“I’m not in the name-calling business, Wolf, you know me better than that”, Pence offered instead.
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During an interview with CNN, commentator Wolf Blitzer asked Pence about Hillary Clinton’s comment last week that “half” of Donald Trump’s supporters were “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic” and described them as belonging to a “basket of deplorable”.
Clinton has said she regrets using the word “half”, but her campaign has otherwise stuck with the assertion that Trump’s campaign has allowed the mainstreaming of the so-called alt-right, including white nationalists and anti-Semitics who support his presidential bid.
Pence responded first by becoming defensive over the media’s insistence that Duke has any ties to Trump’s campaign.
Donald Trump supporters in Oklahoma are selling OU-colored “Deplorable Me” shirts ahead of Trump’s visit to Norman on Saturday. “The almighty God is what makes countries great and we know lots of people that are in Donald Trump’s court who he is listening to and these are good, godly men and godly women”.
Mike Pence got testy when he was asked about David Duke during an interview Monday. “It’s ridiculous that they attack me because of my involvement in that nonviolent Klan four decades ago”.
Pence spoke to reporters following a meeting with Republican leaders on Capitol Hill aimed to assuage concern about the party’s nominee.
Trump and Pence have also caught fire for laudatory comments they’ve made about Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader who is widely denounced by U.S. politicians of both parties. Pence said (contrary to popular belief and video/audio evidence) he’s actually not a fan of trash-talking. Both members of the GOP ticket have said that Putin is a stronger leader than Obama, but Pence said that the ticket is not naive about his Russian counterpart.
Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker heaped praise on Pence as well, saying he gave out his cellphone to senators and encouraged them to call him. You’ve known me a long time, I’m not a name caller, I don’t play that game.
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Pence reiterated that he himself believes Obama was born in Hawaii, but said the campaign and country had moved well beyond the Trump-led controversy: “It’s a four-year old issue”. One of Trump’s harshest Republican critics, South Carolina Sen. “I don’t understand how questions like that don’t have immediate answers”.
