Race-baiting troll finds acceptance
By Annie Linskey and Michael Levenson
GLOBE STAFF FEBRUARY 09, 2018
WASHINGTON — Charles C. Johnson, one of the country’s most notorious Internet trolls, sank into a plush couch in the lobby of the soaring Trump Hotel here on a recent afternoon, sipping a jasmine green tea while chatting with a top staffer at a pro-Trump super PAC.
He’d just attended the State of the Union address as the guest of a congressman from Florida, garnering national attention, and was squeezing in some meetings at Washington’s new clubhouse for the powerful ...
... during any normal era in American politics, Johnson, a 29-year-old Massachusetts native, would be radioactive ... He’s argued that black people are "dumber" than white people, questioned whether 6 million Jews died in the Holocaust, was banned from Twitter for threatening a Black Lives Matter activist, and posed making a white power sign while standing next to white supremacist leader Richard Spencer.
But now he’s managed to secure himself a foothold not far from the center of influence in Washington, taking advantage of the new anything-goes environment to win sit-downs with political leaders. Johnson’s rise to prominence is a case study in the empowerment of the so-called alt-right, the white nationalist movement that has gained mainstream currency in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s election. He’s met with Trump’s interior secretary to discuss a border wall, huddled with Julian Assange and a Republican congressman on a jaunt to London, and written an article on his conspiracy-focused website, GotNews.com, that has landed on the president’s desk ...
https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2018/02/09/spurned-milton-race-baiting-troll-has-found-acceptance-trump/jk2YPROcjHz8OPLMrj3zFL/story.html
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