March 30, 2026, 6:33 p.m. ET
Nick Cannon is going viral after giving perception into his political stance.
The entertainer made the remarks throughout the newest episode of his present “Nick Cannon’s Big Drive,” launched on Friday, March 27, the place he spoke with mannequin Amber Rose, who is additionally a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump.
“People don’t know that the Democrats are the party of the KKK,” Cannon, 45, mentioned. “People don’t know that the Republicans are the party that freed the slaves.”
The declare that the Democratic Party is in charge for the creation of the Ku Klux Klan is deceptive, and a trope in opposition to the present Democratic Party that has been circulating for years, as USA TODAY reported in 2020.
“At the core of the effort to discredit the current Democratic Party is the refusal to accept the realignment of the party structure in the mid-20th century,” Princeton University Edwards Professor of American History Tera Hunter mentioned at the time.
On the podcast, Cannon instructed Rose, “Both you and I have some conservative views. You just a little bit more outspoken about it than I am. I honestly don’t subscribe to either party.”
He added, “I rock with W. E. B. Du Bois, when he said there’s no such thing as two parties. It’s just one evil party with two different names.”
USA TODAY reached out to representatives for Nick Cannon on Monday, March 30, however didn’t obtain a right away response.
Not the party it was before the Civil Rights era
Experts say that the KKK, founded in the late 1860s, had many members who were Democrats. However, they emphasized that not all supported what became a white supremacist group. During the second wave of the KKK, which started in 1915, each Democrats and Republicans, as well as members who were neither, had been concerned.
Jon Grinspan, the Smithsonian’s National Museum curator of political history, also spoke with USA TODAY in 2020.
According to Grinspan, the Republican Party was concerned with protecting African Americans and their voting rights at its founding and through the early 20th century. In the mid-20th century, both parties’ stances on racial equity began to switch.
Realignment began after President Franklin Roosevelt launched the New Deal, which provided Depression-era economic support. Later, Black voters were alienated by the candidacy of Republican Barry Goldwater, a senator from Arizona who advocated for states’ rights, which many people interpreted as pro-segregation. Martin Luther King, Jr. said the idea of a Goldwater presidency “threatens the well being, morality, and survival of our nation.”
As a senator, Goldwater voted against the Civil Rights Act, alongside some southern democrats like Strom Thurmond of South Carolina. After a filibuster, the act finally passed the Senate with the support of 44 Democrats and 27 Republicans.
President Lyndon Johnson, a democrat, signed the Civil Rights Act into law in July 1964. Many voters who opposed the law left the Democratic Party to become Republicans; Thurmond himself switched his party affiliation that same year.
It impacted the presidential election, with 94% of Black voters choosing Johnson over Goldwater in a landslide election.
The Civil Rights Act, which had key provisions for ending segregation and Jim Crow laws and strengthening voting rights protections, helped solidify support from Black voters for the Democratic Party. That support has held in the decades since: In 1980, 14% of Black voters supported Ronald Reagan, according to the Roper Center; 13% supported Trump in 2024.
Trump is ‘doing what he said he was going to do,’ Cannon says
During the conversation, Rose spoke about her decision to vote for Trump, saying that he was the “higher possibility for us.” The actuality TV star, as soon as outspoken in opposition to Trump, made headlines for speaking at the 2024 Republican National Convention.
“And as of now, I agree with quite a lot of issues that he’s doing,” Rose added.
Cannon chimed in, stating that Trump “is cleansing home” and that “he’s doing what he mentioned he was going to do.”
He continued, “We received the Gulf of America now. He’s like the membership. He’s charging a $5 million bottle service charge to get into the nation. I (expletive) with Trump.”
Minutes later, Rose spoke on freedom of speech, “It’s really not unlawful to be racist,” she said. “As lengthy as you are not actively out hurting folks, you may just about say no matter you need in America. That is form of the darkish facet to free nation.”
“That’s one factor, President Trump, he says what the (expletive) he desires to say, “Cannon said.
Contributing: Devon Link, USA TODAY
Taylor Ardrey is a information reporter for USA TODAY. You can attain her at tardrey@usatodayco.com.
