Rounds criticized for defending Trump on KKK

Donald Trump is being scrutinized for failing to distance himself from former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. “You’re talking about people I know nothing about”, Trump said on CNN’s State of the Nation. In a press conference, McConnell said that “Senate Republicans condemn David Duke, the KKK, and his racism….I condemn his [David Duke’s] views in the most forceful way”.

Trump’s candidacy, Duke said, is “encouraging people to begin to speak frankly and honestly about some of the issues we must talk about if we’re going to survive as a nation and as a people”. While on the one hand they disavow most blatantly racist language, with the other they will argue in support of “state’s rights” or note that the confederate flag is a historical emblem, or dismantle affirmative action campaigns and pass more restrictive voter laws meant to suppress minority voters. I know nothing about white supremacists.

But the Republican speaker was clearly unhappy with an interview that Trump gave to CNN on Sunday in which the candidate did not clearly condemn white supremacist support.

“I was very disappointed that he did not disavow what appears to be support from David Duke and the clan”. It will be the second time each of them has campaigned here.

How hard is it to say you reject the aims, objectives and endorsement of the Ku Klux Klan?

Just days after a rally in which he endorsed presidential candidate Donald Trump, Alabama Sen.

“I don’t remember saying anything like that to all of you”, McConnell told reporters. I’m not saying I endorse everything about Trump.

“We’ve been reporting over the weeks about all the consternation and angst among congressional Republicans about the prospect of a Donald Trump nomination”, says Takeaway Washington Correspondent Todd Zwillich.

Trump: I’d have to look.

Duke also sought to minimize his three years in what he described as a small chapter of the Ku Klux Klan and said the policies he promoted in his unsuccessful runs for US senator and president, as well as his 1991 bid for the governor’s mansion in which he won 38 percent of the vote, were now mainstream in the GOP. “If you would send me a list of the groups, I will do research on them, and certainly I would disavow if I thought that there was something wrong”.

Trump is now blaming a faulty earpiece in a long-distance interview for his garbled answer to a question about Duke. They keep it going and they said, ‘oh, we never looked at your Twitter account.

The hosts also thanked Trump for providing the network with an hour of prime-time programming, and Trump joked, “I’m doing this because you get great ratings and a raise”.

“I’m just speaking out against bigotry and bullying wherever I hear it. And I hear a lot of it from the Republican candidates”.

“You are comfortable that Donald Trump believes in those things?”