Earlier this year, Donald Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. appeared on a radio program called “Liberty Roundtable,” where he was interviewed by James Edwards, a white nationalist who had been called in as a fellow guest.
The younger Trump later claimed that he had no idea that Edwards would be interviewing him, saying that the booking agency that set up the interview had told him it would be with “Liberty Roundtable” host Sam Bushman. Bushman, who syndicates Edwards’ white nationalist program “The Political Cesspool” and often has Edwards on his own show, disputed that account, saying the booking agency had actually reached out directly to Edwards.
The campaign, apparently, did not learn its lesson from the whole debacle, because last week a Trump economic adviser, Stephen Moore, appeared on “Liberty Roundtable” and yesterday another Trump son, Eric Trump, also did.
Eric Trump spoke with Bushman about the vice presidential debate and his father’s plans to save the “inner cities”; Edwards did not appear in the interview with either him or Moore. Still, if the Trump campaign continues sending top surrogates to a show where Donald Trump Jr. was surprise-interviewed by a white nationalist, it seems like they aren’t trying too hard to avoid a repeat.
UPDATE: The Trump campaign released a statement to CNN defending the Trump sons’ “Liberty Roundtable” appearances and stating, oddly, that the campaign would “never associate with any program that was even wrongly perceived to be affiliated with a message of hate.”
“As you know, we had no knowledge of James Edwards’ participation and strongly rebuked him,” Hope Hicks, a campaign spokeswoman, said in a statement, referring to Donald Trump Jr.’s interview. “Liberty Roundtable is a conservative program heard on radio stations and online, and dedicated to promoting the principles of the American founding. We would never associate with any program that was even wrongly perceived to be affiliated with a message of hate.”
