The umbrage industry on the left is good at manufacturing incidents in which people they don’t like get accused of making racist, anti-Semitic, or otherwise hateful incidents. The statements in question aren’t usually offensive in and of themselves, but because of some keyword are supposed to silently signal prejudice. It’s usually nonsense but tends to confirm a worldview in which all non-liberals are guilty until proven innocent of bigotry.

Yet as much as we rightly decry the indiscriminate use of such labels, there are such things as dog whistles in politics and the entire nation heard it loud and clear on Sunday when Donald Trump refused to disavow the endorsement of racist David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan or to condemn the group when asked about it on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday morning program.

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Though later Trump issued a one-word statement – “disavow” – on Twitter, the message had been sent to fringe elements around the country: Trump is your candidate.

That Trump’s answers, when probed about it by CNN’s Jake Tapper, were a cynical attempt to create some ambiguity about his stand on the Klan is not in doubt. Trump had condemned Duke as a racist as far back as 2000. Moreover, though he may be a political novice, he has not been living under a rock for the first 69 years of his life. He knew very well who Duke was and what the Klan stands for. Yet this is what he said on CNN:

“I don’t know anything about David Duke. OK? I don’t know anything about what you’re even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists. So, I don’t know.

“I don’t know, did he endorse me or what’s going on, because, you know, I know nothing about David Duke. I know nothing about white supremacists. And so you’re asking me a question that I’m supposed to be talking about people that I know nothing about.”

Asked by Tapper if he would just condemn white supremacist groups whether or not he knew about their support, Trump replied, “Well, I have to look at the group. I mean, I don’t know what group you’re talking about. You wouldn’t want me to condemn a group that I know nothing about. I would have to look. If you would send me a list of the groups, I will do research on them. And, certainly, I would disavow if I thought there was something wrong.”

After further equivocation, Trump was again asked specifically about David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan. He replied: “I don’t know any – honestly, I don’t know David Duke. I don’t believe I have ever met him. I’m pretty sure I didn’t meet him. And I just don’t know anything about him.”

That Trump was lying is not in question. The question is why he would lie about something like this. His supporters may think it is unfair to hound him with questions about the opinions of a crackpot like Duke. But Trump could have easily ended the discussion with a clear disavowal and condemnation of the Klan and any other associated racist group. He didn’t. He feigned ignorance and refused to say anything about an organization that looms large in American history and is a byword for racism and violence.

Trump is many things, but he is not a stupid man. Every word he utters is said for a reason. The reason here isn’t hard to figure out. He was aiming not for the few extremists who belong to the Klan but to a larger group of people who may sympathize with them or harbor racist sentiments. He wants their votes in the worst way, and this is what he’s willing to do to get them.

That he later covered his tracks with a meager Twitter response was meaningless. The dog whistle had been sounded.

Faced with a firestorm on Monday morning he blamed the whole thing on a faulty earpiece and said that all he had heard Tapper say was “groups.” But as the transcript shows, he heard the words “David Duke” so he knew exactly what he was being asked. That means the earpiece excuse is, like so many other things that Trump has said during the campaign, a lie.

Let’s specify that among Trump’s supporters are many decent, good Americans who mean no ill against their fellow citizens. Many of them seem to like him because he has been able to articulate their anger about the failures of government. They also love his willingness to push buttons and be politically incorrect. Less defensible is their belief that this is an excuse to support someone whose candidacy is built on con games and empty slogans.

Trump has pushed the envelope in many ways recently, such as when he spoke of redefining the libel laws in order to make it easier for celebrities like himself to punish those who attack them. “Hit pieces” by journalists – i.e. anything that doesn’t feed Trump’s enormous ego – will, if Trump were to have his way, be made illegal, though it is possible he isn’t aware that he’ll have to go around the Supreme Court to do so.

But dancing around questions concerning the Ku Klux Klan is not a matter of pushing the buttons of liberal cultural elitists. It sends a message that the candidate is encouraging support from racists.

While candidates can’t be asked to be accountable for everything their supporters say, Trump’s disgraceful tap dance around the Klan question makes the kind of hate –both racist and anti-Semitic – that seems to emanate from some of his backers on the Internet fair game for comment.

Although this would be a disqualifying moment for any other presidential candidate in any other year, it would be foolish to think that Trump will be hurt much by it. But his opponents who are pointing out that this sort of thing makes Trump unelectable in November are probably right.

The notion that he can ride on a populist tide of resentment against government was a plausible theory, especially against a weak Democrat like Hillary Clinton. But Trump’s race dog whistle makes it clear that if the Republicans nominate him for president – and it will take a massive reversal of fortune to prevent this from happening – then they are setting themselves up for a Barry Goldwater-style landslide defeat of epic proportions.

While Trump is whistling to fringe elements to turn out to him win primaries, Republicans who would like to avoid associating the party of Lincoln with such a disgrace must understand that the signal he’s sending is also for them.

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Jonathan S. Tobin is editor in chief of JNS. He can be followed on Twitter, @jonathans_tobin.