transplant. It turns out that veteran David Brayton of Santa Clarita has posted dozens of racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-Muslim remarks on Facebook.
Brayton’s Facebook pages illustrate how Trump’s incendiary rhetoric has resonated with his most radical fans. Trump, whom Brayton frequently praises, has disparaged Muslims, Mexicans, and blacks, equivocated while denouncing white supremacists, and recommended violence in opposition to protesters and newshounds. Brayton, 64, has additionally promoted violence in opposition to reporters he sees as adversarial to President Trump and called citizen militias to turn their guns on left-wing protesters. Last week, Cesar Sayoc, a Trump supporter in Florida, was charged with mailing bombs to CNN and more than a dozen critics of the president.
On Monday, Brayton shared a Breitbart article on the aggressive White House reporting of CNN correspondent Jim Acosta. “CNN must be indicted, determined responsible, and face a firing squad,” Brayton wrote in his Facebook statement above the tale. For Knight, one of the state’s most imperiled Republican incumbents in Tuesday’s midterm election, disclosure of Brayton’s heritage threatens to disrupt his attempts to steer clear of Trump’s coarse brand of racial politics. Both Knight and his Democratic challenger, Katie Hill, seek to campaign as moderates within the country’s 25th Congressional District. Matt Rexroad, Knight’s marketing campaign strategist, stated Wednesday there had been no reason to vet Brayton’s social media postings earlier than putting him in a TV commercial.
Knight had no plans to take down the ad, Rexroad stated. “I suppose the timing of that is ridiculous.” In the economy, Brayton wears a crimson shirt with the phrase “infidel” imprinted within the American flag, an apparent jab at Muslims.
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Veteran David Brayton of Santa Clarita, featured in a marketing campaign ad for Rep. Steve Knight (R-Palmdale), has posted racist rants and violent threats. The shirt he is sporting in the advert is a Latin saying, translated as “In case you want peace, put together for warfare.” In a Brayton Facebook publication in May, an example suggests white guys slipping a noose around former President Obama’s head. “You will grasp using the neck till useless,” the caption says. “Take your conceited ass to hell.”
Brayton’s overt bigotry on Facebook — he posted a Ku Klux Klan blood-drop-go insignia in June 2017 — underscores social media businesses’ hassle as they attempt to keep menacing bursts of hatred off their systems. On Thursday morning, a Facebook spokesman said the corporation is permanently taking down Brayton’s pages for violations of its network requirements. Brayton has used three Facebook debts to avoid the organization’s suspensions, mocking the organization for its ineffective policing of content.
“Notice my primary account remains banned in this fascist book thingy,” he wrote final year under the call David B Enghazi Brayton, which he has used for among the inflammatory postings. In a phone interview, Brayton, a former Air Force medic, stood through all his posts; however, he denied being racist or anti-Semitic. He defended his call for putting CNN employees earlier than a firing squad, announcing that what he regarded as the community’s subversive propaganda turned into treason.
He also claimed Muslims had declared battle on Western Civilization. “Islam has determined they’re going to kill all of us,” he said. “They’ve usually carried out that.” The Knight marketing campaign’s TV advert with Brayton is part of the congressman’s push to be seen as a champion of fellow veterans in his district, which covers Simi Valley, Santa Clarita, and part of the Antelope Valley. The spot suggests Knight in a dwelling room with Brayton and his wife.
“If it wasn’t for Steve Knight’s help in this element, I assure you I’d be useless,” Brayton tells visitors within the 30-2d ad. Knight, an Army veteran and former Los Angeles police officer, positioned the economy on his campaign’s Facebook page. “I’m proud to have earned David Brayton’s vote. However, this is who we fight for,” Knight wrote in a Sept. 18 put-up. “Every. Single. Day.” One of Brayton’s angriest Facebook postings came some weeks after the August 2017 march of neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va. Brayton wrote that “Antifa” protesters in opposition to fascism had been enemies of America who had given up their proper to felony and constitutional protections.
“May your our bodies stack up and your relaxation within the hell you’ve got selected for you and yours in affirming warfare on Americans,” he wrote. Echoing Trump’s assaults on information companies, he delivered, “You ARE the enemy of America. So is your mouthpiece the corrupt faux media?” A few days later, he petitioned opponents of Muslims and “Black Supremacists” to “DO OUR DUTY AS MILITIA” in combating Antifa, saying they wanted only 10% of Trump’s sixty-three million voters to step up.
