Just One More Reason to Dump Trump...

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Jake Tapper(CNN) - “Will you unequivocally condemn David Duke and say that you don't want his vote or that of other white supremacists in this election?

Donald Trump, GOP presidential candidate) - “Well, just so you understand, I don't know anything about David Duke, OK? I don't know anything about what you're even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists. So, I don't know. I don't know, did he endorse me or what's going on, because, you know, I know nothing about David Duke. I know nothing about white supremacists. And so you're asking me a question that I'm supposed to be talking about people that I know nothing about.

The question asked of Trump is pretty straight forward and difficult, if not impossible, to misunderstand. Trump's response is also very clear. From the clarity of Mr. Trumps response one can only deduce that candidate Trump fully understood the question Tapper asked.

David Duke, a white supremacist and former Grand Wizard in the KKK is well known in America. For anyone to believe that Trump doesn't know anything thing about David Duke, or that he doesn't know nothing about white supremacists is more than just a stretch.

Following the telephone interview with Tapper Trump later blamed his remarks on a lousy earpiece that CNN provided him. On NBC's "Today" Trump began his walk back of his initial response.

"I'm sitting in a house in Florida with a very bad earpiece that they gave me, and you could hardly hear what he was saying. But what I heard was various groups, and I don't mind disavowing anybody, and I disavowed David Duke and I disavowed him the day before at a major news conference, which is surprising because he was at the major news conference, CNN was at the major news conference, and they heard me very easily disavow David Duke."

"Now, I go, and I sit down again, I have a lousy earpiece that is provided by them, and frankly, he talked about groups. He also talked about groups. And I have no problem with disavowing groups, but I'd at least like to know who they are. It would be very unfair to disavow a group, Matt, if the group shouldn't be disavowed. I have to know who the groups are. But I disavowed David Duke."

Trump is allegedly a smart man, college educated, and successful in business. He has, by his own words, known and worked with many politicians of both parties to secure the favors he sought in his business affairs. Yet he apparently thinks his supporters are either naïve or unintelligent enough to fully buy his direct, after the fact disavowal of David Duke and his squirting a direct denouncement of white supremacy and the KKK.

It remains to be seen whether Trump's base of supporters will accept the weak, and frankly disingenuous, attempt to walk back his initial response to Tapper's question. Given Trump is apparently covered with Teflon it is likely his statement, and the questions it should raise, will be brushed off like water rolling of a ducks back.

SOURCE

Via: Memeorandum

UPATE - 3/1/16

Washington (CNN)—The two top Republicans in Congress called out Donald Trump on Tuesday for failing to denounce white supremacist groups over the weekend.

"If a person wants to be the nominee of the Republican Party, there can be no evasion and no games. They must reject any group or cause that is built on bigotry. This party does not prey on people's prejudices," House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters on Capitol Hill.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said plainly, "Senate Republicans condemn David Duke, the KKK, and his racism."

"There has been a lot of talk in the last 24 hours about one of our presidential candidates and his seeming ambivalence about David Duke and the KKK, so let me make it perfectly clear," he said. "That is not the view of Republicans who have been elected to the United States Senate, and I condemn his views in the most forceful way."

Congressional Democrats also seized on the issue Tuesday to argue that Trump's views represented his party as a whole.

"The leading Republican presidential candidate's refusal to disavow the KKK was a breathtaking low-point for our country," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. "Yet while Donald Trump's radical agenda does not reflect the values of the American people, it is a perfect reflection of many in the House Republican Conference."

What say you? Are you buying the Ryan/McConnell condemnation/denunciation? The Pelosi broad brush stroke that many in the Republican Conference hold Trump's views?

Full article BELOW THE FOLD.