Why Did the Rhode Island Democratic Party Endorse an Alt-Right Supporter Over a Progressive Incumbent?
Some angry Democrats have been circulating screenshots from a Twitter user also named Michael Earnheart, who closely resembles the picture on Michael Earnheart's Facebook page. In one exchange on May 26, whose authenticity was verified by Slate, Earnheart wrote on Twitter that undocumented immigrants are "self-entitled lawbreakers and thieves," in response to a tweet from the Washington Post's Radley Balko criticizing the Trump administration's child-separation policy. In this thread, Earnheart also alleged that many liberal and left opponents of the Trump administration's immigration policies "don't believe in God."
An archived version of Earnheart's Twitter page accessible on the Wayback Machine also features retweets of posts by Roseanne Barr, Donald Trump Jr., Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich, and alt-right journalist Laura Loomer. Earnheart also made Islamophobic comments over a retweet of a post by alt-right figure Gavin McInnes about "Muslim pedophiles." "We are normalizing grooming gangs and creating and lending legitimacy to rape culture by allowing these garbage human beings to live in civilized society," he wrote. "Is the UK government actually stupid?"
Public records show that a Michael Earnheart, of the same age and location, registered as a Republican in 2014 and voted as one in the 2016 election.
Walsh told Slate that the state party's endorsement is "punishment" for her opposition to the positions of Rhode Island's House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello, a pro-life Democrat who had an A+ rating from the NRA in 2016. "This is all very expected with the way our political machine is run in Rhode Island," she said. "It only took two years to piss off the speaker this thoroughly. I'm pretty impressed with myself."