(CNN) Eric Trump said on Thursday that former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke deserves "a bullet."
"Ross, it's disgusting and by the way, if I said exactly what you said, I'd get killed for it but I think I'll say it anyway," the Republican nominee's son said after host Ross Kaminsky of 630 KHOW Denver radio suggested Duke deserves a bullet to the head. "The guy does deserve a bullet. I mean, these aren't good people. These are horrible people. In fact, I commend my father. My father's the first Republican who's gone out and said, 'Listen, what's happened to the African-American community is horrible and I'm going to take care of it.'"
Reached for comment, Duke told CNN, "That's a good one, I'm in the middle of project right now." Duke requested CNN call him back in an hour, saying, "I have to think about it."
A comment request to Eric Trump and the Trump campaign was not immediately returned.
Duke, who is running for US Senate in Louisiana, has, like many other white nationalists, been a vocal supporter of Donald Trump during the 2016 election. Duke, a heavy underdog in that race, reaffirmed his support for Trump during a debate with his opponents on Wednesday night.
Donald Trump caused a controversy during the Republican primary by initially saying that he did not know anything about David Duke when asked about Duke's support for his candidacy, but has since disavowed the former KKK grand wizard.
Protest marks former KKK leader David Duke debate appearance
In Thursday's interview, Eric Trump said that attempts to tie his father to Duke were meant to distract from the power of Trump's movement.
"A guy like David Duke is disgusting," he said. "But this is the MO of the DNC and in fact, we go back to the Podesta emails from May/June, there's an email where he's saying listen, 'We think Trump has an amazing movement going and we want to make him, the only way we think we can best stop is to make him look like a bigot, racist, xenophobic, this and that.'"