David Duke: Nick Griffin was 'lynched' on Question Time
The former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke said on Friday that Nick Griffin was "lynched" on Question Time, echoing the BNP leader's own verdict on his treatment on the programme.
David Dimbleby confronted Mr Griffin on the programme with evidence that he had shared a platform with Mr Duke, who founded a Klan chapter called the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in 1974.
Speaking from his home in Louisiana, Mr Duke told The Daily Telegraph he left the Klan in 1980 because he disliked its associations with violence and could not stop the members of other Klan chapters from doing "stupid or violent things".
Mr Duke, who lives in Louisiana and is still a prominent white supremacist figure around the world, said he was doubtful whether Mr Griffin's appearance on Question Time advanced his cause.
"I cannot see how that programme, with the terrible drubbing he took, helped his cause," he said. "If I'd been on the the show, I'd have got out of my chair and said, 'Is this a lynching or an interview programme?'" He said he had met Mr Griffin a "few times" at gatherings and had spoken to him, all told, for no more than an hour. "We're not close friends," he added.
As Mr Griffin said on Question Time, Mr Duke insisted he had never espoused violence. He dismissed a conviction he received in 1979 for inciting a riot at a Klan gathering in New Orleans as a "scuffle" after the police tried to shut down the meeting.
"When I speak to any groups around the world I say specifically that violence where innocent people are harmed is not only counter-productive but it's also deeply, morally wrong," he said.
