The KKK is back in the news. Just a day after a peaceful and lawful protest against illegal immigration was held by six, yes six, KKK members in CA who were unceremoniously attacked and nearly killed by a much larger crowd of 30 “counter protesters”, the KKK meme now surrounds Mein Trumpf.
From CNN:
Donald Trump wouldn’t disavow former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke’s support for his presidential bid in an interview Sunday, saying that he knows nothing about the white supremacist leader.
Trump speaking at rally
“Just so you understand, I don’t know anything about David Duke, OK?” Trump told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”
Trump was pressed three times on whether he’d distance himself from the Ku Klux Klan — but never mentioned the group in his answers.
“I don’t know anything about what you’re even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists,” he said. “So I don’t know. I don’t know — did he endorse me, or what’s going on? Because I know nothing about David Duke; I know nothing about white supremacists.”
Countdown to when CNN cites $PLC or ADL as news source…. Three… two… one:
The Anti-Defamation League had called on Trump to repudiate the support of Duke, the former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, and other white supremacist groups.
Got that out of the way.
Despite what he said Sunday, Trump apparently did know Duke in 2000 — citing him, as well as Pat Buchanan and Lenora Fulani — in a statement explaining why he had decided to end his brief flirtation with a Reform Party presidential campaign.
“The Reform Party now includes a Klansman, Mr. Duke, a neo-Nazi, Mr. Buchanan, and a communist, Ms. Fulani. This is not company I wish to keep,” Trump said in a statement reported then by The New York Times.
He had also indicated he knew of Duke on Friday at a press conference, when he was asked similar questions and said: “David Duke endorsed me? OK, all right. I disavow, OK?”
Naturally, the GOP and its other candidates were quick to condemn Trump, denounce ‘white supremacy’, etc.
While it’s perfectly okay for President Harry Truman and Sen. Robert Byrd to have been former KKK members well into their adult lives, because they have a “D” after their names, Dr. David Duke, however, is inherently evil because he currently espouses white identiarianism. And if you doubt that for a second, then you yourself might be scrutinized and subsequently labeled.
Of the Trump brouhaha, Duke writes:
It would seem to be common sense and good journalism to interview the person about whom one was writing an article. Why are they afraid to interview me?
In these “journalistic” pieces that are supposed to show no personal biases, many chose to include a 42 year old picture of me as a young man in Klan robes. I am not in the Klan. Almost 40 years ago I was in a non-violent Klan organization. Years later I served 8 years in elected office. I was an accepted member of the Republican Caucus in the House of Representatives in Louisiana.
My proper title for any truly unbiased media is Former Republican Representative, Dr. David Duke. Although I have a hard-earned Doctorate in History at an internationally recognized major University., They don’t ever use my proper, formal title of Dr (Not of medicine but History). They don’t want to mention any of this because they don’t want me to have the credibility my accomplishments represent. When you use a proper title for those you like and purposefully drop for those you don’t, you are nothing but a propagandist…
Yet, with all thousands of pictures of me in elected office and in my campaigns they use a 40 year-old picture of me. They also don’t mention that my group was totally non-violent and that I have always condemned violence, and if they were fair they should praise me for always condemning violence to white activists!
I chose to leave the Klan when I was in my mid-20’s because I didn’t want to be associated with the media Klan persona because of a few idiots in completely unrelated “KKK” groups promoting violence or hateful and disgusting speech. I condemn that today as I did even in those early days of my political life.
The list of this media double-standard could go on and on with similar examples. Republican President William McKinley was a Klan member too. How about Democratic Senator Robert Byrd who also served as the leader of the Democratic Party in the U.S. Senate?
Sen. Byrd remained an active member of the Klan at an age far older than the age at which I moved on from the Klan, yet President Barack Obama honored him at his funeral as a “great man” and a “great American.”
