UPDATE: Trump Campaign Says, “What? White Supremacist? Press Pass? Inconceivable!”
The Donald Trump campaign has responded to the story Little Green Footballs broke yesterday about white supremacist James Edwards, who was given media credentials to attend Trump’s rallies. And of course, they’re claiming they had no idea who Edwards is, they condemn his views, and they don’t vet people who get press credentials.
Which seems a little odd, since they definitely do withhold press credentials from members of the media Donald doesn’t like.
Hope Hicks, a spokeswoman for Trump, told POLITICO in an email that Trump’s son and the campaign had no knowledge of Edwards’ views “and strongly condemns them.”
“The campaign provided media credentials to everyone that requested access to the event on Saturday in Memphis. There were close to 200 reporters in attendance and we do not personally vet each individual,” Hicks said. “The campaign had no knowledge of his personal views and strongly condemns them.”
The campaign also said Trump’s son did not participate in an interview with James Edwards as Edwards stated on his hate site.
“Donald Trump Jr. was not in attendance and although he served as a surrogate for his father on several radio programs over the past week, to his knowledge and that of the campaign, did not participate in an interview with this individual,” she continued.
Except, uh, he actually did.
Donald Trump’s oldest son gave a 20-minute interview last Tuesday to a panel that included a radio host who once wrote that slavery is the “greatest thing” that ever happened to African-Americans.
James Edwards — who is host of a radio show called “Political Cesspool” that has hosted leaders of the Ku Klux Klan, Holocaust deniers and neo-Nazis — was on a Super Tuesday episode of “The Liberty Roundtable” where he, along with host Sam Bushman and an additional co-host, interviewed Donald Trump Jr. In a blog post Edwards said he would air the interview on his own show March 5.
Oops. Well, now the scion of the Trump empire is spinning like an Iranian centrifuge.
“This is clearly the mainstream media trying to turn a story into nothing — much like they did with my father, who I witnessed denouncing David Duke and any KKK endorsement on multiple occasions,” the younger Trump says.
He just sort of “ended up” speaking with the white supremacist somehow. Could happen to anyone.
Says he called 35 different stations to tout his father’s GOP presidential campaign, and one host asked him to speak with another host, who ended up being Edwards.
“Had I known? I would have obviously never done an interview with him,” Trump Jr. says.
Right.
On another note, Politico gets this part wrong:
The news of the interview with Trump’s oldest son was first reported by New York Magazine…
Nope, it was first reported right here at LGF, and New York Magazine’s Eric Levitz has graciously added a credit to us in the latest version of his article.
By the way, this is not our first run-in with James Edwards and his hate site: webcache.googleusercontent.com
Well, if Charles Johnson and the Tinfoil Yarmulke Brigade are denouncing something or someone for “white supremacy”, odds are it’s worth reading. Johnson and his ilk think wanting grandkids that look like you, and guiding your children’s dating habits to bring that about, is “white supremacy” and only a “Nazi” would care about his kids engaging in interracial dating. In other words, he’s a complete nut job.
About that “we don’t vet the media” statement from the Trump campaign, Wonkette owner Rebecca Schoenkopf relates what happened when they tried to get credentials for a Trump event:
we asked for cred’s to Trump’s SC party; they not only denied them but were VERY CLEAR there’d be security to stop us coming. @joshtpm @TPM
— Rebecca Schoenkopf (@commiegirl1) March 2, 2016