Trump can't let go of weekend tweet, stay focused on Clinton

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — It was an opportunity for Donald Trump to hone his message and focus his ire on Hillary Clinton's emails and the criminal indictment he and his fellow Republicans say she deserved and unjustly dodged.

 Instead, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee chose to interrupt his Wednesday night rally with an aggressive defense of a weekend tweet condemned as anti-Semitic, reminding anyone who may have been watching of the criticism that his campaign turns a blind eye to bigotry and attracts the support of white supremacists.

 The furor over the tweet, posted at the start of a holiday weekend during which few voters were likely paying attention to the presidential campaign, was quickly subsumed Monday by the decision of the FBI not to recommend Clinton face criminal charges for her use of a private email account and server while serving as secretary of state.

[...] he mixed in his attacks on the presumptive Democratic nominee with a defense of the tweet, as well as his Tuesday night remarks complimenting former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein as a killer of terrorists.

 Trump was also criticized by Ryan and other Republicans for failing during the primary season to immediately denounce the tacit endorsement of former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke, who once told his radio show audience that a vote for any other candidate "is really treason to your heritage."

 That rhetoric has struck a chord with far-right groups, whose leaders say they're seeing a resurgence of interest in their message thanks to Trump, who has become a popular topic of conversation on internet message boards such as Stormfront.org.

Because our crowd is so ineffectual and so powerless, Johnson said.