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Trump says he needs research before disavowing KKK

Donald Trump was asked Sunday during an interview on CNN whether he disavows the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacy groups. His response: He said he needed to research the groups before doing so.

Donald Trump was asked Sunday during an interview on CNN whether he disavows the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacy groups. His response: He said he needed to research the groups before doing so.

Last week, former KKK leader David Duke said that voting for anyone but Trump "is really treason to your heritage," although he stopped short of endorsing the Republican front-runner. On Friday, Trump said he disavowed Duke. The issue came up again during CNN's State of the Union on Sunday, with host Jake Tapper repeatedly asking Trump whether he condemns the racism of Duke and other white supremacists. Trump repeatedly said he would have to research the people and groups concerned before doing so.

"I don't know anything about what you're even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists," Trump said. "So, I don't know. I don't know. Did he endorse me? Or what's going on? Because, you know, I know nothing about David Duke. I know nothing about white supremacists. And so you're asking me a question that I'm supposed to be talking about people that I know nothing about."

Trump told Tapper to send him a list of groups and he would then provide assessments of each, saying that he doesn't want to condemn a group about which he knows nothing.

"Certainly, I would disavow if I thought there was something wrong," Trump said.

Tapper then offered one group: "The Ku Klux Klan?" He further clarified: "I mean, I'm just talking about David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan here."

"I don't know any - honestly, I don't know David Duke," Trump said. "I don't believe I have ever met him. I'm pretty sure I didn't meet him. And I just don't know anything about him."

Trump's responses quickly prompted criticism from his Republican rivals and others.

"He knows exactly who David Duke is," Sen. Marco Rubio said as he rallied with thousands at Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Va. "He was asked this morning two times - will you repudiate and condemn the Ku Klux Klan - and he refused that, as well. We cannot be a party who nominates someone who refuses to condemn white supremacists and the Ku Klux Klan."

Rubio said Trump would be "unelectable" as a GOP nominee if he failed to repudiate Duke. He also claimed that Trump knew of Duke, noting that the former declined to run as a Reform Party candidate several years ago because Duke was seeking the party's nomination.

Sen. Ted Cruz called Trump's comments "really sad" and tweeted that Trump is "better than this."

"We should all agree, racism is wrong, KKK is abhorrent," Cruz wrote.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich mentioned Trump's comments as he started a town hall in Springfield, Mass.

"Apparently he refused to disassociate himself from white supremacists," Kasich said. "Every day it's another thing. That's just horrific, right? We don't have any place for white supremacists in the United States of America. It doesn't make any sense. He really needs to make his position clear, and he ought to do it quickly."

Early Sunday afternoon, Trump tweeted a video of himself at a news conference on Friday saying: "I didn't even know he endorsed me. David Duke endorsed me? OK, all right. I disavow. OK?" Trump wrote in his tweet: "I disavow."

Also on Sunday morning, Trump retweeted a quote from Italian fascist Benito Mussolini. The Mussolini account that Trump retweeted was part of an elaborate attempt from Gawker to dupe him.

"@ilduce2016: "It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep." - @realDonaldTrump #MakeAmericaGreatAgain"

Asked about it by Chuck Todd, host of NBC's Meet the Press, Trump responded: "Look, Mussolini was Mussolini. It's OK to - it's a very good quote, it's a very interesting quote, and I know it. I saw it. I saw what - and I know who said it. But what difference does it make whether it's Mussolini or somebody else? It's certainly a very interesting quote."

The Duke fracas comes as the presidential race enters a potentially determinative month of balloting, beginning with primaries and caucuses in about a dozen states on Tuesday.

"This is an existential choice," said former Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman, who is backing Rubio. Asked how the party could unite, Coleman said, "It gets harder every day when you hear things like not disavowing the KKK and David Duke."

Kevin Madden, a veteran operative who advised 2012 nominee Mitt Romney, said he could never vote for Trump. If he is the nominee, Madden said, "I'm prepared to write somebody in so that I have a clear conscience."

Some Republican leaders, however, are making far different calculations. Gov. Christie enthusiastically endorsed Trump on Friday, and the two looked like running mates as they campaigned together across the South for two days.

Trump appeared to continue to steamroll toward Tuesday. He staged a massive rally at a football stadium in Madison, Ala., where he received the endorsement of Sen. Jeff Sessions, a Capitol Hill veteran and a nationally recognized opponent of illegal immigration. "I told Donald Trump, 'This isn't a campaign; this is a movement,' " Sessions exhorted.