Name Jack Hunter | Role Radio host | |
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Born June 1, 1974 (age 49)
Hanahan, South Carolina ( 1974-06-01 ) Occupation Radio host, writer, blogger | ||
Jack William Hunter, Jr. (born June 1, 1974) is an American radio host, political commentator and Politics Editor for Rare.us, a Washington, D.C.-based news website. He began his career in the late 1990s on alternative rock station WAVF 96.1 FM using the moniker "Southern Avenger", an anonymous pro wrestler/superhero-style character. In 2007, Hunter began appearing every Tuesday and Friday morning on WTMA News-Talk 1250 AM, and contributed to a weekly column to the Charleston City Paper. Hunter was also an aide to U.S. Senator Rand Paul, whom Hunter helped write the book The Tea Party Goes to Washington. He is perhaps best known for his decades-old, racially-charged writings whose reemergence caused a major media controversy for his boss, Senator Paul.
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Hunter's reputation as a political operative was discredited following the Washington Free Beacon's revelation that he had repeatedly espoused racist views on a local South Carolina radio station under the Southern Avenger moniker. His racist comments included expressions of contempt for Hispanic immigrants, and a call for NAACP director Kweisi Mfume, whom he referred to as "NAACP Grand Wizard," to be tied to a tree and whipped. Following these revelations, Hunter resigned from Rand Paul's staff in what the Senator called a "mutual decision." In a 2013 article for Politico, Hunter repudiated his former views, writing "I'm not a racist; I just played one on the radio."
Political views
Hunter is known for often providing commentary from libertarian and conservative viewpoints, with a particular focus on Ron Paul’s 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns as well as Senator Rand Paul’s influence within the Republican Party. Hunter has said he sees the liberal internationalism that is found in the Democratic Party and the neoconservatism prominent in the Republican Party to be ultimately indistinguishable from one another, which has led to criticism from both the mainstream left and the mainstream right.
Controversy over writings on race, American Civil War
Hunter became the center of controversy in 2013 when the Washington Free Beacon reported that he had once espoused racist views on a local South Carolina radio station under the Southern Avenger moniker. His comments included expressions of contempt for Hispanic immigrants, and a call for NAACP director Kweisi Mfume, whom he referred to as "NAACP Grand Wizard," to be tied to a tree and whipped. Following these revelations, Hunter resigned from Rand Paul's staff in what the Senator called a "mutual decision."
Hunter's writings were reported by numerous mainstream media outlets on July 9, 2013. The Washington Post noted that Hunter had previously written that "Americans aren't wrong to deplore the millions of Hispanics coming here" and that "a non-white majority America would simply cease to be America." Hunter explained how the influence of Ron Paul began to change his mind on immigration in Politico, “Something else was happening to me around that time—as I listened to Paul, my worldview began to evolve. Paul was serious about border security, but unlike other Republicans, he didn’t seem angry or hateful. Libertarianism, after all, is based on the relationship between the state and the individual, often with little regard for culture or groups. I had always thought this was shortsighted, but I began to change my mind. Ron Paul blamed illegal immigration on government, not immigrants. ‘If we had a truly free-market economy, the illegal immigrants would not be the scapegoat,” Paul said at the third Republican debate in 2007. Not the scapegoat? Many conservatives, including me, had spent years scapegoating Hispanic immigrants themselves. Paul never went there. He attacked government, not people.”
The Free Beacon also noted that Hunter had previously written in support of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and formerly had served as a chairman of the League of the South, which advocates Southern secession and, according to the Anti-Defamation League, promotes the idea of a society dominated by whites. Hunter was also criticized for suggesting that African-American director Spike Lee be tied to a tree and whipped for his critical comments about Mel Gibson's movie, The Patriot.
In a statement written in response to the controversy, Hunter wrote that he was "embarrassed by some of the comments I made precisely because they do not represent me today." He also expressed abhorrence of racism and criticized the Free Beacon article as "not accurately reflect[ing]" his character or views.
Critics on both the political left and the political right condemned Hunter for the past remarks, and some political analysts said that Senator Rand Paul's continuing association with Hunter would imperil Paul's prospects as a contender in the United States presidential election, 2016.
Sen. Paul has maintained that the entire point of the Hunter controversy has been to “punish” him (Paul) due to his differences with neoconservatives on foreign policy. Vogue reported in September 2013, “According to Paul, Hunter is ‘not a racist, he’s not a white supremacist... The story came out from people who are opposed to my foreign policy and opposed to civil liberties.’ Paul says his views are winning, so that ‘this is used to punish me."
On July 18, Hunter's former longtime editor at the Charleston City Paper, Chris Haire, wrote an article sharply critical of both Hunter and Paul, denouncing Hunter for having asked Haire, long before the current controversy had erupted, to remove from the internet dozens of past columns that Hunter said no longer reflected his views. Haire called the request cowardly and said that Hunter had made it solely for appearances—to help Paul in the 2016 presidential campaign. Noting controversial writings by Hunter "in support of racially profiling Hispanics, praising white supremacist Sam Francis, blast[ing] the House of Representative's apology for slavery" and calling upon black Americans to "apologize to white people for their high crime rates", Haire characterized Hunter as "the most common kind of racist, the one that doesn't realize that he is one".
By July 21, less than two weeks after the original Washington Free Beacon article had been published, Hunter had resigned from his position on Paul's staff, saying he wanted to avoid being a distraction for the senator. Hunter also said he would return to political commentary. Paul called the resignation "a mutual decision," agreeing that Hunter's past views had become a distraction.
In June 2015, Hunter wrote a piece in The Daily Beast condemning his past promotion of Confederate iconography in light of the Charleston church shooting.