New York – Donald Trump is stepping back from comments he made over the weekend when he claimed to know nothing about former Klu Klux Klan leader David Duke, saying that he couldn’t hear the questions clearly.
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Trump was asked Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” whether he rejected support for his presidential campaign from the former KKK Grand Dragon and other white supremacists after Duke.
“Well, just so you understand, I don’t know anything about David Duke. OK?” Trump told host Jake Tapper.
On Monday, however, he told NBC’s “Today” that he was given a “very bad earpiece” for the interview and that he “disavowed David Duke all weekend long on Facebook and on Twitter.”
Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio continued to hammer the GOP front-runner’s refusal to denounce an implicit endorsement from former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke that dominated the narrative less than two days before Republican voters across 11 states head to the polls.
Trump was asked Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” whether he rejected support from the former KKK Grand Dragon and other white supremacists after Duke told his radio followers this week that a vote against Trump was equivalent to “treason to your heritage.”
“Well, just so you understand, I don’t know anything about David Duke. OK?” Trump told host Jake Tapper. “I don’t know anything about what you’re even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists.”
Cruz soon responded on Twitter, telling Trump: “You’re better than this. We should all agree, racism is wrong, KKK is abhorrent.”
Rubio went further in a message to thousands of supporters in Leesburg, Virginia: “We cannot be a party who refuses to condemn white supremacists and the Ku Klux Klan,” Rubio said. “Not only is that wrong, it makes him unelectable. How are we going to grow the party if we nominate someone who doesn’t repudiate the Ku Klux Klan?”
Trump was asked Friday by journalists how he felt about Duke’s support. He said he didn’t know anything about it and curtly said: “All right, I disavow, ok?”
He hasn’t always claimed ignorance on Duke’s history. In 2000, he wrote a New York Times op-ed explaining why he abandoned the possibility of running for president on the Reform Party ticket. He wrote of an “underside” and “fringe element” of the party, concluding, “I leave the Reform Party to David Duke, Pat Buchanan and Lenora Fulani. That is not company I wish to keep.”
The Duke debate seeped into the Democratic contest, as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders also lashed out on Twitter: “America’s first black president cannot and will not be succeeded by a hatemonger who refuses to condemn the KKK.”
Asked about the issue on Monday, Trump said he had disavowed Duke and asked, “How many times do I have to continue to disavow people.”
In a phone-in interview with NBC’s “Today” show, the real estate mogul was asked about earlier remarks in interviews where he had seemed to stop short of disavowing Duke.
He said the questioner in the earlier interview had asked about Duke and various “other groups,” saying he had difficulty with an earpiece he was wearing for the phone-in interview and didn’t want to disavow groups whose identity he didn’t know. Trump also said he had clearly made separation with Duke over the weekend in posts on Twitter and Facebook.
Hillary Clinton re-tweeted Sanders’ message. She scored a lopsided victory in South Carolina the day before, fueled by a huge advantage among African-Americans, a key Democratic constituency that will also play a dominant role in several Super Tuesday states.
Starting her morning with stops at two Memphis churches, Clinton offered an implicit critique of Trump, issuing a call to unite the nation and asking worshippers to reject “the demagoguery, the prejudice, the paranoia.”
While she never explicitly mentioned Trump’s name, the comments referenced his campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.” ”America has never stopped being great, our task is to make American whole,” said Clinton at Greater Imani Cathedral of Faith, prompting a chorus of “amens” from the crowd.
The latest shake up in the GOP race comes as attention shifts to the South, where the region will dominate on Super Tuesday – March 1 – and the weeks beyond.
Trump holds commanding leads across the region, with the exception of Cruz’s home state of Texas, a dynamic that puts tremendous pressure on Rubio and Cruz as they try to outlast each other and derail Trump.
Trump mocked the Republican establishment and his flailing rivals. “It’s amazing what’s going on,” he told NBC, calling his campaign a “movement.”
It’s was strange the way he answered on Sunday
Back in 2000 he broke away from the reform party and just this past Friday he rejected the endorsement
Well, that’s a great excuse, except that he repeated the name “David Duke”, and “White Supremacists”; and claimed never to have heard of them & refused to disavow from their endorsement. So unless his mouth was also broken, it shows him to be a liar and a fool.
The guy is mess.
Vote Rubio.
No Hillary
A liar and a fool, he will do to the country the same thing he did to people who signed up for the phony Trump University. And he blew the anti-Semitic dog whistle when he spit out NY AG Schneiderman’s name when he slandered the Hispanic judge hearing the lawsuit of the people of NY against Trump.
CAN SOME1 ATTACK ME?
these were the words of Carson when he was ignored by the debate…
The same way he was ignored TRUMP was the target….
Fact: if any1 else in the race would be targeted by so many politicians… (Obama saying he won’t be president.. & blasio saying his part & so on…)they would be caught on far worse…
Do u agree??
Remember Trump said even if he shots 3 people in the street they will still vote for him, so even if he endorses the KKK, etc. etc. he knows everyone will still vote for him for he believes he is invincible, and the way people are throwing themselves at him it may be true.
The fans of Trump, including his chasidim on VIN, remind me of the same people who followed Wrestling and believed that it was real. It’s so obvious that in temperament, knowledge, and even his appearance (his yellow hair & orange face), that Trump is a clown. He is a caricature of a leader; and I not only feel bad for those who don’t see it; I find it shocking that it’s not obvious to everyone. I keep on thinking that all his followers are just kidding, and don’t really believe that this joke would make a fine President!
Reply to 2. I was going to make the same point. And he is a liar. And he certainly acts like a fool (although who am I to judge, he makes more in a year than most make in a lifetime)
But this is just a symptom of the bigger problem; there are a lot of people out there who just like the guy. They don’t care that he’s all bluster and has never laid out a feasible plan for anything. Most of them probably don’t even support his Mexican deportation strategy, or where would they get their house keepers? I think it’s mostly the anti Moslem rhetoric because there’s not much else he says that’s worth jeopardizing every relationship America has in the world.
He’s a liar. Watch the interview and then decide. He has accepted endorsements from anyone and everyone.
Sorry but TRubio looked likeda fool last ddebat. Every time he slammed Trump (and that he did good) he had a stupid smirk on his face. Looked like a child winning the fight with a teache.
I want to see every beard and payos voting for Republicans this year. No more of this free stuff from Democrats nonsense. Get a job!
Huh?
This is why we need Bernie, go vote on your primary date. Bernie 2016!!
Why should he reject support from the KKK, did Obama reject support from the Black Panthers??