Gabrielle Hanson, the Franklin, Tennessee city alderman running for mayor, has attracted national attention for her ties to neo-Nazi activists. But according to Nashville NewsChannel 5's Phil Williams, she is once again doubling down and refusing to back off those connections.
Hanson has become famous for her shamelessness around white supremacy and neo-Nazi allies
"Hanson, a current Franklin alderman, took to the right-wing Patriot Punkcast for her closing argument, including her claim that her white supremacist friends were just misunderstood," wrote Williams. "'And I'm just going to tell you, from what I've seen, I do not see white supremacists, and I do not see Nazi.' The mayoral candidate insisted she didn't see white supremacy in Brad Lewis — the man with the Proud Boys tattoo on his face — or Sean Kauffman, the Hitler-saluting neo-Nazi who's made a habit of protesting local drag shows."
Hanson, who recently received a brutal profile in comedian John Oliver's "Last Week Tonight," has previously defended the fact that white supremacists have shown up at various events to support her, telling one activist who asked her about it, "Everybody has their own thing."
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Even before the neo-Nazi controversy, Hanson, a Trump supporter who has crusaded against Pride events in the city of Franklin, has been mired in a number of peculiar scandals.
Hanson was caught lifting social media posts from various women to falsely imply they were endorsing her. She also misrepresented her guilty plea to promoting prostitution as a college student in Dallas. And she had a reporter from NewsChannel 5 ejected from her event after they covered an embarrassing incident involving her husband wearing a Speedo at a Pride event.
Voters will head to the polls in Franklin's mayoral race tomorrow.
