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That goes for his crafty dog whistle statements, too.
For example?
"Asked if he would publicly reject the support of former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said, 'I just don’t know anything about him.' "
- Duke ran for governor of Louisiana in 1991 as a Republican, and Trump said at the time that President George H.W. Bush was right “to come out against” Duke’s campaign. Duke lost but he won a majority of the white vote — which Trump found troubling. “I hate seeing what it represents,” Trump said, referring to what he called the “anger vote.”
- In 2000, Trump considered running for the Reform Party presidential nomination but did not run because he said he did not want to be associated with Pat Buchanan, who had left the Republican Party to seek the Reform Party nomination, and David Duke, who supported Buchanan. Trump at the time called Duke “a bigot, a racist, a problem.”
Trump's David Duke Amnesia - FactCheck.org
I think in this case, Jim, it is clear that Trump was sidestepping the issue, knowing that a good number of his supporters were racists.
Yeah, I agree that Trump sidestepped it, but I disagree that he intended that as a 'dog whistle', but simply wanted to keep the narrative moving along in a direction he prefered; building his base and making liberals go ape-shit.
This whole notion of a dog whistle statement is completely indefensible. As one cannot hear a dog whistle, were a person accusing someone of making a dog whistle without a device, the accused person cannot defend themselves from such an accusation. "You dont know how to do that?" "Suuurrreeee you dont, but the dogs are cominig, you fascist!"
Did it ever dance across anyone's mind that for David Duke to claim he supports Trump and Trump to then deny it is to give David Duke more air time? And if Trump doesnt want to do that because he does not want to help David Duke, he tries to avoid the topic instead, but that is a dog whistle to Duke supporters?.
That is not a dog whistle, that is intelligently media manipulation.