MSNBC's Geist Condemns Trump Blaming Initial Failure To Disavow Former KKK Leader On “A Lousy Earpiece”

Willie Geist: “If You Know Who David Duke Is And What He Represents It's Easy To Pass Judgment”

From the February 29 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe:

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WILLIE GEIST (HOST): You can't blame an earpiece for that, number one. Number two, he said, “I know who David Duke is but I never met him. That's why I couldn't pass judgment.” If you know who David Duke is and what he represents, it's easy to pass judgment.

[...]

JOE SCARBOROUGH (HOST): Not to be a lawyer about this, but if I were a lawyer about this I would say, okay, so we're muddied on David Duke, he's disavowed David Duke. Still doesn't answer the question about Sunday when he said I don't know David Duke. But we still have the Ku Klux Klan floating out there Steve Kornacki.

STEVE KORNACKI: The ear piece thing -- I've had bad ear pieces before. I've had muffled conversations remotely but we know that he heard the term -- the name David Duke. We know that he heard the name the Ku Klux Klan. We know that he heard the word disavow because he's talking about it in the interview. So it's hard to accept the idea that this was just a bad earpiece. I was listening to you in the first hour of the show. I thought what you were saying about this is a guy who's coming down from the North with sort of a stereotyped view of the South and what he needs to do. I'm trying to come up with a theory for it. There's that and there the other idea that's out there is just that this is a guy whose image is when the media tries to ask me so-called gotcha questions I don't play along and maybe he thought he was doing that. Those are the only two things I can come up with because it's baffling to me.

SCARBOROUGH: I think so and the thing is, Steve Schmidt, I find it hard to believe that Donald Trump thinks he would lose a vote by condemning the Ku Klux Klan. Again, that's why this makes absolutely no sense.

Previously: 

Under Pressure On The Today Show, Donald Trump Blames “Lousy Ear Piece” For His Initial Refusal To Disavow Former KKK Leader

CNN's Jake Tapper Presses Donald Trump To Condemn The Ku Klux Klan

CNN's Jeffrey Lord Defends Trump's Refusal To Disavow KKK By Claiming It Is “A Function Of The Left”