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For Immediate Release
September, 13 2016, 02:30pm EDT
Contact:
Joe Shansky,(414) 218-3331
Pence Again Says KKK Leader Isn't Deplorable
How long will Paul Ryan and Ron Johnson join David Duke in supporting Trump?
WASHINGTON
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has unprecedented ties to the white nationalist movement. Trump appointed a prominent white supremacist leader as a California delegate to the Republican National Convention, he has retweeted white supremacists dozens of times, and he memorably refused to disavow former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke's endorsement. A white supremacist student leader physically assaulted a protester in Kentucky (Trump rallies are notoriously dangerous for people of color), and analysts have documented an increase in harassment and hate crimes nationwide since Trump began his campaign, including in Milwaukee. Trump has made stopping Latinx and Muslim immigration the center of his agenda and has called for stripping US Citizen children of immigrants of their citizenship and deporting them and their families.
On Saturday, when Hillary Clinton described half of Trump's supporters as "deplorables," she was referring to people like former Klan leader and current Republican senatorial candidate David Duke, who has said that Trump's candidacy inspired him to run for Senator. Pressed by CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Monday as to whether Duke is "deplorable," Republican Vice Presidential nominee Mike Pence said, "No, I'm not in the name-calling business." On Tuesday, Pence again declined to say that Duke is deplorable. Voces de la Frontera Action issued the following response:
"Donald Trump's dangerous attacks on immigrants and Muslims and his continued refusal to distance himself from white supremacists like David Duke are bringing the politics of hate back into the mainstream, and as long as Paul Ryan and Ron Johnson continue to support Trump, they are supporting hate," said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, Executive Director of Voces de la Frontera Action. "The 2016 election is a referendum on the kind of society we want to be: open, democratic and diverse, or cruel, authoritarian and racist. In Wisconsin, Latinxs and immigrants are working hard to make sure that our community votes in historic numbers in November to defeat Trump, Ron Johnson, Paul Ryan, and all the Republicans downballot supporting a billionaire who pals around with the Klan. In 2012 Latinxs rejected Romney and Ryan's 'self-deportation' agenda, and it cost the Republicans the White House. They clearly haven't learned that bigotry is a losing strategy."
Voces de la Frontera is Wisconsin's leading immigrant rights group - a grassroots organization that believes power comes from below and that people can overcome injustice to build a better world.
LATEST NEWS
US Strike on Iranian School Came After Commanders 'Bypassed Warnings' About Outdated Target Info
Sources told CNN that warnings were ignored due to "expediency."
Jul 07, 2026
US military commanders "bypassed warnings" indicating that their database of strike targets inside Iran was badly out of date shortly before launching a deadly attack on an Iranian primary school in the city of Minab, according to a Tuesday report from CNN.
Three sources told CNN that senior military officials received messages informing them that the intelligence behind the target list had been gathered years ago and "needed to be re-vetted."
Regardless, the proposed Iranian targets were added to a strike list shortly before the US launched an attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School, killing more than 150 schoolchildren along with over a dozen teachers.
Two of CNN's sources said senior commanders ignored the warnings out of "expediency," as they did not want to significantly delay providing target lists during the outset of the war, which Trump illegally launched in February without any authorization from the US Congress.
For months, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has repeatedly dodged questions about the strike on the school, insisting that he didn't want to comment on an ongoing Pentagon investigation.
However, one of CNN's sources said that US military officials "knew within days how the mistake happened," as the school was targeted based on "obviously old info."
CNN noted that old satellite images showed the school once belonged to the same compound as an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps facility. However, as recently as 2016, images showed "that a fence had been erected to separate the school from the rest of the base, and that a separate entrance to the school had been built."
Rutgers Law School Professor Adil Haque, noting that intelligence on many of the targets was more than a decade old, called the US decision to proceed with attacks "inexcusable."
The US Department of Defense has still not released its investigation into the bombing, drawing criticism from Palestinian-American policy analyst Yousef Munayyer, who reacted to the CNN report by describing the US military as being "quick to bomb, slow to investigate."
The slow pace of the investigation has also drawn criticism from Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee.
During a May congressional hearing, Smith grilled Adm. Brad Cooper about why the US hasn't taken responsibility for the school strike despite clear evidence that it was at fault.
"In the past, when we’ve had these type of mistakes, they’ve been quickly acknowledged," Smith said, "even if a further investigation is necessary to figure out prevention methods."
Smith also criticized Hegseth for showing a "callous disregard for any sort of rules of engagement or protecting of civilian life" during his tenure as defense secretary.
Last month, President Donald Trump brushed off responsibility for the strike on the school, stating that "mistakes are made" and "war is nasty."
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'Exploiting Religious Faith for Personal Profit,' Trump Pockets $1.5 Million From Branded Bible
“Trump wraps himself in Christianity, wraps the Constitution inside a Bible, and is persuading supporters to finance his political brand while enriching himself," said one critic.
