Kaine: Trump is ‘chumming around’ with KKK leader

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) is defending his running mate, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, for her “basket of deplorables” comment, suggesting that Republican nominee Donald Trump is “chumming around” with former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.

{mosads}Speaking at a rally on Tuesday in Ann Arbor, Mich., Kaine said that Clinton “advanced the notion that if you’re chumming around with the head of the Ku Klux Klan … that’s deplorable. You gotta call that out.

“If you’re attacking immigrants, that’s deplorable. If you’re attacking LGBT Americans, that’s deplorable. If you’re attacking people because they’re Muslims, that’s deplorable.”

Trump in March disavowed the endorsement of Duke, who is running for a Senate seat in Louisiana, after dodging questions about the white nationalist in an interview days earlier.

But Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, has declined twice this week to say whether he thinks Duke is “deplorable,” saying he doesn’t want to “validate” Clinton’s language. The Indiana governor said in both instances, however, that he and Trump do not want Duke’s support.

— This report was updated at 1:52 p.m.