Yesterday, Republican Party standard-bearer and likely nominee Donald Trump refused to denounce David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan. This is the same Trump that retweets white supremacists and calls Mexican immigrants rapists. Despite all of this, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy recently said he’ll “work with Donald Trump,” and NRCC Chairman Greg Walden embarrassingly compared Trump to Ronald Reagan. Speaker Paul D. Ryan has also pledged to support Trump if he is the nominee.
Last week, Congressman Mike Bishop said he would definitely vote for Trump, called him “just a raw candidate,” and said that his comments to a lot of people are “refreshing.”
Unfortunately, this embrace of Trump and his nativist campaign is not that surprising for a party that proudly defended their Majority Whip despite his association with David Duke and his white supremacist group.
“Congressman Bishop thinks Trump is ‘refreshing,’ and ‘raw,’” said DCCC Spokeswoman Sacha Haworth. “But given that Trump has waffled on his support from the Ku Klux Klan, is Bishop really comfortable with the type of ‘raw’-ness that Trump is tapping into?”