A North Dakota father of a white nationalist who participated in the Charlottesville rally which left one protester dead and others injured, has disowned his son in an open letter he wrote and sent to the editor of a local newspaper in North Dakota.
“My name is Pearce Tefft, and I am writing to all, with regards to my youngest son, Peter Tefft, an avowed white nationalist who has been featured in a number of local new stories over the last several months,” the letter begins.
“I, along with all of his siblings and his entire family, wish to loudly repudiate my son’s vile, hateful, and racist rhetoric and actions. We do not know specifically where he learned these beliefs. He did not learn them at home,” Tefft wrote in the letter, published in The Fargo Forum.
He added that his son “is not welcome at our family gatherings any longer. I pray my prodigal son will renounce his hateful beliefs and return home. Then and only then will I lay out the feast.”
His son, Peter Tefft was reportedly shown in footage from the rally speaking with a cameraman. In an interview on Monday, the self-described “pro-white activist” told CBS Minnesota that he’s simply fighting for civil rights.
“As far as the term ‘white supremacist’ goes, in my view, anybody that thinks white people don’t need advocacy, they are the white supremacists,” Peter Tefft said.
But his father, Pearce, said his son’s views were not learned at home and he hopes that the family will not be held accountable for Peter’s actions.
According to the dad, “His hateful opinions are bringing hateful rhetoric to his siblings, cousins, nieces, and nephews as well as his parents,” Tefft continued in his letter. “Why must we be guilty by association? Again, none of his beliefs were learned at home. We do not, never have, and never will, accept his twisted worldview.”
In a statement by Peter’s nephew, Jacob Scott, he described him as a “crazy Nazi and said: “We reject him wholly, both him as a vile person and also his hideous ideology, which we abhor.”
