Trump campaign calls anti-Semitic chant at rally ‘deplorable’ | McClatchy Washington Bureau

It’s perhaps the most politically charged word of the 2016 election, and it just got a little more controversial.

Kellyanne Conway, campaign manager for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, said Sunday morning that the conduct of a Trump supporter was “deplorable” after a video of him chanting “Jew-S-A” at a campaign rally on Saturday went viral.

At a rally in Phoenix on Saturday night, the crowd began to chant “U-S-A,” when the man, sporting a “Hillary for Prison 2016” shirt, turned towards the press area and began to berate members of the media.

According to The Washington Post, the man’s hand gestures might also have been hate symbols identified by the Anti-Defamation League.

Conway, appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union” with Jake Tapper, was asked whether the Trump campaign denounced such anti-Semitism. Specifically, Tapper asked her whether she would call such a man “deplorable.”

“Yes, I would. His conduct is completely unacceptable and does not reflect our campaign or our candidate,” Conway responded.

“That man’s conduct was deplorable, and had I been there, I would have asked security to remove him immediately. Clearly, he doesn’t speak for the campaign or the candidate, and what he had to say was disgusting,” she later said.

Tapper also pressed Conway on Trump’s condemnations of other bigoted supporters, including white supremacist David Duke, which many felt were half-hearted.

“Let me just repeat on his behalf that that’s the way his campaign feels,” Conway said of Trump’s disavowals. “Don’t besmirch the good name of the tens of thousands, the millions of Trump supporters.”

In early September, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton called half of Donald Trump’s supporters “deplorable,” meaning racist, sexist, homophobic or xenophobic. She later apologized for that statement, saying she should not have said “half.”

But since then, Trump supporters have taken the label and worn it as a badge of honor. Even Trump’s official campaign store has shirts for sale proudly declaring, “I Am A Deplorable.”

Prior to the CNN interview, Conway had even retweeted a message from a supporter with the username “Deplorable Trumpcat.”