Donald Trump Defends Racist Retweet: 'Am I Gonna Check Every Statistic?'

GOP front-runner refuses to back down after citing bogus crime statistics.

Donald Trump on Monday night defended his retweet of fabricated crime statistics that blamed African-Americans for most of the nation's murders.

"Am I gonna check every statistic?" the Republican presidential front-runner told Bill O'Reilly on Monday night's "The O'Reilly Factor" on Fox News.

Twitter

"This bothered me," O'Reilly said of the retweet. "It's totally wrong."

Trump was unapologetic.

"I didn’t tweet, I retweeted somebody that was supposedly an expert and it was also a radio show," Trump said.

"Why do you want to be in that zone?" O'Reilly asked.

"Hey Bill. Bill. Am I gonna check every statistic?" Trump said. "I've got millions and millions of people, @realDonaldTrump by the way."

"You've got to, you're a presidential contender," O'Reilly said.

"This came out of radio shows and everything else," Trump repeated.

"Oh c'mon," said O'Reilly. "Radio shows?"

"All it was is a retweet, it wasn't from me, and it did," Trump persisted. "It came out of a radio show and other places because you see all the names."

Trump was apparently referring to Wayne Dupree, a conservative radio host tagged in the tweet. However, Dupree said on Twitter he had nothing to do with it:

O'Reilly told Trump he was looking out for him and "every honest politician."

"Don't do this," O'Reilly advised. "Don't put your name on stuff like this, because it makes the other side, it gives them stuff to tell the ill-informed voter that you're a racist. You just handed them the platter."

O'Reilly also suggested that Trump give up tweeting.

"Give it up for Lent," O'Reilly said. "Lent is coming soon."

Watch the full exchange in the clip above.

Also on HuffPost:

That giving your wife "negotiable assets" is a terrible mistake.

18 Real Things Donald Trump Has Said About Women

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot