Pence again refuses to call Duke ‘deplorable’

CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Pierson on “The Lead” Tuesday.

“While my opponent slanders you as deplorable and irredeemable, I call you hardworking American patriots who love your country and want a better future for all of our people”, said Trump, who tried to portray the former first lady as out of touch with ordinary Americans.

Trump and Pence have also caught fire for laudatory comments they’ve made about Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader who is widely denounced by United States politicians of both parties.

Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence blasted Hillary Clinton Monday for her comment referring to “half” of Donald Trump’s supporters as belonging to a “basket of deplorables”.

“Hillary Clinton wasn’t talking about that bad man”, Pence continued.

Clinton, who has said she is the candidate to unify a divided country, made the “deplorables” comment at a fundraiser Friday night in NY.

Pence first declined to label David Duke as “deplorable” during an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. It’s that agenda House Republican leaders have urged lawmakers to campaign on this fall, an agenda that was openly embraced by Pence, a former House GOP conference chairman, on Tuesday.

Trump said in an interview on “Fox and Friends” Monday morning that: “Something’s going on, but I just hope she gets well and gets back on the trail and we’ll be seeing her at the debate”.

But Pence declined to categorize Trump backer – and white nationalist – David Duke as “deplorable”.

“We don’t want his support and we don’t want the support of the people who think like him”, he said.

Duke told BuzzFeed News, “It’s good to see an individual like Pence and others start to reject this absolute controlled media”, and noted that he has a “perfect Republican voting record” and that the GOP is a “big tent”.

The Wisconsin Republican has been put in an uncomfortable position in 2016 – mindful of his duty to keep the party unified, but also obligated to condemn nativist elements of Trump’s campaign rhetoric and proposals. I served in the Republican caucus. I had a flawless Republican voting record.

“It’s ridiculous that they attack me because of my involvement in that nonviolent Klan four decades ago”, Duke added.

Donald Trump’s top lieutenants in Florida say they have a deliberate strategy and a large footprint to counter the ground game behemoth that Hillary Clinton has built for the presidential election.

Obama, whose 50 percent job approval rating could help improve the climate for the Democratic ticket in the November 8 election, rallied party faithful against Trump, a 70-year-old NY real estate developer, at an outdoor event in Philadelphia.

Pence, a 12 year veteran of the House, made the rounds Tuesday in Washington, meeting privately with House and Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill.

Cruz left the meeting without answering questions about whether he would endorse, or even vote, for Trump. Both members of the GOP ticket have said that Putin is a stronger leader than Obama, but Pence said that the ticket is not naive about his Russian counterpart.

Pence praised the nominee and told Fortenberry “give your daughter a hug for us”.

NY congressman Peter King said Pence responded that he has seen polling that shows Trump ahead with married women.

Pressed as to why Trump would not release topline information about previous returns now – which would not interfere with the audit process – Pence said Trump would release his returns “in totality” and “not parse them out piece by piece”. “Personally, I think she’s unstable”, he said. One of Trump’s harshest Republican critics, South Carolina Sen. Whether or not the promise of six weeks of maternity leave and a generous tax rebate for day care will sway female voters who have been turned off by Trump is an open question, but Trump’s plan seems certain to alienate fiscal conservatives and business owners.