From USA TodayDonald Trump declined repeated invitations Sunday to disavow the support of former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke — even though he did just that on Friday.
"I don't know anything about David Duke, OK?" Trump said on CNN's State of the Union. "I don't know anything about what you're even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists. So, I don't know."
After the broadcast, amid a torrent of criticism, Trump tweeted out his answer to a similar question during a Friday news conference — he said then he didn't know about Duke's endorsement, but "I disavow, OK?"
This is somewhat in contrast to his stance in 2000, the year Trump declined a presidential bid for the Reform Party.
As Buzzfeed noted, Trump sent out a statement that year that “the Reform Party now includes a Klansman, Mr. Duke, a neo-Nazi, Mr. (Pat) Buchanan, and a communist, Ms. (Lenora) Fulani. This is not company I wish to keep.”
Trump on CNN Sunday: "I know nothing about David Duke. I know nothing about white supremacists. And so you're asking me a question that I'm supposed to be talking about people that I know nothing about."
Pressed by State of the Union host Jake Tapper, Trump said: "You wouldn't want me to condemn a group that I know nothing about. I would have to look. If you would send me a list of the groups, I will do research on them. And, certainly, I would disavow if I thought there was something wrong."
Trump's rivals blasted the GOP front-runner's refusal to distance himself from Duke on Sunday. Texas
Sen. Ted Cruz called Trump's responses "really sad," adding that the New York billionaire was "better than this. We should all agree, racism is wrong, KKK is abhorrent."
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/02/28/donald-trump-david-duke-ku-klux-klan-cnn-state-of-the-union/81073572/
Topic: Ted Cruz blasts Trump on reticence to denounce David Duke support (Read 927 times)