Pence first declined to label Duke as “deplorable” during an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
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GOP vice presidential nominee Mike Pence referred to former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke as “that bad man” on Tuesday and refused to call him “deplorable”. But I will say this is typical of the elite politicians and if you don’t agree with them somehow you’re a deplorable person and that’s what Hillary Clinton thinks of half of America.
Hillary Clinton was quick to shame Pence on Twitter posting, “If you won’t say the KKK is deplorable, you have no business running the country”.
Trump’s rhetoric since Clinton’s remark suggests a strategy of fusing his anti-trade, America First message, attacks on Clinton’s “deplorables” jab in a bid to win over blue collar and middle class voters in the Midwest. “She is the one who has been pushing for it so hard: ‘Daddy, Daddy we have to do this.’ She’s very smart, and she’s right”, the candidate said.
Clinton’s running mate Tim Kaine said Tuesday that Trump’s campaign is not taking a tough enough line on bigotry. And on Tuesday, when he gathered with House Republican leaders, Pence again expressed frustration with being asked about Duke for a second day. “The whole idea that they were trying to make Pence call me names, basically, and he didn’t bite on that was a real positive thing for all of us”, Duke said on his daily podcast. “Donald Trump and I have denounced David Duke repeatedly”.
Pence said neither he nor Trump wanted Duke’s vote, but shrugged off a question about whether he was concerned that Trump’s campaign had drawn such enthusiastic support from white supremacists. Comey made the statements while being questioned by U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-SC, who has been a chief critic of the White House hopeful.
“It’s good to see an individual like Pence and others start to reject this absolute controlled media”, Duke told BuzzFeed News. Obama is telling a crowd of thousands near the Philadelphia Art Museum, “This isn’t Abraham Lincoln’s Republican Party”. I served in the Republican caucus.
Speaking to donors in New York City on Friday, Clinton said that half of Trump’s supporters were in “a basket of deplorables”.
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who chaired Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, said the Democratic nominee’s comments pale in comparison to Trump’s. Video credit: Zdenek Gazda.
Carmel Martin at the liberal Center for American Progress said the new savings accounts would create a potential tax shelter for wealthy people and that Trump’s proposals remain tilted to the rich because the low-income child-care rebates top out at $1,200.
With Clinton off the trail as she recovers from pneumonia, prolonging the “deplorable” meme also has the virtue of keeping campaign conversation away from controversies that the campaign has more trouble finessing – like her email server or its patchy disclosure about the state of her health.
Pence, a 12-year veteran of the House, made the rounds Tuesday in Washington, meeting privately with House and Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill. -By Jonathan Lemire in Des Moines, Iowa _ 12:25 p.m. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who Pence had endorsed prior to Indiana’s primary.
The new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds the two groups roughly equal: Forty-six percent of Trump supporters say they are “very enthusiastic” about his candidacy.
Pence also talked about the Supreme Court and “reassured conservatives in there that Donald Trump would put strict constitutionalists in the mold of Antonin Scalia on the court”, Massie said.
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The vice presidential nominee has picked his battles with Trump. What makes me uncomfortable is when the father of a terrorist openly supports a presidential candidate, when someone who simply wants to control the border is somehow a racist or a bigot.
