Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee sent a videotaped message to the Council of Conservative Citizens, the white supremacist group cited by alleged Charleston, South Carolina church shooter Dylann Roof in his manifesto, the Daily Beast noted over the weekend.
Huckabee, the Beast notes, was the lieutenant governor of Arkansas at the time and was originally scheduled to speak to the group until he learned one of the other speakers had previously made anti-Semitic comments.
"I will not share the stage or platform with someone who thinks the Holocaust didn't happen," Huckabee said according to a 1993 Arkansas Gazette article.
The speaker in question was Kirk Lyons, described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as "a white supremacist lawyer."
Instead, Huckabee sent a videotaped message. The Citizen Informer, the official publication of the Council of Conservative Citizens appears to have incorrectly described why Huckabee was absent, but according to the newsletter, Huckabee's speech was "terrific" and was "extremely well received by the audience."
"Ark. Lt. Governor Mike Huckabee, unable to leave Arkansas by law because the Governor was absent from the state, sent a terrific videotape speech, which was viewed and extremely well received by the audience," the newsletter read.
BuzzFeed News obtained the newsletter from Edward H. Sebesta, a widely-cited and high regarded expert on the neo-Confederate movement. Sebesta posted the newsletter on his Facebook page earlier this week.