Dan Rather: Trump Hired Far-Right "Zealots" To Use Right-Wing Radio Rhetoric To Boost White Vote

RACHEL MADDOW (HOST): Do you think, Dan, that we are going to continue to see -- one of the things I've been highlighting is the way there's these references, and there's use of material from the very far right?

The reason I did that Center for Immigration Study segment at the top is because that ought to be a nuclear reference in presidential politics, at least in terms of racial extremism. And we've seen that a bunch of different times from the Trump campaign. If they really are trying to maximize the white vote, do you think we'll get some of this fringe, sort of racialist stuff?

DAN RATHER: I think you may get a lot of it, rather subtly put, perhaps not as straightforward. But look, the campaign is being run, not entirely -- is being run by Donald Trump, but he's taking aboard candidate people, workers who are from the fringes.

There's zealots from the fringes of the party, who are now helping him run the campaign. And they're going to say the kinds of things that they previously were saying on right-wing radio, because they think if you say it often enough, they're convinced that will get Donald Trump the white votes he needs, the big white turn-out that he needs. I think you're going to see an awful lot of that.

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RATHER: He's turned himself over to a lot of zealots from the fringes of the party, and we'll see how that goes.