Donald Trump’s son followed up his dad’s recent Ku Klux Klan-related controversies by granting an interview to a white supremacist radio show. Donald Trump Jr., the leading Republican presidential candidate’s oldest son, claims he unknowingly gave an interview to Political Cesspool host James Edwards on Wednesday. Edwards, as noted by the Southern Poverty Law Center, is most known for saying things like "crime and violence follow African-Americans wherever they go." For reasons not entirely clear, Slate reports that Edwards was also able to secure media credentials for a recent Trump event in Memphis.
Edwards has been heavily promoting the 20-minute interview ahead of its premiere on Saturday, according to Bloomberg. However, as far as Trump Jr. is concerned, he had no idea he was speaking to the bigoted host of a "pro-white" radio show. "This is clearly the mainstream media trying to turn a story into something, much like they did with my father, who I witnessed denouncing David Duke and any KKK endorsement on multiple occasions," Trump Jr. tells Bloomberg, alleging that Edwards was brought into a previously scheduled phone interview by conservative figure Sam Bushman without his knowledge.
Though Trump's son proudly asserts that his father denounced that David Duke endorsement on "multiple occasions," that's at least slightly misleading. When first approached about Duke's impassioned co-sign (also delivered via a white supremacist radio program) by CNN's Jake Tapper, Trump completely fumbled by failing to condemn the infamous Holocaust denier or the Ku Klux Klan at large. "I don't know what group you're talking about," Trump claimed. "You wouldn't want me to condemn a group that I know nothing about." One day later, Trump then blamed his hesitance to say the right thing on a "very bad earpiece."
"I've seen him build a company where diversity is obviously apparent and important," Trump Jr. tells Bloomberg of his dad's stance on equality. "My father puts people in positions of power on merit." That sentiment, of course, probably comes as a pretty big surprise to anyone even vaguely familiar with Trump's campaign platform.
