JAKE TAPPER (HOST): Pence's interview last night has earned praise from white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and other racists. David Duke told Buzzfeed “It's good to see an individual like Pence and others start to reject this absolute controlled media.” James Edwards, a white supremacist radio host tweeted “bravo,” The Daily Stormer, which is a neo-Nazi website said of the Trump -- said of the interview with Pence “Trump chose a solid guy to back him up, it seems.” Does it make you at all uncomfortable to hear praise from people like that?



KATRINA PIERSON: No, because you can't control what other people do. What makes me uncomfortable is when the father of a terrorist openly supports a presidential candidate. When someone who simply wants to secure the border is somehow a racist or a bigot -- people who want to control illegal immigration are labeled racists and bigots.



People who want to stop ISIS from coming into their communities are called Islamophobic. These are hardworking American citizens, and I know that Hillary Clinton and a lot of her friends do not live on a border state, their children go to private schools, and they don't have to deal with the impact of illegal immigration like many of us in border states do, but to insult them based upon an insinuation is absolutely absurd.



TAPPER: Katrina --



PIERSON: So we can turn around and say look at the people who are supporting Hillary Clinton, burning the American flag, defacing public property, violently protesting --



TAPPER: OK, Katrina, --



PIERSON: Calling for cops to be murdered in the streets, that's absurd.



TAPPER: No one has called people who don't want ISIS to move into their neighborhood Islamophobic. That has never happened in the history of the world.



PIERSON: That is absolutely what they are talking about. If you speak out against bringing in Syrian refugees, you are a bigot.



TAPPER: No. People call people who hate Muslims Islamophobic, but people do not say that about people who don't want ISIS to move in. Listen, it's not just  critics who are in the “liberal media,” quote-unquote. According to his office, Republican Senator Mike Lee today spoke with Pence and told him, quote, “Republicans must identify David Duke's racism as deplorable.” Lee also encouraged the Trump campaign to be explicit in its denunciation of the “Alt-Right” movement. That is not a liberal, that is Utah Senator Mike Lee, Tea Party conservative, red Republican. He thinks your campaign and your candidates are not doing enough to condemn these racist views. Is Mike Lee wrong?



PIERSON: And he's also a never-Trumper who has never had anything nice to say about Mr. Trump. And really, this entire interview and all of these interviews based around this one word, “deplorable,” is simply because the Trump campaign is not going use Hillary Clinton's terminology. That's what we're talking about here. The campaign has disavowed, the campaign -- Mr. Trump as well as Mike Pence have said we do not like the support, do not want the support of individuals like this, yet we can't control them.



TAPPER: OK, then don't use the word “deplorable,” that's fine.



PIERSON: Just because Hillary Clinton's terminology?



TAPPER: Let's break out the thesaurus. Is David Duke “vile?”



PIERSON: Absolutely, and that's exactly why the campaign wants nothing to do with him, and we have said that a number of times on a number of networks. And the only reason why David Duke gets play is because the media keeps him out there, not the Trump campaign.

Previously:

“Bravo!” White Nationalists Praise Mike Pence For Refusing To Call David Duke “Deplorable”



Mike Pence Won't Call Former KKK Leader And Radio Host David Duke “Deplorable”



Racist Radio Host David Duke Praises Mike Pence’s “Reject[ion]” Of The Media's Call To Denounce Him



The Complete History Of Donald Trump's Relationship With The White Nationalist Movement