Whitefish pushes back against alt-right leader Spencer

[Ptah]

http://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/whitefish-pushes-back-against-alt-right-leader-spencer/article_4afeb21d-2a8c-5d2a-a702-9505f79155e5.html

WHITEFISH -- An anti-discrimination group took a step Friday to distance Whitefish from Richard Spencer, at the same time Spencer told the Missoulian he would probably be putting some distance between himself and the ski resort community.

The white nationalist and alt-right movement leader most recently made national news last weekend with shouts of “Hail Trump! Hail our people! Hail victory!” as he and his followers -- some of whom responded with Nazi-like salutes -- celebrated, in Washington, D.C., the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States.

Trump disavowed their support afterward.

Spencer, president of a white supremacist think tank called the National Policy Institute, is often identified in news stories as a resident, or part-time resident, of Whitefish.

“We want to get the message out that we don’t embrace his rhetoric,” Whitefish Mayor John Muhlfeld said after Love Lives Here distributed a news release designed to “counteract the Richard Spencer news coverage and communicate that the community of Whitefish does not ascribe to his views.”