On Day House Speaker Implores Fellow Republicans to Oppose KKK, Fellow WI U.S. Rep Glenn Grothman Votes Against Honoring Black Author, Poet, Civil Rights Activist Maya Angelou

MADISON, Wis. — Yesterday, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan felt compelled to publicly remind his fellow Republicans that the ought to be opposed to the hate group the Ku Klux Klan and their racist ideology.

Fellow Wisconsin U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman apparently did not get the memo, voting with eight GOP colleagues against naming a North Carolina post office after black author, poet and civil rights activist, Maya Angelou.

Grothman’s vote also came on the day Donald Trump maintained his status as the frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination. The overt racism Trump and his campaign have exploited in his rise to titular head of the Republican Party reached its zenith, thus far, this week with his refusal to disavow the support he has received from the former grand wizard of the hate group the Ku Klux Klan.

The following are the statements of One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross:

“Glenn Grothman’s vote is another reason why Speaker Paul Ryan felt he had to remind his House Republican colleagues they ought to be opposed to the Ku Klux Klan.

“Racism has reached such endemic proportions in the Republican Party that their likely presidential nominee was unwilling to come right out and reject the support of the former grand wizard of the KKK.

“For fifty years Republicans have been trying to exploit racism and bashing the poor for their partisan political gain. And now the bar is set so low that House Speaker Paul Ryan suggesting his party ought to oppose a hate group like the KKK is newsworthy.

“And now this from Rep. Grothman. You have to ask, did you not get the memo, Glenn?”