And certainly not to answer it honestly... because the TRUTH is they knew as well as we did that Trump is a racist long before the 2016 election.
The only reason they denied it was because they wanted to at least keep up the pretense that they were decent human beings...
To put it simply:
They knew he was a racist.
They knew that WE knew he was a racist.
Their motivation in denying the fact wasn't to convince us that WE were wrong, but to convince us THEY were genuinely blind to the obvious fact that he was a racist.
Why? Because if they could play naive to the fact that Trump was a racist then they could still vote for him and claim they were still, deep down, good people that just somehow didn't see the obvious...
Its a bizarre little play they put on, and its motivation was obvious the first time they pretended to be outraged when we pointed out the blatant racism.
The truth is they voted for Trump in large part BECAUSE he is a racist, they just wish he wouldn't keep saying the quiet part out loud... so often... on twitter... daily. It makes their charade so much more laughable, and forces them to pretend to be pretty damn stupid.
From your link:
What you don't get, Trump supporters, is that our succumbing to frustration and shaking our heads, thinking of you as stupid, may very well be wrong and unhelpful, but it's also...hear me...charitable.
It is the charity they are hoping to get, the benefit of the doubt.
You see, THEY know they are miserable examples of human beings, they are just praying they can fool us into thinking they are just stupid instead... they just need to fool us long enough -until they have their boots stamping into our faces...
But they betray themselves when they proudly and openly call themselves "deplorable" and think its funny and cute...