Trump disavows David Duke endorsement after ducking question earlier

by Rebecca Savransky - 02/28/16 1:03 PM ET

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump disavowed white nationalist and former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke in a tweet Sunday.

As I stated at the press conference on Friday regarding David Duke- I disavow. pic.twitter.com/OIXFKPUlz2

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 28, 2016

{mosads}Earlier Sunday morning, Trump avoided a question about whether he’d condemn Duke’s racism.

The GOP front-runner said on CNN’s “State of the Union” he didn’t know anything about Duke and would need to research his connections before deciding whether he would condemn them.

“I have to look at the group. I don’t know what group you’re talking about,” he said. “You wouldn’t want me to condemn a group that I know nothing about.”

Duke told listeners of his radio show last week they should vote for Trump and volunteer for Trump’s campaign. He said voting against Trump at this point would be “treason to your heritage.”

At a press conference late last week, Trump responded to a question from a reporter asking how he felt about the Duke endorsement.

“I didn’t even know he endorsed me. David Duke endorsed me?” he asked.

“All right, I disavow, OK.”

In an interview with The Daily Beast Sunday, Duke said Trump probably knows more about him than he let on at first.

“I think he knows who I am,” Duke said. “But he doesn’t know what I actually stand for today.”

Duke said he’s not endorsing Trump because of differences on Israel and torture, but he plans to vote for Trump and will encourage others to do so as well.

There appeared to be no hard feelings about Trump’s Sunday afternoon disavowal.

“If he disavows me fine,” Duke told the Daily Beast. “Let him do whatever he thinks he needs to do to become president of the United States.”

Updated 5:04 p.m.

Tags David Duke Donald Trump Donald Trump