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President Donald Trump has provided "a stunning example of political pandering and exploiting religious faith for personal profit," said a religious freedom advocate on Tuesday after financial disclosure forms revealed one of the latest ways in which the president has profited from the presidency: this time, by licensing his name to the "God Bless the USA" Bible sold by supporter and country music star Lee Greenwood.
The Bible bearing the president's name is being sold for $99.99—as are the "First Lady Edition" and the "Vice Presidential Edition."
According to his latest financial disclosures, the president has earned a total of $1,514,521 from placing his name on the religious text in a package that also includes copies of the US Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the handwritten chorus of Greenwood's 1984 song "Good Bless the USA."
About $1.3 million was earned while the president was campaigning ahead of the 2024 election, while about $208,000 flowed to the president in 2025.
Anna Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), said that "Trump wraps himself in Christianity, wraps the Constitution inside a Bible, and is persuading supporters to finance his political brand while enriching himself to the tune of more than $1.5 million."
“As all things are with Trump, this has always been about money,” said Gaylor. "It is a stunning example of political pandering and exploiting religious faith for personal profit.”
Hemant Mehta of The Friendly Atheist noted that the disclosure also showed about $1.4 billion that the president made last year from "crypto-related schemes" and $80 million from lawsuits against media companies including CBS and ABC.
Trump has suggested the Bible venture is closest to his heart, saying in a video promoting the basic version of the "God Bless the USA Bible"—which retails at $59.99—that the religious text is his "favorite book."
"Christians are under siege," he added in the video. "We must protect content that is pro-God. We love God, and we have to protect anything that is pro-God… Our Founding Fathers did a tremendous thing when they built America on Judeo-Christian values."
The notion that the country was founded as a Christian nation has long been a fixation of the far right and has been deeply embedded in the president's celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence—but historians say there is no evidence for the claim.
“The only rules they wrote about religion were ones that keep religion at arm’s length," Princeton University professor Kevin Kruse told The Washington Post as the White House planned an all-day prayer event on National Mall in May. "There’s a difference between saying America is a nation with many Christians in it and that America is a nation dedicated to Christianity and defined by it.”
Both Mehta and FFRF noted that Trump has "struggled to discuss even the most basic aspects of the Bible, declining on multiple occasions to identify a favorite verse or even express a preference between the Old and New Testaments."
"Trump’s Bible enterprise demonstrates how easily religious symbolism can be weaponized to enrich politicians while undermining the constitutional principle of state/church separation that protects believers and nonbelievers alike," said FFRF.
Gaylor added that "religion should never be a marketing strategy."
“Nor should the office of the presidency become a platform for selling religious merchandise," she said. "Americans deserve leaders who respect both religion and government enough to keep them separate—not presidents who see faith as another licensing opportunity.”
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Troy Jackson Files to Explore Senate Bid as Graham Platner Faces Growing Calls to Exit
"If Graham’s stepping away, I am very, very interested and think I’m the best person to replace him," said Jackson, the former Maine Senate president.
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Former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson filed federal paperwork on Tuesday to explore a US Senate bid after a sexual assault allegation against current Democratic nominee Graham Platner prompted a torrent of calls for him to drop out of the race.
Jackson, a fifth-generation logger who lost Maine's Democratic gubernatorial primary last month, was among those urging Platner to end his Senate campaign following Politico's reporting late Monday, writing on social media that "there is no place in our politics for sexual violence."
In an interview with the Bangor Daily News, which first reported the news of Jackson's filing, the former gubernatorial candidate said that "if Graham’s stepping away, I am very, very interested and think I’m the best person to replace him.”
Platner denied the sexual assault allegation and, as of this writing, has yet to drop out of the race, though his departure is widely seen as a foregone conclusion as his most prominent supporters—including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—push him to exit. One unnamed source told The New York Times that Platner is seeking a "guarantee" that he "would be replaced by someone in agreement with 'the values and vision and policy agenda'" that he articulated throughout his campaign.
Jackson, like Platner, was endorsed by Sanders and has expressed support for Medicare for All, stronger union protections, wage increases, and other progressive priorities. In recent months, Jackson has joined Sanders and Platner at "Fighting Oligarchy" rallies where the former Maine Senate leader said American workers are being robbed by a billionaire class bent on enriching itself no matter the societal costs.
"I am running for the people who worked their entire lives and still can’t afford to retire because the economic system in this country is rigged against them," Jackson said during a Labor Day rally last year. "And I’m running for all the workers... who’ve been told that they’re replaceable and that their lives are disposable.”
Platner, who backed Jackson's gubernatorial bid, can be replaced as the Democratic nominee in the US Senate race against Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins if he withdraws by July 13. By a process yet to be determined, the Maine Democratic Party would have until July 27 to select a replacement.
The New York Times reported that "the options under discussion include a convention or a statewide caucus in late July."
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