Donald Trump Jr., who is actively campaigning for his father, gave
an interview on Tuesday on "Liberty Roundtable," a conservative
Utah-based radio show hosted by Sam Bushman.
During the show he was questioned by James Edwards, another radio
host whose show "The Political Cesspool" is described by the
Southern Poverty Law Center, a leading U.S. civil rights group, as
"racist and anti-Semitic."
During the interview, conducted over the telephone, Trump Jr. talked
about what a good father Donald Trump was and how his campaign is
changing the Republican Party.
“It’s not a campaign anymore, it’s a movement,” he told his
interviewers. (http://lnrlive.com/lrt/lrt20160301a.mp3)
Edwards said on his blog on Tuesday he would rebroadcast the
20-minute interview on Saturday on "The Political Cesspool."
http://www.thepoliticalcesspool.org/jamesedwards/
The show, founded in 2005 and syndicated by Bushman's Liberty News
Radio organization, has featured such extremists as former Ku Klux
Klan leader David Duke and Holocaust denier Willis Carto.
Edwards also said on his blog he had attended a Memphis rally for
the billionaire candidate as a credentialed media member last
Saturday.
The Trump campaign, asked about an interview in the presence of the
Tennessee-based Edwards, denied any knowledge of it. The campaign
also said it did not know about Edwards' personal views.
"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. The campaign had no knowledge of his personal views and
strongly condemns them.
"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, he did not
participate in an interview with this individual,“ campaign
spokeswoman Hope Hicks said in an email.
Edwards, in an email, directed questions about the interview to
Bushman, but said in a statement:
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"My show, The Political Cesspool, promotes a proud,
paleoconservative Christian worldview, and we reject media
descriptions of our work as “white supremacist,” “pro-slavery” and
other such scare words.
"As I clearly wrote in yesterday’s article, in no way should anyone
interpret our press credentialing and subsequent interview with
Donald Trump, Jr. as any kind of endorsement by the Trump campaign."
Donald Trump won a majority of the states holding nominating
contests on Super Tuesday, accelerating his march to the Republican
nomination.
He has promised to build a wall on the Mexican border, temporarily
ban Muslims from entering the United States and block Syrian
refugees because they might be militants, all policies popular with
some U.S. right-wing groups.
Republican leaders in the U.S. Congress on Tuesday condemned white
supremacist groups after Trump earlier failed to disavow support for
former Klan leader Duke, but the leaders declined further comment on
Trump's White House bid.
House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said any Republican
nominee must reject any group "built on bigotry" while Senate leader
Mitch McConnell said Senate Republicans condemned groups such as the
Klan and "everything they stand for."
(Reporting by Eric Walsh; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
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