A scientific report on Britons originating from Africans pushed GOP contender Paul Nehlen’s buttons so much that he took to Twitter to decry the use of “‘junk science’ to prove whites never existed,” he said. In his quest to defend whiteness, Nehlen mocked American actress Meghan Markle, the fiance of British Royal Prince Harry. Now, he’s permanently suspended from Twitter.
The Natural History Museum in London recently released images of Cheddar Man, a human hunter-gatherer who lived in Britain about 10,000 years ago. DNA analysis found he had a very dark to Black complexion, dark hair and blue eyes.
Nehlen, a Wisconsin businessman, is a Republican challenging House Speaker Paul Ryan for a congressional seat. He posted Markle and Prince Harry’s official engagement photo with Cheddar Man’s face superimposed on Markle’s face.
Nehlen included the caption:
“Honey does this tie make my face look pale”
“My dad is Caucasian and my mom is African American. I’m half black and half white,” Markle wrote in a column for ELLE magazine in 2015.
Patrick J. Adams, who starred with Markle on the legal TV drama “Suits,” came to her defense on Twitter, sparking public outrage against Nehlen’s posting:
Oh @pnehlen – you’re a sad and sick man with no sense of shame or class. Get a life. And don’t go anywhere near MM – she’s got more power, strength, honor and compassion in her fingernail than you’ll ever know in this lifetime. Way above your weight class.
Patrick J Adams (@halfadams) February 10, 2018
Nehlen defended his Twitter post as a rebuttal to an article that he said uses science against whites. He tweeted:
“Publishing an article disappearing whites or dispossessing whites of their homelands is wrong; made worse when claiming ‘science’ to ‘prove’ whites never existed. I made a joke of it. It’s not a laughing matter, so I chose to laugh about it.”
“While we normally do not comment on individual accounts, I can confirm that we have permanently suspended this account for repeated violations of our terms of service,” a Twitter spokesperson said on Monday.
Nehlen, a man who President Donald Trump once praised on Twitter, has also posted racist and anti-Semitic tweets in the past. His latest racist posting was apparently the final straw for Twitter execs.
Following in the footsteps of Trump, Nehlen’s posting was seemingly pandering to his alt-right fan base.
“In recent months, Nehlen has become a defiant mouthpiece for the racist ‘alt-right,’ whose members see in the Wisconsin businessman a chance to further a foothold in culture and politics,” the Southern Poverty Law Center reported in January.
Nehlen is using his campaign’s Facebook page to defend his Cheddar Man tweet and to accuse Twitter of censorship:
“A deliberately inflammatory article (that I’d argue is pure junk science) was published indicating Brits, and by extension, Americans, came from this Cheddar Man character. In response, I lampooned the article. If you like your free speech, you can keep your free speech (in my condescending Obama voice). Now are you paying attention to my #ShallNotCensor proposal”
He said in a statement that Twitter banning him is “the epitome of interfering with a federal election.”
“The whole Cheddar Man hoax was about one thing and one thing only, a ‘scientific’ justification for the morality behind the mass dispossession of whites,” Nehlen posted Monday on Facebook. “It’s the ‘see bigot, Albion was always home to Blacks, now sit down and be replaced, because science.’ I refuse to play along with this game.”
