Former congressional candidate called out for racist rhetoric, using N-word on TikTok Live

A former Republican congressional candidate and avowed white nationalist is going viral for his racist rants on TikTok Live.

Donald “Donnie” Bolena, who ran against Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.) in 2019, has been shown repeatedly using the N-word and attacking Black people on his livestreams. TikTok users have uploaded screen recordings and drawn attention to his social media profiles.

Bolena was forced to drop out of the Georgia 6th District race after he publicly identified as a white nationalist in the wake of a mass shooting inspired by white nationalism. At the time, he criticized the press for misinterpreting him, calling himself white and a nationalist. Since then, he has continued posting about alt-right politics and running his business as a private investigator. 

Leftist content creator @j.dkon says multiple people tagged him in uploads of Bolena livestreams. So, he decided to make a video with an action plan: he would flag Bolena’s behavior as potential grounds to revoke his private investigator’s license.

The video, which was posted Saturday, has now reached over 230,000 views.

In the TikTok, @j.dkon plays clips of Bolena making racist comments including, “We should send out a street sweeper and sweep your dead bodies up off the ground and move on,” in reference to Black people. 

In an interview with the Daily Dot, @j.dkon explained, “I don’t feel that he has the temperament or the ability to disconnect his own biases from these investigations…And I don’t want people going to jail or getting hurt because he’s trying to influence an investigation.” 

@j.dkon goes on in the video to point out Bolena’s rhetoric could conflict with the private investigator’s license requirement that an individual “be of good moral character and have integrity.” He then lists the phone number for the Georgia Board of Private Detectives and Securities Agency, where users can flag Bolena’s behavior for review. 

“My goal is never to just up and destroy someone’s life,” he stated. “The point is…this person who apparently has not learned anything from his previous congressional race…saying that he’s a white supremacist, being proud of that and being proud of his racism.”

Bolena responded to @j.dkon’s TikTok in a Facebook post calling the TikToker a portmanteau of the word “liberal” and an ableist slur as well as an “LGBT’er.” @j.dkon told the Dot he’s not bothered by Bolena’s response. 

“The fact that the only thing he could say was it or comment was on my appearance,” he said. “As if that changes the fact that I showed videos of him being incredibly racist. I thought it was funny.” 

@j.dkon says users have reached out confirming they called the Private Detectives and Securities Agency number to report Bolena. He has also called and passed along the videos of Bolena that he’s gathered from other TikTokers. 

Popular TikTok user @tizzyent has also added to the online conversation around Bolena, with a video from Saturday reaching over 185,000 views.

In the TikTok, @tizzyent reviews Bolena’s political history and repeated his comments expressing white nationalism and homophobia. He brings attention to Bolena’s past claims of unfair treatment in the press as a racist, directly followed by a clip from Bolena’s TikTok Live of him saying: “I’m a racist motherfucker. I’m a white nationalist.” Bolena continues on the TikTok Live to repeatedly use the N-word in a profane rant that claims Black people are trying to overthrow the country. 

It appears that Bolena has taken his social media pages down. Viewers were appalled at his posts, but one user summed the general sentiment up, saying, “Believe people when they tell you who they are.”