Trump declines to reproach supportive former KKK leader
Donald Trump has declined to condemn a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan who has urged people to vote for the billionaire.
David Duke, a white supremacist and former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard, told listeners to his radio show last week that voting against Mr Trump would be “treason to your heritage”. The declaration prompted the Anti-Defamation League, an international civil rights group, to call on Mr Trump to distance himself publicly from the endorsement and condemn Mr Duke and the KKK.
When asked about it on CNN yesterday morning, Mr Trump declined to condemn either: “I don’t know anything about David Duke. I don’t know anything about what you’re even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists,” he said.
He added: “I have to look at the group, I don’t know what group you’re talking about. You wouldn’t want me to condemn a group that I know nothing about.”
Also yesterday, the website Gawker revealed it had set up a fake Twitter account tweeting quotes from Benito Mussolini, after one was retweeted by Mr Trump.
Asked earlier whether he had known the quote was Mussolini’s and whether he wanted to be associated with Fascism, Mr Trump told NBC’s Meet the Press: “Mussolini was Mussolini. It’s a very good quote, it’s a very interesting quote. I know who said it, but what difference does it make whether it’s Mussolini or somebody else?”