“I have no idea why this man keeps coming up”, the IN governor told reporters at a Capitol Hill news conference.
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During an interview Monday, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Pence if he would consider Duke deplorable. Pence has disavowed Duke, but said he was “not in the name-calling business”. Clinton is set to return to the campaign trail today after a three-day absence, and her physician wrote that she is “recovering well with antibiotics and rest”. Why not call him deplorable?
Pence, the governor of IN, said on Twitter Monday night that his comments about Duke, IN a pair of interviews on CNN and Fox News, were being taken out of context. Blitzer asked, referring to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s now-famous “basketful of deplorables” comment.
And like that, Pence’s refusal to call one of the country’s most outspoken white supremacists “deplorable” became the latest story to plague Republicans-even though he has denounced Duke repeatedly and said his team didn’t want Duke’s support.
Trump, on stage, rejected any notion of racism, saying people who want secure borders “are not racists”, people who warn of “radical Islamic terrorism are not Islamophobes” and people who support police “are not prejudiced”.
Duke, who is running for a U.S. Senate seat from Louisiana, was pleased with that. But Duke told BuzzFeed News on Monday that he was pleased that Pence declined to call him “deplorable”.
Rob Gleason, the chairman of the Pennsylvania Republican Party, said it made sense for Trump’s campaign to take advantage of the issue, quickly cutting an ad and using it as a rallying cry.
Trump said he “noticed she was so nervous when she introduced me”. I was in the Republican caucus in the legislature. “I would rather not have to vote for her, although she is a friend I respect…a 70-year-old person with a long track record, unbridled ambition, greedy, not transformational, with a husband still dicking bimbos at home [according to the NYP]”.
“It’s ridiculous that they attack me because of my involvement in that nonviolent Klan four decades ago”, he said.
He criticized Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server while serving as Secretary of State and questioned the role of the Clinton Foundation during the same period; restated his desire to have strong immigration laws and enforcement; noted the next president’s role in selecting at least one and possibly multiple U.S. Supreme Court justices; and said he will renegotiate worldwide trade deals that he believes are bad for the U.S. economy. That includes Crandell, who backed Ted Cruz and would prefer Marco Rubio to Trump, whose “meanness” offends Crandell. Steve Bannon, Trump’s new campaign chief executive, even essentially endorsed Ryan’s far-right primary challenger, Paul Nehlen.
Pence praised the nominee and told Fortenberry “give your daughter a hug for us”.
“I think it’s a great tactic that’s misapplied” with Trump, he said. “I regret saying ‘half” – that was wrong”, Clinton said in a statement released Saturday afternoon.
Pence left the meeting without commenting.
Chris Christie is warning New Hampshire Republicans that a failure to unite behind Donald Trump will hurt Sen.
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Health issues have dominated the campaign trail for days, sidelining other questions like funding for Trump’s foundation – now the subject of a probe in NY state – with less than two weeks to go before the candidates’ first debate.
