GOP-endorsed Minnesota Senate candidate Royce White, a former NBA first-round draft pick, shared footage of late Libyan dictator Moammar Khadafy equating the Vatican with the Taliban, calling it “scary accurate” — and called a Post reporter “stupid” when she asked for comment.
White, the Houston Rockets’ first pick in the 2012 NBA draft, shared the clip on his Instagram page in August 2021, almost exactly three years before the GOP’s Aug. 13 primary.
The footage is from the infamous September 2009 speech Khadafy delivered before the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The strongman was scheduled to speak for 15 minutes but went on for more than an hour and a half.
Those in the audience who left when he started talking returned a quarter of an hour later and were stunned.
“Think of the Vatican. Does the Vatican pose a threat to us? No. It is a religious, very peaceful State. If the Taliban want to create an Islamic emirate, who says that this makes them an enemy?” he asked the global leaders present.
Complaining about America’s war on Taliban-led Afghanistan after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, masterminded by Taliban-harbored Osama bin Laden, Khadafy said the al Qaeda leader “is not of the Taliban, and he is not Afghan. Were the terrorists who hit New York City of the Taliban? Were they from Afghanistan? They were neither Taliban nor Afghan.”
When The Post asked White directly if he endorsed Khadafy’s words likening Catholics to global terrorists, he responded in a defense email: “Is that what he was saying? Are you stupid? I think he said the Vatican is a religious and very peaceful state. Furthermore, what he was obviously pointing out is the warmongering that had us in Afghanistan for so long, which I categorically denounce.”
White tweeted last year, “As a Catholic, I’ve never been intimidated by Islam.”
A self-described antisemite, the mixed martial artist has come under fire for a litany of remarks attacking Jews; he’s called Israel “the lynchpin of the New World Order.”
He’s also accused of improperly spending campaign funds at a strip club during his failed 2022 challenge to Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar.
More than 60% of Minnesota Republican convention delegates backed White late last month, giving him the party’s endorsement ahead of the Aug. 13 primary, in which White is one of eight candidates.
Even White was surprised at the nod, saying, “I’m at a loss for words and that takes a lot.”
Prognosticators rate the Senate seat a safe Democratic one, meaning the eventual Republican nominee will face an uphill battle against the incumbent, 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
The Minnesota GOP did not return a request for comment on White’s promotion of Khadafy.