VA-Sen: Corey Stewart denies claims of racism and bigotry at Virginia Women for Trump event

Virginia's Republican Senate candidate Corey Stewart gave his first official speech on Sunday since winning the June 12 GOP primary.

Stewart spoke at “Tea for Trump,” an event sponsored by Virginia Women for Trump at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., where he laid out his campaign platform.

He denied allegations of racism and bigotry and confirmed his support for President Donald Trump's policies, including making the health-care industry competitive, working to make federal "tax cuts permanent," and putting an end to illegal immigration, The Washington Post reported.

“We will build the wall!” Stewart told the crowd of mostly women.

The 49-year-old Stewart touts himself as “more Trump than Trump.”

What about his associations with white supremacists?

Stewart has been working to distance himself from past associations with white nationalist Jason Kessler and former Wisconsin House candidate Paul Nehlen (R), who has openly made anti-Semitic remarks.

“They can’t attack me on my record, so they attack me with false allegations of racism, bigotry, and anti-Semitism,” Stewart said Sunday at the event, according to The Post. “Let me tell you something, folks: I completely disavow all those ideologies 100 percent.”

Stewart has claimed that he was unaware of how extreme their views were, The New York Times reported.

What did Stewart say about Confederate symbols and monuments?

Stewart has long-defended Confederate flags and other symbols.

On Monday, during an interview with The Hill TV, Stewart said he doesn't believe slavery was the primary issue of the Civil War.

“If you look at the history, that’s not what it meant at all, and I don’t believe that the Civil War was ultimately fought over the issue of slavery,” Stewart told The Hill. “We have to put ourselves in the shoes of the people who were fighting at that time and from their perspective, they saw it as a federal intrusion of the state."

He went on to add that most soldiers didn't own slaves and “they didn’t fight to preserve the institution of slavery.”

What did he say about Sen. Tim Kaine?

Much of his 10-minute speech was spent talking about incumbent Sen. Tim Kaine (D) who he hopes to unseat in November, The Post reported.

“He’s been there for six years and accomplished nothing. Nothing,” Stewart said of Kaine, who ran on Hillary Clinton's ticket during the 2016 presidential election.

Stewart mentioned the incident on Friday at the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia, where the restaurant's owner asked Trump's press secretary, Sarah Sanders, who was dining there, to leave.

“That is the type of hate that Tim Kaine and his left-wing ideological friends are trying to spread, not just in Virginia but across the country,” Stewart told the Tea for Trump crowd.

Who's ahead in the polls?

Kaine has an 18-point lead — 54 percent to 36 percent — over Stewart, according to a poll published Tuesday by Quinnipiac University,