Even if he did say that, it was so obviously a joke. The joke wouldn’t have been funny if he didn’t think the KKK was evil. Same as Trump and the p-word remark: if the word hadn’t been extreme, it wouldn’t have served the purpose of the statement.
Political people on our side have to learn that you can’t make jokes. One mention of a loaded word, and the Left takes the whole thing the wrong way, intentionally, so they can make political hay out of it with stupid people, or else because they are just plain stupid and don’t understand humor.
He already denied saying the worst of it and said the rest was a joke and being used out of context. This won’t carry any water but they will make asses of themselves bitching about it before he is confirmed.