For more than 70 years, Captain America has been fighting for truth, justice and the American way — which does not include the notorious white supremacist group the Ku Klux Klan.
Turns out the actor who plays Cap shares a similar vision of America, and wound up getting into a Twitter war with David Duke, a former KKK Grand Wizard who had a short career as a Louisiana State Representative before pleading guilty in 2002 of mail and tax fraud, and was then arrested and deported by the Czech Republic under its Holocaust denial laws in 2009.
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The “Avengers” star came across one of Duke’s tweets from back in November, praising President Donald Trump’s appointments of Steve Bannon, Mike Flynn and Jeff Sessions:
In a comment connected with Wednesday’s official confirmation of Sessions as U.S. Attorney General, Evans tweeted: “If David Duke… DAVID!… DUKE!… thinks you’re right, then you are unequivocally wrong.”
Duke fired back, calling Evans a “dumb actor” in a mocking reply:
Evans responded like a true superhero, throwing Duke’s own words back at him with a tweet linking to a compendium of Duke’s more outrageous racist quotes, then adding: “We can’t let hatred be the loudest voice.”
On Friday, Evans turned to his followers for support, asking them to voice their opinions on the online battle. “If u have no opinion on a certain issue, that’s your right. But if u do, and choose not to speak up out of fear of repercussion, shame on u,” he wrote, reminding his fans to speak up for what they believe in.
He would later clarify to his tweet, writing that “people may have personal and valid reasons for not doing so,’ and stating that it was a “fair” point “to an extent.”
