THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY

[HairOfTheDog]

They don't see very good at "Klanning" in Montana.
Robert Byrd was in the Klan wasn't he?

I'm familiar with his name but he's way before the time I started paying attention to politics, sorta irrelevant to me anyway given I was raised to know there is no defense in saying someone else did it first.

I had to refresh my memory about the old Byrd.  ')

Byrd joined the KKK in the 1940s and recruited for them in the 1950s before dropping out.  The Klan helped elevate politicians from both parties back then, more Democrats than Republicans.  They had a lot of members and klout, especially in the South (and in West Virginia, Byrd's state).  

Byrd spewed some terrible racist bullshit back then, which he later acknowledged, apologized for, and said he deeply regretted.  He denounced the KKK and racism for the remainder of his 50+ years in Congress and got a A+ rating from the NAACP based on all the legislation he drafted and/or supported in promotion of civil rights.  

Hillary Clinton worked to get Byrd's support in the 2008 presidential primaries, however Byrd ultimately endorsed Obama (though he noted it was a difficult decision as he admired both candidates).

Byrd's work in the House of Representative was praised both by Democrats and Republicans and he had friends from both sides of the aisle for years.

In my opinion, comparing cozying up to someone who helped pass civil rights for years after having been a racist in his youth to someone who has a present day endorsement from the KKK and other racist groups is a false partisan equivalency.  

I think it was FOX's Tucker Carlson's Daily Caller site that started the comparison.  That's the same site which claimed last week that China had hacked Hillary Clinton's emails, an unsourced story which President Trump quickly tweeted without substantiation (forcing the FBI to make a public statement confirming there was no evidence anyone penetrated Clinton's email/server).