Pence declines to call David Duke 'deplorable' "We have denounced David Duke repeatedly, we’ll continue to do that again,” Pence says after Clinton pounces.

Mike Pence declined to call former Klu Klux Klan leader David Duke “deplorable” in an interview on Monday, telling CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that he’s “not in the name-calling business.”

The Republican vice-presidential nominee was criticizing Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton for saying “half” of Donald Trump’s supporters belonged in a “basket of deplorables” when Blitzer noted that the campaign has attracted some support from white nationalists, including Duke.


“I’m not really sure why the media keeps dropping David Duke’s name,” Pence said. “Donald Trump has denounced David Duke repeatedly, we don’t want his support and we don’t want the support of people who think like him."

“You would call him a ‘deplorable'?” Blitzer asked.

“No, I’m not in the name-calling business, Wolf. You know me better than that,” Pence said. “What Hillary Clinton did Friday night is shocking.”

Clinton pounced on the remark, retweeting a video of the exchange and commenting: "If you won’t say the KKK is deplorable, you have no business running the country."

As Democratic groups pounced on the comments, Pence was asked about the exchange in a Fox News interview, saying that he and Trump "denounced" Duke.

“Donald Trump and I have repeatedly denounced David Duke,” Pence repeated. “And we’ve said that we don’t want his support and we don’t want the support of people who think like David Duke.”

Pence then pivoted, blaming the media for the flare-up.

“And yet the media continues to scamper after this,” he said. “And the question that I got on another network was ‘Do you call him deplorable?’ But I get it, they wanted me to start using terms that Hillary uses. You’ve known me a long time, I’m not a name caller, I don’t play that game. But we have denounced David Duke repeatedly, we’ll continue to do that again.”

He continued later on Twitter. "It is outrageous that some members of the media are taking quotes out of context!" he wrote, linking to a video of his Fox News interview.