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Not the governor’s greatest day

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Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s campaign on Tuesday clarified the governor believes former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke is a racist, amid Democratic criticism that Rauner failed to take such a stand a day earlier.

* WGN…

Governor Bruce Rauner went on the record calling former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke a racist.

The governor faced criticism after refusing to take that stand on WVON Radio on Martin Luther King Day.

* AP…

After fumbling the answer to a question about whether a former Ku Klux Klan leader is a racist, the campaign of Republican Bruce Rauner on Tuesday clarified the governor’s opinion of David Duke.

During a radio interview on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, Rauner was asked if President Donald Trump was racist following reports he used vulgar language to refer to African nations. Trump allegedly also questioned why America would want to accept more immigrants from Haiti. Rauner repeatedly declined to directly answer, saying “that language has no place in our political conversation.”

When WVON-AM host Charles Thomas on Monday asked if Duke is a racist, Rauner would only respond “we have racism in our society.”

“We have got to come together to change our system,” Rauner said.

* Back to the Tribune…

It’s not the first time Rauner has been criticized for attempting to brush aside questions about racism. Last summer, he resisted denouncing a political cartoon amid complaints that its message was racist. He also was slow to label a deadly incident in Charlottesville, Va. involving white supremacists as domestic terrorism.

Whether it’s because he’s being cautious or isn’t prepared for such questions, Rauner’s responses sometimes end up making the issues bigger than they otherwise might have been. Facing a primary challenge from his right flank and looking ahead to a potentially tough general election, Rauner’s political calculation has been to avoid further alienating his conservative base, even if that means allowing a narrative to emerge that calls into question his willingness to denounce the fringe elements from his party.

* Korecki makes a good point…

It’s been a tough road for Gov. Rauner, who can hardly go a day, it seems, without putting out a fire, tamping down a crisis or making an unforced error.

It happened again this week when Rauner joined WVON hosts on the Martin Luther King holiday. That’s when Charles Thomas (former ABC political reporter) and Maze Jackson asked Rauner about Donald Trump’s recent immigration comments and whether the president was racist. Rauner danced around it, as he does with just about every Trump question. Thomas pushed Rauner: “is David Duke racist? … I mean, what about Donald Trump?” […]

Duke, the former KKK leader, wrote of Rauner on his web site: “deep down in his soul, deep down something’s happened inside of him, and he knows that I’m not really a racist.”

Nah man, Rauner definitely thinks you’re a racist. Rauner’s problem is that he ties himself into a pretzel to avoid talking about Trump. Now he’s paying the price.

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Jan 17, 18 @ 10:21 am

Comments

Natasha’s right - Rauner won’t let himself get off the message & it leads to things like yesterday.

That was a nice change of pace for a lot of people when compared to the undisciplined Pat Quinn but with Rauner the pendulum has swung way way too far the other way

Comment by Fax Machine Wednesday, Jan 17, 18 @ 10:26 am
Someone should ask the governor point blank, what the definition of racism is.

Comment by Precinct Captain Wednesday, Jan 17, 18 @ 10:30 am
I dunno, I think this is one of his better days. ‘Cause Korecki’s right, he’s had some really, really bad days lately.

Comment by Arsenal Wednesday, Jan 17, 18 @ 10:39 am
From the Poll:

“Please give us your general opinion of Jeanne Ives. Never heard of 68.43%”

If she changes this, throughout the state and not just to the Effingham County line, then maybe the gap will narrow. Rauner’s bankin’ on ignoring her, and hopin’ the rest of the ILGOP and Indies will, too.

Comment by Anon221 Wednesday, Jan 17, 18 @ 10:49 am
Is water wet, Governor?
Would you kiss Typhoid Mary?
Do you love Asian children?
Was Charles Manson guilty?
Do you think tooth flossing is evil?
Do you favor legislation against navels?
Is David Duke a racist?
Would you accept an endorsement from Woodrow Wilson today?
If an overweight legislator endorsed you, would you then tell overweight people to support you too?

You wonder why people have stopped respecting news?

Duke has been a member of four political parties and thrown out of all of them.

Duke is a nobody, never elected and never endorsed, never supported and never believed in America, Illinois, or even in the Louisiana bayou country.

Asking anyone about him is bad journalism. Anyone mentioning him first loses any discussion.

Comment by VanillaMan Wednesday, Jan 17, 18 @ 10:49 am
I don’t think Rauner is worried about Ives. She will poll worse once people are familiar with her. I don’t see anyone but Rauner and JB facing off in the general, and then it will boil down to Mr. Tax vs. Mr Tax Not.

Comment by SSL Wednesday, Jan 17, 18 @ 10:53 am
Purging the superstars because of cocktail party talk may not have been the best idea.

Comment by Norseman Wednesday, Jan 17, 18 @ 10:57 am
Is it possible/likely Rauner didn’t realize who David duke was?

Comment by Rutro Wednesday, Jan 17, 18 @ 11:00 am
Rauner’s scared of that right wing base. So much for taking slings and arrows.

Rauner condemns the racist language but not the reason for it, that all people from those countries are bad and shouldn’t be allowed to come to America to live. He’s blown it on this point.

Comment by Grandson of Man Wednesday, Jan 17, 18 @ 11:01 am
I think the David Duke question caught Rauner completely off-guard and he wasn’t prepared to answer it. I don’t think that was the case at all regarding Trump.

