{"id":227765,"date":"2016-02-28T21:58:27","date_gmt":"2016-02-28T21:58:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=227765"},"modified":"2016-02-28T21:58:27","modified_gmt":"2016-02-28T21:58:27","slug":"donald-trump-and-the-kkk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/donald-trump-and-the-kkk\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump and the KKK"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse<\/span><\/p>\n

Donald Trump\u2019s\u00a0<\/b>statement about the KKK and David Duke on 14 February 2000:<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0“Mr. Trump painted\u00a0a fairly dark\u00a0picture of the\u00a0Reform Party in\u00a0his statement,\u00a0noting the role of\u00a0Mr. Buchanan,\u00a0along with the\u00a0roles of David\u00a0Duke, a former\u00a0leader of the Ku\u00a0Klux Klan, and\u00a0Lenora Fulani, the\u00a0former standard-bearer of the New\u00a0Alliance Party and\u00a0an advocate of\u00a0Marxist-Leninist\u00a0politics. ‘The Reform Party\u00a0now includes a\u00a0Klansman, Mr.\u00a0Duke, a neo-Nazi,\u00a0Mr. Buchanan, and\u00a0a communist, Ms.\u00a0Fulani,’ he said in\u00a0his statement.\u00a0‘This is not\u00a0company I wish to\u00a0keep.\u2019\u201d (New York Times)<\/span><\/p>\n

Donald Trump\u2019s\u00a0<\/b>statement about the KKK and David Duke on 26 February 2016:<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u201cI didn\u2019t even know that he endorsed me. David Duke endorsed me? Okay, allright: I disavow.\u201d (The Weekly Standard)<\/span><\/p>\n

Donald Trump\u2019s\u00a0<\/b>statement about the KKK and David Duke on 28 February 2016:\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Will you unequivocally condemn David Duke and say that you\u00a0don’t want his vote or that of other white supremacists in this\u00a0election?\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

TRUMP: Well, just so you understand, I don’t know anything\u00a0about David Duke. OK? I don’t know anything about what\u00a0you’re even talking about with white supremacy or white\u00a0supremacists. So, I don’t know. I don’t know, did he endorse me or what’s going on, because,\u00a0you know, I know nothing about David Duke. I know nothing\u00a0about white supremacists. And so you’re asking me a question\u00a0that I’m supposed to be talking about people that I know nothing\u00a0about.\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

TAPPER: But I guess the question from the Anti-Defamation\u00a0League is, even if you don’t know about their endorsement, there\u00a0are these groups and individuals endorsing you. Would you just\u00a0say unequivocally you condemn them and you don’t want their\u00a0support?\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

TRUMP: Well, I have to look at the group. I mean, I don’t know\u00a0what group you’re talking about.\u00a0You wouldn’t want me to condemn a group that I know nothing\u00a0about. I would have to look. If you would send me a list of the\u00a0groups, I will do research on them. And, certainly, I would\u00a0disavow if I thought there was something wrong.\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

TAPPER: The Ku Klux Klan?\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

TRUMP: But you may have groups in there that are totally fine,\u00a0and it would be very unfair. So, give me a list of the groups, and\u00a0I will let you know.\u00a0\u2026 I don’t know any — honestly, I don’t know David\u00a0Duke. I don’t believe I have ever met him. I’m pretty sure I didn’t\u00a0meet him. And I just don’t know anything about him.\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

(CNN)<\/span><\/p>\n

Does he, or doesn\u2019t he \u2014 even care? (To most Republicans, it makes no difference, they\u2019re that callous \u2014 they care no more than Democrats do about Hillary Clinton\u2019s corruption and \u201cgovernment policies for sale.\u201d)<\/span><\/p>\n

This is how an oligarchy functions. By the time things have gotten this rotten, democracy has already ended, even if it had previously existed.<\/span><\/p>\n

The only candidate who\u2019s against all of this is Bernie Sanders \u2014 and he was rejected by 74% of SC\u2019s Democrats.<\/span><\/p>\n

Is America in a terminal condition?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of\u00a0 They\u2019re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010<\/i><\/span><\/a>,<\/i> and of \u00a0<\/i>CHRIST\u2019S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity<\/i><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse Donald Trump\u2019s\u00a0statement about the KKK and David Duke on 14 February 2000:\u00a0“Mr. Trump painted\u00a0a fairly dark\u00a0picture of the\u00a0Reform Party in\u00a0his statement,\u00a0noting the role of\u00a0Mr. Buchanan,\u00a0along with the\u00a0roles of David\u00a0Duke, a former\u00a0leader of the Ku\u00a0Klux Klan, and\u00a0Lenora Fulani, the\u00a0former standard-bearer of the New\u00a0Alliance Party and\u00a0an advocate of\u00a0Marxist-Leninist\u00a0politics. ‘The Reform Party\u00a0now includes a\u00a0Klansman, Mr.\u00a0Duke, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1254,"featured_media":227710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[951,3374,840,949,6257],"class_list":{"0":"post-227765","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire","8":"tag-clinton","9":"tag-kkk","10":"tag-racism","11":"tag-sanders","12":"tag-trump"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1254"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}