Mike Pence Refuses To Call KKK Leader David Duke ‘Deplorable,’ Takes Criticism For The Decision
Mike Pence refused to call David Duke, a former KKK leader who has made his support for presidential candidate Donald Trump well known, deplorable in an interview with Wolf Blitzer.
The vice presidential candidate’s response came in an interview on The Situation Room. Pence was asked what he thought about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s comments that half of Trump’s supporters could be put into the “basket of deplorables,” and Pence responded in one of the least tactful ways possible
David Duke is a former KKK grand wizard that has latched onto Trump’s campaign since the New York businessman began touting nationalist and populist rhetoric.
Duke has repeatedly endorsed Trump on social media and in interviews. However, when confronted with the information, Trump has simply said, “I don’t know any — honestly, I don’t know David Duke. I don’t believe I have ever met him. I’m pretty sure I didn’t meet him. And I just don’t know anything about him.” Trump has yet to explicitly state his disapproval of Duke.
USA Today reports that Pence’s refusal to denounce David Duke came after Blitzer asked him, “There are some supporters of Donald Trump and Mike Pence, David Duke, for example, some other white nationalists, who would fit into that category of deplorables, right?”
Although this seems like an easy answer for Pence, a man who is running for vice president of the free world, the candidate responded by saying he and Trump had already denounced Duke’s support. Pence stated, “We don’t want his support and we don’t want the support of people who think like him.”
When Blitzer pushed for a more definite answer on Pence’s position on David Duke, the vice presidential candidate demurred and still refused to outright call David Duke deplorable. “I’m not in the name-calling business, Wolf. You know me better than that,” Pence said to Blitzer.
Pence may be trying to appear pragmatic, but his soft answer on a former KKK leader did not go unnoticed by the Democratic Party. Clinton, who was recently diagnosed with pneumonia, didn’t let her illness slow her down and immediately jumped on Pence’s response about Duke.
“If you won’t say the KKK is deplorable, you have no business running the country,” Clinton tweeted shortly after Pence’s interview aired. Clinton received a lashing after her statement about Trump supporters being deplorables, now Pence is getting the same treatment.
Even the Republican Party has taken issue with Pence’s response to David Duke. According to Politico, Utah Senator Mike Lee met with Pence in a private meeting and urged him to explicitly denounce Duke and Trump’s attachment to the alt-right wing movement as a whole.
Senator Lee is part of a staunch group of Republicans that have refused to endorse Trump. However, the Utah politician felt it was important to emphasize why Pence should publicly declare Duke deplorable.
A representative for Lee said in a statement, “Lee emphasized that Republicans must identify David Duke’s racism as deplorable, acknowledging that he ordinarily uses terms like ‘deplorable’ to describe messages, ideas, actions, and organizations, but not people.”
At a press conference on Capitol Hill, Pence was asked again about his stance on David Duke and why he wouldn’t call him deplorable. The Indiana governor said, “I have no idea why this man keeps coming up. Donald Trump and I have denounced David Duke repeatedly. We have said that we do not want his support and we don’t want the support of people who think like him.”
Clinton’s comment about Trump’s supporters being deplorables put a dent in her polished and practiced manner, something the Trump/Pence campaign could have capitalized on. Instead, Pence took a strange moral high ground by avoiding name calling, but remained associated with a nationally known KKK member.
[Photo by Molly Riley/AP Images]
