Trump: ‘I Disavowed’ David Duke ‘in the Past, I Disavow Him Now’

SCARBOROUGH: “What about the independent bid? Are you keeping that option open if the Republican party keeps attacking you?”
TRUMP: “So, I signed a letter with the RNC and I said I want to do this as a Republican, the pledge, as they call it. But I’m not being treated the right way. I’m not being treated properly. I brought in millions and millions of people to the Republican party and they’re going to throw those people away. And I — I’ll be honest — whether I ran as an independent or not, those people will go out and vote.”
BRZEZINSKI: “So, Donald —“
TRUMP: “Mika, they didn’t vote for Romney last time.”
SCARBOROUGH: “Right.”
TRUMP: “Now, they didn’t even exist because they were Democrats and independents, but they didn’t vote for Romney. The Republicans didn’t vote for Romney last time.”
SCARBOROUGH: “All Right.”
BRZEZINSKI: “Talk about a big tent. So Donald, you don’t mince words and a lot of voters, lot of Trump supporters say they like that about you. So you just called Mitt Romney a catastrophe and a disaster — those are the two words I caught of many. You’ve called Ted Cruz a liar and a bad guy, Marco a lightweight. How would you characterize, to put this to rest, how would you characterize in more words than one David Duke?”
TRUMP: “David Duke is a bad person who I disavowed on numerous occasions over the years. And the one question that was asked to me I guess on CNN, he’s having a great time, he talked about groups of people and I don’t like to disavow groups if I don’t know who they are. I mean, you could have federation of Jewish philanthropies in groups. I don’t know who the groups are. He’s talking about disavowing groups. And that’s what I was referring to. But I disavowed him. I disavowed him. I disavowed the KKK. I just did the ‘Today’ show and it was the same thing.”
BRZEZINSKI: “Right.”
TRUMP: “And I said how many times do I have to disavow? Do you want me to do it again for the 12th time? So, I disavow.”
BRZEZINSKI: “Well, I want to know on the record on this show. Let me follow up and then open it up to the table.” [crosstalk]
TRUMP: “OK. Now I just — Mika, just to put it clear, I disavowed him in the past, and I disavow him now. And it was very clear that I disavowed, but they — the press doesn’t want to go with it. They just love the story. And by the way, if you look at my Twitter which took place just about the same time as that show, you’ll see I disavowed right there, too.”