In one of the more surreal but telling moments of the 2016 campaign last night, Trump supporter David Duke took to Twitter to attack Wolf BIitzer after Mike Pence refused to call Duke “deplorable.”
Wolf Blitzer demands that Pense call me “Deplorable” and he refuses.. Wolfie boy, still upset that I outed you on CNN as an AIPAC AGENT?
— David Duke (@DrDavidDuke) September 13, 2016
And there we have it. In what the Post calls a “tense” rally in North Carolina this afternoon, where Trump focused on “deplorables” and was repeatedly interrupted by protesters, a supporter shoved and punched two male and one female protesters before the protesters were led out of the arena. Trump condemned what he called Clinton’s “hate-filled campaign” with “no policy, no solutions and no new ideas.”
The attacker was apparently allowed to stay. The return of Trump rally violence was first flagged as it happened by NBC’s Ali Vitali.
I’m not sure how I missed this. At the Family Research Council Action convention last week, where Trump spoke, Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin (R) both lamented and called for revolution and bloodshed to “redeem” what will be lost if Hillary is victorious.
Apparently this just happened, according to NBC News reporter Ali Vitali …
A Trump supporter just grabbed a protester by the neck then punched him. Protester escorted out, man stayed.
— Ali Vitali (@alivitali) September 12, 2016
Mike Pence refusing to label David Duke as “deplorable” is a good example of why “Deplorable” was always far more of a double-edged sword than the Trump crew seemed to realize.
As we noted over the weekend, the “half” part of Clinton’s remarks was what got her in trouble. Some argue that you should never attack a candidate’s supporters. That’s probably true if you place the percentage so high. But Trump’s white nationalism and embrace of dominance politics is both what gives his campaign fuel and keeps it locked at about 40% support nationwide. The racist demons Trump has brought openly into the public square are a major liability for him.
Veep candidate Mike Pence is currently being interviewed by Wolf Blitzer. And it’s not going terribly well. One key moment happened when Pence refused to call David Duke “deplorable.” Transcript after the jump …
For those still living in the fantasy world where people believe that Donald Trump, a man a man driven by an instinctive belief in control and domination, is a dove or a foreign policy Realist, here’s a wake-up call. Trump has chosen James Woolsey as his new foreign policy advisor.
The TPM Electoral Scoreboard now stands at Clinton 238, Trump 189. Trump is much closer than he was a few weeks ago. And we have many more electoral votes in the Toss Up category (111).
As of this morning, the PollTracker Average puts Hillary Clinton 3.8 percentage points ahead of Donald Trump. But there are two points that I think will be important to watch as we move through the last eight weeks of the campaign.