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In an interview that was nothing less than a complete disaster, Donald Trump’s running mate Gov. Mike Pence refused to call David Duke deplorable during an interview on CNN’s The Situation Room.

Wolf Blitzer asked, “There are some supporters of Donald Trump and Mike Pence, who like David Duke, for example, some other white nationalists who would fit into that category of deplorables, right?”

Pence answered, “Well, as I told you the last time I was on, I’m not sure why the media keeps dropping David Duke’s name. Donald Trump has denounced David Duke repeatedly. We don’t want David Duke’s support, and we don’t want the support of people who think like him.”

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Blitzer followed up, “You’d call him a deplorable? You would?”

Pence answered, “No. I’m not in the name calling business, Wolf. You know me better than that.”

Gov. Pence went on to repeat the campaign’s talking points about how Hillary Clinton calling out the racist supporters of Trump/Pence has made her the worst person in the world and disqualified her from being president.

The Trump campaign was again given a plum opportunity to distance themselves from the racists and white supremacists who support their campaign, and the Republican candidate for vice president refused to do it.

Trump had a chance to seize some real momentum coming out of the weekend, but the candidate and campaign’s borderline idiotic strategy of refusing to reject racism while claiming that Hillary Clinton is disqualified from being president showed why this ticket is likely still headed for defeat.

All Pence had to say was that what David Duke stands for is deplorable. Instead, Pence blew it, and in the process turned the media coverage back towards Trump and the views of supporters.