That is what Mike Pence is.
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Donald Trump’s campaign is pouncing on Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” remark at a fundraising event over the weekend, launching a new ad blasting the Democratic nominee’s comment and accusing her of “viciously demonizing hard-working people”.
In a speech earlier Monday to the National Guard Association conference in Baltimore, Trump said Clinton’s comments were aimed at those in uniform, whether in the military or in law enforcement.
On Monday, Indiana Governor Mike Pence was asked by CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer whether he would characterize David Duke, the white supremacist and former Imperial Wizard of the KKK, as “deplorable”.
“She said half of our supporters are not even real Americans, and describes the other half as having run out of options – what she can’t understand or accept is that the great majority of this country now sees right through the lies and deceptions of a failed political establishment”.
On Monday, the IN governor refused to call Duke “deplorable” while speaking with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke speaks to supporters at a reception Saturday, May 29, 2004, in Kenner, La.
“For all the world, I have no idea why this man keeps coming up”, he said, calling Duke a “bad man”, and saying that the issue has served as a mere distraction. “Donald Trump and I have denounced David Duke repeatedly”. “It is a tough charge”, Pence conceded when pressed, “But, come on”.”The American people want this election to be about honesty and trustworthiness and her being more accessible and forthcoming in her responses”, she said.
Duke, who is running for a U.S. Senate seat from Louisiana, was pleased with that.
“So, you’d call him a deplorable?” “The truth is the Republican Party is a big tent”.
The Republican nominee quickly stopped, then said “Ok, that’s good, then I’m going to go back to Flint” and its water crisis that had sickened its citizens. I was in the Republican caucus in the legislature. “And I am very, very proud of their charitable record”.
Trump and his aides have predicted that Clinton’s statement would be more damaging than the gaffe to which it has been frequently compared, when Mitt Romney four years ago suggested that “47 percent” of voters wouldn’t back him because they were dependent on government.
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“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?” The Lee-Pence powwow is one of a handful of private meetings that Pence has scheduled during his whirlwind through Washington on Tuesday; he also huddled with Sen.
