WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is blasting Donald Trump's "seeming ambivalence about David Duke and the KKK," joining House Speaker Paul Ryan's earlier call for the GOP presidential candidates to reject racism.
The two highest-ranking leaders of Congress spoke as voters in 11 states holding GOP contests went to the polls for the Super Tuesday contests. They never said Trump's name, but clearly were referring to a weekend interview on CNN in which Trump refused to denounce the former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard or racist groups. Trump had disavowed them and did so again after facing criticism for wobbling. But the leaders of his party on Tuesday suggested that wasn't enough.
Ryan, the nation's highest-ranking Republican government official, earlier Tuesday said anyone who wants to be the Republican presidential nominee must reject any racist group or individual.
McConnell went next, saying, "Senate Republicans condemn David Duke, the KKK, and his racism."
Republicans are defending their congressional majorities in the November elections.
