Former KKK leader David Duke aims for senate seat with '75% to 80%' of Trump supporters behind him

Former KKK leader David Duke has announced he would be Donald Trump's biggest supporter if he wins the senate seat he is running for in Louisiana. The white supremacist, who served as grand wizard of the KKK in Louisiana from 1974-1979, has previously spoken out in favour of Trump and said he believed white people in the US were facing discrimination.

"As a United States senator, nobody will be more supportive of his legislative agenda, his Supreme Court agenda, than I will," Duke said in an NPR interview shown on Morning Edition on 5 August.

"I'm 100% behind it. I have a long record of being in favour of protecting our borders from this massive immigration."

"I don't know if he [Trump]'s with me or not, but I would hope that he and others would realise the same lies they make about him is what they say about me.

"I've always said that I'm equal rights for all people, but I also believe that European Americans shouldn't be facing discrimination either, and I'm sick and tired of this very vicious anti-white narrative in our national media, in our movies."

Duke was elected as a Republican to the Louisiana House in 1989 until 1992, and once attempted to run as a Republican presidential candidate, but received no delegates.

He also rebuffed accusations Trump was racist and said the same people who voted for Trump would be supporting his senate bid. "These are just nothing more than epithets and vicious attacks. Donald Trump is not a racist," Duke said.

"And the truth is, in this country, if you simply defend the heritage of European American people, then you're automatically a racist. There's massive racial discrimination against European Americans, and that's the reality."

"We've done the analysis of what's going on in Louisiana. We've already polled inside the Trump voters, and we know we're going to carry 75 to 80% of those who are going to vote for Trump."