UH OH

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts’ Former Field Director Promoted White Nationalism in Leaked Chats

The former GOP field director said he has “more compassion for small dogs than illegals.”

Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts’ field director for his 2018 re-election campaign pushed racist views in a trove of leaked private messages sent over a web platform popular with white nationalists. Bennett Bressman, the former field director, sent over 3,000 comments on the page for white nationalist YouTuber Nicholas Fuentes’ show America First. His private chats were made public by Unicorn Riot, a nonprofit devoted to exposing the communications of white nationalists. “I am shocked and horrified to learn that this former staffer made these statements and I had no idea he harbored these feelings. He never expressed these views to me. I condemn these statements and this hateful worldview, which do not reflect my beliefs or the beliefs of Nebraskans,” Ricketts said in a statement.

The chats remain searchable on Unicorn Riot’s page. In them, Bressman details his allegiance to white nationalist ideology, claiming that “the white race is dying.” Bressman explicitly encourages his fellow travelers to seek posts in local government and “take this whole apparatus over.” He also states having “more compassion for small dogs than illegals,” repeatedly uses the n-word, and claims his “whole political ideology revolves around harming journalists.”

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