Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton told voters in North Carolina that Donald Trump was endorsed by the Klu Klux Klan newspaper, even though the Republican presidential nominee’s campaign has denounced it.
“A few days ago Donald Trump was endorsed by the official newspaper of the Klu Klux Klan,” Clinton said during a rally in Winterville, North Carolina on Thursday.
She specified that the Klan repeated Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan while endorsing Trump.
“They said it is about preserving white identity and they placed their trust and hope in him,” Clinton said.
But Trump’s campaign denounced the endorsement in a statement released Thursday:
Mr. Trump and the campaign denounces hate in any form. This publication is repulsive and their views do not represent the tens of millions of Americans who are uniting behind our campaign.
Clinton accused Trump’s campaign of “offering dog whistles to his most hateful supporters.”
“He retweets white supremacists and spreads racially-tinged conspiracy theories,” she said.
The author of the Pro-Trump article in the newspaper has denied that it is an endorsement, according to the Washington Post.
“It’s not an endorsement because, like anybody, there’s things you disagree with,” he said.
Later in her speech, Clinton noted disapprovingly that Trump was trying to divide Americans instead of bring them together.
“I don’t believe we’re at our best when we stoke fear about each other,” she said.
She specifically referred to a black church in Mississippi that had a pro-Trump slogan painted on it before it was set on fire, a crime that is still under investigation.
“People painted ‘vote Trump’ on the side and then they set it on fire,” she said. “Who would do that to a house of worship?”
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