Washington – On Tuesday, President Trump refused to unequivocally condemn white supremacists and far-right teams who responded to ongoing protests opposed to police brutality and racial injustice, blaming violent clashes on the “left wing. “
During the first presidential debate, Fox News Sunday moderator and host Chris Wallace asked Mr. What if Trump was “willing tonight to condemn white supremacists and militias and say they retreat and not add to the violence in many of the towns we saw in Kenosha and saw in Portland?”
In response, Trump said he “is willing to do that,” but said that “almost everything I see comes from the left wing. “
“I’m in a position for anything. I need to see peace,” the president continued.
Amid the incentives of Wallace and former Vice President Joe Biden to categorically denounce white supremacists, Trump asked, “What do you call me?Tell me a name, who would like me to condemn?”
Biden then referred to the Proud Boys, a far-right group, while Wallace said the white supremacists.
“The Proud Boys, ” said Trump, take a step back and stay away. But I’ll tell you what, I’ll tell you what, you have to do anything for Antifa and left, because it’s not a right-wing problem. “
After the debate, on the Proud Boys’ Telegram channel, members boasted of Trump’s reaction. Trump. They used to “take a step back” and “stay away” and posted videos of the debate with the legend “God. “Family, Fraternity. “
Biden responded to a tweet about the Proud Boys’ reaction by tweeting, “This is Donald Trump’s America. “
In an interview with CBS News after the debate, Donald Trump Jr. , the president’s son, argued that Trump. Trump intended to ask the Proud Boys to “stand down” and warned that “stand firm” could have simply been said. via Error.
“I don’t know if it was a language mistake, but he’s talking about getting them to quit,” said Trump Jr. , “CBS This Morning” co-host Gayle King. “He is more than satisfied to condemn this. “
Jonathan Greenblatt, executive director of the Anti-Defamation League, who characterizes Proud Boys as an extremist group, tweeted after the debate that he did not know whether Trump to the Proud Boys “an answer or a confession. “Trump to apologize.
“And, in case you have any doubts, proud boys are a virulent strain of American right-wing extremism,” Greenblatt wrote. “They have a long history of violence,” he added in Portland last weekend. “
In reaction to Trump’s comments on Antifa, Biden called them an “idea, not an organization” and noted that FBI Director Chris Wray told the House Homeland Security Committee this month that Antifa “is more of an organization. ideology or a motion that an organization. . “
The president, however, is a “dangerous radical group. “
Christopher Brito contributed to this report.