What politician doesn’t jump at any chance he gets to call out the fallacy of white supremacists and the KKK? The same man who’s bolstered by their support, it seems.

Donald Trump, in his own words, does “not know enough” about the Ku Klux Klan and its former Grand Wizard, David Duke. Duke recently told his followers, “voting against Donald Trump at this point, is really treason to your heritage.” When asked three separate times by CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday morning to renounce the endorsement he’s received from Duke and other KKK supporters, Trump, in all earnestness, pretended he did not know about the KKK:

“I know nothing about David Duke, I know nothing about white supremacists...I don’t know David Duke, I believe I never met him, and I just don’t know anything about him.”

But Donald Trump has spoken publicly about Duke and the KKK before. In an article published in The New York Times in 2000, acknowledged that Duke was a “Klansman” adding that he did not want to keep that type of company:

Mr. Trump painted a fairly dark picture of the Reform Party in his statement, noting the role of Mr. Buchanan, along with the roles of David Duke, a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, and Lenora Fulani, the former standard-bearer of the New Alliance Party and an advocate of Marxist-Leninist politics.

“The Reform Party now includes a Klansman, Mr. Duke, a neo-Nazi, Mr. Buchanan, and a communist, Ms. Fulani,” he said in his statement. “This is not company I wish to keep.”

It’s worth mentioning that Trump’s Twitter is continually filled with the musings of white supremacists, whom he broadcasts to his audience of 6 million. Just yesterday, he did it again.

Earlier this week, Trump also addressed Duke’s endorsement while being endorsed my another hated man. “I didn’t even know he endorsed me. David Duke he endorsed me, OK? I disavow. OK?” Trump told a crowd, with as much sincerity as he could muster.


Contact the author at melissa.cronin@gawker.com.