WATCH: Larry Elder Shuts Down Columnist Who Compared Him to David Duke

Conservative talk radio host Larry Elder, who is a Republican candidate for governor in the upcoming California recall, shut down a question from a Los Angeles Times columnist who recently compared him to white supremacist David Duke.

Elder, born and raised in Compton, is African American and would be the state’s first black governor. The columnist, Jean Guerrero, claimed in July that Elder had sanitized Duke’s racist ideas for “the Trump era’s most toxic figures and ideas.”

In an online interview with the editorial board Los Angeles Times, moderator Sewell Chan invited Guerrero to ask a question, though she is not a member of the board. Elder and his press secretary, Ying Ma, objected to her participation.

Ma noted that the Times had informed the campaign in advance who would be on the call, and that Guerrero had not been included. Elder noted that he was willing to take hostile questions — indeed, much of the interview was combative — but not from someone who had effectively described him as a “black David Duke.”

Chan said all five Times columnists had the right to ask questions, but another member of the board later took responsibility for failing to inform the campaign.

Elder later posted the video of the entire Times editorial board interview on his website. It can be viewed, in full, here.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.