Given the significance of the day, the events of late last week, and the program that he was on Rauner absolutely knew to expect a question regarding Trump. And he was coached on how to answer it. Condemn the “language” but don’t call the President a racist. Which entirely misses the point as it’s not the language that is offensive but the underlying sentiment. But the tact that he took has been followed by many other Republicans which leads me to believe that it’s entirely scripted. When Trump said he couldn’t get a fair trial by a Mexican judge Paul Ryan called it “textbook racism”. But today, the issue is the “language” that Trump choses to use.

Duke was an entirely different matter and Rauner wasn’t prepared. He’s continually shown that he doesn’t think well on his feet in these types of situations. It’s sad when a politician has to consider how the issue of racism might poll before rendering a view on the topic.

Comment by Pundent Wednesday, Jan 17, 18 @ 11:05 am
–Purging the superstars because of cocktail party talk may not have been the best idea.–

Glad he did, though. It’s been very revealing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubIpoPjBUds

Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Jan 17, 18 @ 11:18 am
VMan

You are whining about the question. Fine. But all the whining in the world doesn’t explain why he didn’t hit such a softball question out of the park. You are totally missing the boat on this topic

Comment by Demoralized Wednesday, Jan 17, 18 @ 11:24 am
Vanilla, I don’t disagree with your final comment. Makes complete sense. It seems the interviewers were perplexed with BR’s inability to give a quality response, so they tossed him a softball to get get him on track. Duke was a component and discussion piece of Trump’s campaign, so bringing DD up wasn’t so far out of the purview of the discussion (provided my theory holds any water).

Comment by New Slang Wednesday, Jan 17, 18 @ 11:26 am
VanillaMan: Usually I think your posts are spot on, but I have to disagree with you on this one. This is what’s called a “softball.” This is such an easy question that anyone with common sense can answer it without even thinking about it. Rauner whiffed on it. Don’t blame the question, blame the guy who can’t answer the simple question. It might not be such a big deal if this were the first time he fumbled an easy question, but this is a repeated problem with him. He’s so focused on his talking points, that when a “squirrel” comes out of nowhere, he’s befuddled beyond comprehension.

Comment by Steve Rogers Wednesday, Jan 17, 18 @ 11:33 am
Asking about David Duke on the birthday of MLK on WVON is “bad journalism”? The name David Duke is synonymous with the modern day white supremacist movement. The name David Duke was only thrown out because Rauner couldn’t give a straight answer on Trump. Presumably the hosts wanted to see if Rauner would deem anyone a racist even in the most extreme example.

What exactly do you think they should be talking about on such an historic day?

Comment by Pundent Wednesday, Jan 17, 18 @ 11:41 am
If he’s a good governor or a bad governor, it’s not because he does or does not navigate gotcha journalism to the satisfaction of insiders. This is a nothingburger compared to serious lapses in judgment like abandoning term limits due to Dem pressure.

Comment by Chris Widger Wednesday, Jan 17, 18 @ 11:51 am
–Duke is a nobody, never elected and never endorsed, never supported and never believed in America, Illinois, or even in the Louisiana bayou country.–

Duke was a GOP State Rep. and ran in 1990 US Senate non-partisan primary and took 43.5% or 607,391 votes. 607,391 people thought he was a “somebody.”

Comment by King Louis XVI Wednesday, Jan 17, 18 @ 11:57 am
–This is a nothingburger compared to serious lapses in judgment like abandoning term limits due to Dem pressure.–

Huh? When did that “judgement” occur, and how did Dems “pressure him” to make it?

You don’t think Rauner is going to run hard on term limits?

Do you think Rauner’s obviously unconstitutional proposed amendment was bad lawyering, or just a way to keep the issue alive to run on?

Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Jan 17, 18 @ 12:12 pm
===compared to serious lapses in judgment like…===

Lying to Cardinal Cupich.
Never once proposing a budget.
Ill-advised vetos of school funding.
Dumping his experienced staff and outsourcing to IPI.
Naming Evelyn Sanguinetti Lt. Governor.
Failure to find 60 and 30 on, well, anything that he said was important to him.
Saying he’s not in charge.
Constantly blaming Madigan.
The costumes and g-droppin’.
The anti-union crusade.

I could go on, but you get the point. Epic fail on every level.

Comment by 47th Ward Wednesday, Jan 17, 18 @ 12:12 pm
47th, I agree that three of those are serious issues. It’s been a tough year and hard to argue otherwise.

Comment by Chris Widger Wednesday, Jan 17, 18 @ 12:28 pm
If you can’t stand up for the obvious reasons, how can Rauner seem to stand up for people in his alleged fight, while not being in charge.

Rauner isn’t all that ready this time, and when you think how he won, now running for re-election as the worst Republican governor in America, and as the uber-lest, costal limousine liberal, who can’t renounce David Duke and wants Labor destroyed…

… who is this incumbent’s constitutency?

This is a precursor to a bad election season?

There’s a wishy-washy answer for that too.

Comment by Oswego Willy Wednesday, Jan 17, 18 @ 1:46 pm
Rauner will hide from primary votes, there has been no public appearances

Comment by Rabid Thursday, Jan 18, 18 @ 9:05 am