Sen. Tim Kaine, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's running mate, suggested that their Republican opponent Donald Trump is "chumming around" with former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.
After Clinton's recent "basket of deplorables" labeling of Trump's supporters, Kaine defended her at a rally in Ann Arbor, Michigan on Tuesday.
Clinton "advanced the notion that if you're chumming around with the head of the Ku Klux Klan … that's deplorable. You gotta call that out," he said.
"If you're attacking immigrants, that's deplorable. If you're attacking LGBT Americans, that's deplorable. If you're attacking people because they're Muslims, that's deplorable."
David Duke joined the KKK in 1967 and founded the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in 1974, becoming an "Imperial Wizard" from 1974 to 1980. He left to found the National Association for the Advancement of White People. Duke served one-term as a Louisiana State representative from 1989 to 1992, and has run for public office unsuccessfully numerous times.
During a CNN interview, Gov. Mike Pence declined to call Duke "deplorable," saying he's "not in the name-calling business."
"I'm not really sure why the media keeps dropping David Duke's name," Pence said. "Donald Trump has denounced David Duke repeatedly, we don't want his support and we don't want the support of people who think like him."
Clinton immediately fired back.
In a recent interview with Buzzfeed News, Duke praised Trump's running mate Gov. Mike Pence, saying: "It's good to see an individual like Pence and others start to reject this absolute controlled media."