Sadly, it comes as no surprise that Donald Trump, the front-runner for the Republican party, has refused to condemn the Ku Klux Klan and, more specifically, the endorsement Trump has received from a prominent former Grand Wizard of the KKK.
In an interview Trump had with Jake Tapper from CNN’s “State of the Union,” Trump was apparently informed of David Duke of the KKK’s endorsement that Duke announced to his radio audience. Duke said that voting against Trump would be “treason to your heritage.”
Tapper confronted Trump with the endorsement and asked if he would “unequivocally condemn David Duke and say that you don’t want his vote or that of other white supremacists?” Trump replied in his usual way, which is by completely avoiding the question and offering vague brush-offs. This technique has worked for Trump in the past to evade questions about actual policy plans he has to supposedly make America great again.
Each time Trump was asked if he would condemn support from the KKK and David Duke, Trump replied by saying, “I know nothing about David Duke. I know nothing about white supremacists.” Tapper was also very clear about David Duke’s relationship with the KKK and mentioned their group’s name three times, to which Trump still danced around the question.
Donald Trump has since announced that he was given a bad earpiece by CNN and “you could hardly hear what he was saying,” thus forming an excuse for his remarks. When viewing the short transcript of the interview, it is clear that this is a lie because he repeated back some of the words that Tapper had used in his questions. Additionally, Trump has not been afraid to let interviewers know when he can’t hear them, so why would this situation be any different?
On top of all of this, evidence from 2000, when Trump briefly sought to become a presidential candidate for the Reform Party, shows that Trump knew even back then who David Duke was. He made a statement about why he was withdrawing from the party, citing Duke’s involvement in the party as one of the reasons: “The Reform Party now includes a Klansman, Mr. Duke, a neo-Nazi, Mr. [Pat][ Buchanan, and a communist, Ms. [Lenora] Fulani. This is not company I wish to keep.”
Why, then, would he continously lie about his knowledge of who David Duke is and then attempt to distance himself from his own words by claiming he was given a “lousy earpiece”? The only reasonable explanation is that Trump is in the business of keeping KKK and white supremacists as constituents by not condemning their group and ultimately supporting their behavior. After all, it was reported just this month that nearly 20% of Trump supporters don’t believe that the Emancipation Proclamation, the law that banned slavery in 1865, should have ever come to pass.
This news comes at the same time as news that a KKK group in Anaheim, California, who bases themselves off of David Duke’s Klan leadership, held a rally that erupted into violence and stabbed three people protesting their rally. The KKK member reportedly stabbed the protestors with an American flag.
It appears that Trump’s white supremacist America, whether he wins the election or not, is already here.
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