David Duke is many things. A white supremacist, a virulent racist, a former KKK grand dragon.
But is he, to use Hillary Clinton's much retweeted buzzword, "deplorable"?
Maybe (spoiler: yes), but Indiana Governor Mike Pence just can't seem to bring himself to say so.
"There are supporters of Donald Trump, and Mike Pence, who—David Duke for example and some other white nationalists—who would fit into that category of 'deplorables,'" CNN's Wolf Blitzer said to Pence on Monday.
"Donald Trump has denounced David Duke repeatedly," Pence countered. "We don't want his support, and we don't want the support of people who think like him."
But Blitzer wasn't satisfied, and pressed further, asking again, "but would you call him a 'deplorable'?"
It should be an easy alley-oop: "Yes, this disgusting KKK leader is, in fact, deplorable." Bing, boom, done. But all Pence could do is stammer that he's not "in the name calling business."
If only there were a word for someone who doesn't have the guts to call a racist bigot out on national television.