At a time like this, when the country is going insane, you have to be thankful for the things in your own life that are going right. And while it’s no fun to be a defendant in a frivolous lawsuit brought by a convicted bomber and perjurer, I’m proud to stand up for free speech, in a society where someone like Donald Trump is threatening to take that away from us. And I’m especially grateful that Ron Coleman of Archer & Greiner and the Likelihood of Confusion blog, and Bruce Godfrey of Jezic & Moyse LLC, are representing me pro bono. They continue to do yeoman’s work in a thankless task. I hope my readers continue to thank them, and continue to consider hiring them or referring friends to them.

About the last thing I want to do today is a post about Donald Trump coddling racists. It doesn’t hurt him to show his connection to racists; indeed, among his significant “alt right” contingent on Twitter, it only helps him.

But the discussion provides a good hook for a fun screenshot I caught of Vox with their pants down, so I guess I’m kind of obligated to do it.

So here’s the deal. I noticed a flap this morning about an interview Jake Tapper did with Trump in which he tried (and failed) to get Trump to disavow the support of David Duke and white supremacist groups. The video is short and worth the 1:17 it takes to watch it:

.@realDonaldTrump won't disavow the KKK and says he wants more information https://t.co/MgaUFLp4Tk #CNNSOTU https://t.co/hfEJArGwmv

— CNN (@CNN) February 28, 2016

Now. The tweet there is not really accurate (surprise! it’s CNN). Trump refuses to disavow David Duke, not the KKK. In fact, when I noted this morning that Tapper didn’t quite ask the question about the KKK in isolation, Tapper responded to me by saying: “huh? Yes I did.” I pointed out:

@jaketapper Yes…but while he was talking. When he stopped, you asked about "David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan" & he addressed Duke only.

— Patterico (@Patterico) February 28, 2016

But as it turns out, it’s still very interesting and newsworthy that Trump wouldn’t disavow Duke this morning, because he did on Friday in Fort Worth, with that despicable toady Chris Christie standing behind him. I’m placing the video on a separate page because it’s one of those annoying auto-play videos. It’s only a few seconds, and you’ll see how passionate Trump’s denunciation of Duke was (it’s basically OK, I guess I have to disavow him, so fine, I’ll disavow him, whatever, who cares?).

Which makes you wonder: what happened between Friday and this morning that made Trump decide he shouldn’t be disavowing David Duke after all?

Anyway, this gets me to the real reason for the post. Anyone else can yammer on about Trump and the KKK, but nobody else on the Internet has the screenshots of Vox publishing a piece with the editor’s comments left in. I happened to grab these screenshots this morning when Ezra Klein tweeted out the piece. They realized their mistake within seconds — but not quick enough to fool Patterico!

Hahahahaha. They went with “from” — which is right, I think, although you could also say “the support of.” I decided to tease Klein about it, because I’m the kind of jerk who enjoys that sort of thing.

@ezraklein I think "from" ended up being right, although "the support of" would work. I guess you went without the clip or links. Ha!

— Patterico (@Patterico) February 28, 2016

UPDATE:

Trump clearly knew who David Duke was in 2000. Seems to have forgotten since. pic.twitter.com/Vz5L16GLyP

— Gideon Resnick (@GideonResnick) February 28, 2016

[guest post by Dana]

During a campaign rally for Hillary Clinton in South Carolina, Bill Clinton was on stage when a former Marine confronted him about Hillary Clinton’s Benghazi cover-up:

U/I MAN: …I did eight years of active duty service, two tours in Iraq. From a platoon of thirty-one, I had seven that were killed, six wounded beyond return, we got hit hard. And I know there’s a lot of military… probably people in crowd with military service members… I’m anxious to get to the VA, I’m not sure so I wanted to…

CLINTON: I am.

U/I MAN: Hopefully, you can get to it, but I know that we’ve had…

CLINTON: I’m not talking about the VA…

U/I MAN: But we have loved ones that we want to hear about and we care about, and I’ve met with many of these Gold Stars parents and families so I’ve…

CLINTON: Are you done with your speech?

