Leaving the White House to run for election in Minnesota, Trump told reporters he didn’t know who the Proud Boys were, he told the far-right group that he described himself as a “Western chauvinist” but not as a white supremacist. to “take a step back and stay” in the debate.
“I don’t know who the Proud Boys are, I mean, I have to give myself a definition because I don’t really know who they are. All I can say is that they have to resign, let the police do their job,” Trump said. of the organization that has organized countermanifestations in towns like Portland that have suffered recent violence.
But when asked directly Wednesday if he would denounce white supremacy, Trump said he had denounced it; again, he did not use the words “white supremacy. “
“I’ve denounced — any form, any form, any form of everything — you have to talk,” Trump said.
A White House spokesman had previously said that the president had nothing to “clarify. “
During Tuesday’s debate, he asked through Fox News moderator Chris Wallace if he was “willing to condemn white supremacists and militias and say they deserve to retire and not intensify violence,” the president said first, “Of course, I’m willing to do that. “
When Wallace pressed him, the president asked, “What do you tell them?”
“White supremacists and right-wing militias,” Wallace said, as former Vice President Joe Biden uttered the so-called “Proud Boys. “
“Proud guys, back off and stay away,” Trump replied. ” But I’ll tell you what, you have to do anything that opposes the left and the left because it’s not a right-wing problem. It’s a left-wing problem. “
In the past, the organization has reportedly denied ties to white supremacy or violence.
The Proud Boys describe themselves as “a pro-Western fraternal organization for men,” according to the New York Times, and have denied belonging to the “alternative right”; however, its members have recently been connected with white supremacist groups.
The main organizer of the Unite The Right demonstration in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a counter-demonstrator killed a former Proud Boys member in 2017, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
The organization has reportedly denied accusations of being white supremacists in the past.
The reaction to trump’s debate has provoked complaints from his Republican allies in Congress.
When asked Wednesday morning if he would place the president’s comments on it, Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only African-American in the Senate, warned that the president had misrepresented and “corrected it. “
“I think it was misered in reaction to Chris Wallace’s comment. I was asking Chris what he meant. I think he was wrong. I think he was very kind to him. ” Scott told reporters on Capitol Hill.
“If you don’t do it right, I suppose you didn’t speak ill, ” he added.
Overall, a trusted supporter of the president, Scott played a leading role in the Republican Convention last month to protect Trump, adding the race factor. Almost every time the president is asked about the African-American community, he invokes Scott’s name. .
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell asked directly if it was a challenge that the president had not directly condemned white supremacy, said he agreed with Scott’s criticisms and called Trump’s failure “unacceptable. “
“On the white supremacy factor, I need to subscribe to Senator Tim Scott’s previous comments on the day. I think he said it precisely and that’s exactly how I would comment on that,” McConnell said. “He said it was unacceptable”. not to condemn white supremacists. That’s why I do it as powerfully as possible. “
Senator Lindsay Graham, another close best friend of Trump, also aligned himself with Scott via Twitter.
“I agree with SenatorTimScott that President Trump will have to explain that Proud Boys is a racist organization contrary to American ideals,” he wrote.
Biden, who was asked Wednesday for a crusade in Alliance, Ohio, if he had his own message for the Proud Boys, made his prospects transparent about white supremacy.
“My message to the Proud Boys and all other white supremacist teams is to prevent and abstain. That’s who we are. That’s who we are as Americans,” Biden said.
“The other Americans will be the next president, so I urge other Americans to go out and run,” he said, and called the debate a “call for attention” for the country.
Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, the Republican who voted to convict Trump in his political trial, said “of course, of course” when asked Wednesday on Capitol Hill whether the president would have flatly condemned white supremacy.
“I’m not a policy expert, so I can’t tell you what effect this will have,” Romney said when asked about Trump’s comment. “I can say I saw the debate last night. He wasn’t a Lincoln. “-Douglas debate, that’s for sure.
Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota added that Trump has been “very clear. “
“He has said very obviously that there is no place for other people on the far left or the far right. When it comes to the antifa or those white supremacist groups, it’s been very clear,” Rounds said.
At a hearing on the Russia investigation on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, former FBI director James Comey said Trump’s comments raised serious alarms about the security implications and the possibility of racist supporters of those teams engaged in acts of violence or recruiting more members.
“The FBI is fighting a fire place of racist violence, and with words like that, the president is using a fire place hose to spray gas into that fire place,” Comey said. “Maybe he’s misrepresenting, maybe when he said to stand down and wait, he meant anything else. I hope for the smart people all over our country, he says that today, what he meant and will condemn those groups. “
Outside Washington, former Republican governor of Pennsylvania and first U. S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge headed to Twitter Wednesday for dismay.
“If a Republican president can’t convict white supremacists, then Lincoln’s party has expired,” Ridge wrote. Trump compares himself to President Abraham Lincoln.
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