The chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party linked Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to the Ku Klux Klan in multiple tweets with the hashtags #BlackLivesMatter and #ChristianLivesMatter.
Hasan Harnett, the state party's first black chairman, tweeted pictures of the KKK next to pictures of Clinton twice last week, as reported by WRAL in Raleigh. He urged his followers to "Say NO to the #Democrat Lies" and the "#Liberal Agenda."
The North Carolina Republican Party did not immediately return a request for comment from The Huffington Post, but Todd Poole, executive director of the state party, told WRAL, "The chairman isn't going to comment or give interviews on tweets, but as the first black chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, he believes we have to learn from history and move past it."
Duke University political science professor Kerry Haynie also told WRAL that any attempt to link Clinton and the KKK was "an outrageous untruth that has no place coming from a responsible political party."
Harnett won the chairmanship last month in an upset over the candidate supported by Gov. Pat McCrory (R).
"We need a bold, reinvigorated Republican Party who listens to the grass roots. Together we will win in 2016 because teamwork makes the dream work," Harnett said after the election, saying he could help expand the party's appeal to communites of color.
Harnett, a former Democrat, switched to the Republican Party in 2010. Though he was a Democrat in 2008, Harnett passed over both Clinton and future President Barack Obama in the primary and instead wrote in then-Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas).