Nick Cannon calls Dems the ‘KKK’ party, is he right?
March 30, 2026, 6:33 p.m. ET
Nick Cannon is going viral after giving insight into his political stance.
The entertainer made the remarks during the latest episode of his show “Nick Cannon’s Big Drive,” released on Friday, March 27, where he spoke with model Amber Rose, who is also a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump.
“People don’t know that the Democrats are the party of the KKK,” Cannon, 45, said. “People don’t know that the Republicans are the party that freed the slaves.”
The claim that the Democratic Party is to blame for the creation of the Ku Klux Klan is misleading, and a trope against the current 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 said at the time.
On the podcast, Cannon told 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, but did not receive an immediate 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, both Democrats and Republicans, as well as members who were neither, were involved.
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 health, 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 “better option for us.” The reality TV star, once outspoken against Trump, made headlines for speaking at the 2024 Republican National Convention.
“And as of now, I agree with a lot of things that he’s doing,” Rose added.
Cannon chimed in, stating that Trump “is cleaning house” and that “he’s doing what he said he was going to do.”
He continued, “We got the Gulf of America now. He’s like the club. He’s charging a $5 million bottle service fee to get into the country. I (expletive) with Trump.”
Minutes later, Rose spoke on freedom of speech, “It’s actually not illegal to be racist,” she said. “As long as you’re not actively out hurting people, you can pretty much say whatever you want in America. That is kind of the dark side to free country.”
“That’s one thing, President Trump, he says what the (expletive) he wants to say, “Cannon said.
Contributing: Devon Link, USA TODAY
Taylor Ardrey is a news reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at tardrey@usatodayco.com.