U/I MAN: I’ve seen them mourn, and the thing is we had four lives in Benghazi that were killed and your wife tried to cover it up. Going over those lives, those four lives, those four American lives, if someone lost their son, their grandchild, their brother…

CLINTON: Are you a Marine?

U/I MAN: Let me talk. Yes, I was a Marine. I was in an infantry unit out in California, I was a Marine drill instructor out here at Parris Island…

CLINTON: Are you finished, sarge…

U/I MAN: I think that every recruit, regardless of race, religion, color, okay…

CLINTON: Okay, now can I answer?

DEMOCRAT MOB NOISES

CLINTON: Okay, now can I answer?

DEMOCRAT MOB NOISES

CLINTON: I heard your speech. I heard your speech. Now listen to me.

DEMOCRAT MOB NOISES

CLINTON: I’m not your commander-in-chief anymore but if I were I’d tell you to be more polite and sit down.

DEMOCRAT MOB NOISES

U/I MAN: I won’t take it. I will just raise my voice.

DEMOCRAT MOB NOISES. SECURITY TAKES U/I MAN BY ARM.

U/I MAN: I’m a citizen. But the bottom line is that (unintelligble).

CLINTON: Don’t throw him out. I you shut up and listen to my answer I’ll answer you.

U/I MAN IS EJECTED

CLINTON: Can I tell you something. That is what is wrong. His mind has been poisoned by lies and he won’t listen.

According to Clinton, the problem isn’t that Hillary Clinton lied to the surviving families of 4 Americans killed in Benghazi when she blamed their deaths on an internet video. No, that’s not what’s wrong. What’s really wrong is that only a poisoned mind would disbelieve and challenge the narrative that the White House and Hillary Clinton’s State Dept. have pushed since Day One. But sadly, that “poisoned mind” is unable to get the help needed to be free from such contamination because the VA under the Obama administration is in such disarray that the afflicted might actually die waiting to get the help he so desperately needs!

Red State also provides the transcript of the female protester who continued the confrontation after the former Marine was ejected. She too was thrown out of the assembly:

U/I WOMAN: Hillary lied over four coffins. Four coffins. So all the families are liars? Are they liars? I want to know, I want to know.

CLINTON: Give me a chance, lady.

U/I WOMAN: Well answer. Did she lie? Did she lie?

CLINTON: No.

U/I WOMAN: She didn’t lie? The families are lying?

CLINTON: Will you listen to me?

DEMOCRAT MOB NOISES

CLINTON: Are you going to listen to my answer?

U/I WOMAN: I am.

CLINTON: Are you afraid?

U/I WOMAN: No, I’m not afraid because I know you’re going to lie.

DEMOCRAT MOB NOISES

SECURITY TAKES U/I WOMAN BY ARM.

U/I WOMAN: She lied over four coffins. Over our military men.

DEMOCRAT MOB NOISES. U/I WOMAN EJECTED.

Just like his wife, Clinton accuses the surviving family members of of lying.

And then, oddly, the former president wants to know if the challenger is afraid. What, does he believe she can’t handle the truth? The Clinton truth??

On a side note, I read where Bill Clinton appeared surprised at being confronted about Benghazi. Surely the campaign realizes that this issue is one of Hillary’s biggest vulnerabilities given that this particular scandal, more than the others, pulls at the emotional heartstrings of an America sympathetic to four families having been shamefully lied to over the caskets holding their loved ones. If this is how the campaign handles a Benghazi confrontation at a rally, how on earth will the presumptive nominee handle a direct confrontation and challenge about it during a debate with the GOP nominee? Assuming, of course, that the GOP nominee will go at her full-throttle about Benghazi.

While Bill and Hill may believe that 11 hours of testimony equals a case closed, a lot of Americans strenuously disagree.

–Dana