Editor’s Note: Some readers have raised the objection that this fact check assumes that Trump was correct in claiming that there were “other very competent people on both sides” of the Charlottesville incident. This is not the case. This fact check was intended to verify what Trump had said, not whether what he had said was true or false. For the record, virtually every single source that covered the Unite the Right debacle concluded that it was conceived, directed and assisted. through white supremacists, and that Trump’s characterization was therefore false.
In the spring of 2024, social media posts resurfaced raising questions about a famous comment by former United States President Donald Trump related to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, following the removal of a Confederate statue.
On August 11 and 12, 2017, the rally called by Unite the Right to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from a park turned violent when neo-Nazis, white supremacists and others connected to far-right equipment. clashed with left-wing counter-demonstrators. A self-identified white supremacist rammed his car into a crowd of people, killing one rider and injuring at least 19 others.
Richard B. Spencer and Jason Kessler, white nationalists, planned the rally, and David Duke, former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, attended.
In a press conference on August 15, then-U. S. President Donald Trump asked to comment on the occasion, saying there were “other very smart people on both sides. ” This reaction has caused many negative reactions; many claimed that Trump had put neo-Nazis and counterprotesters on the “same ethical level. “
Specifically, Trump’s critics claimed that he called the neo-Nazis and white supremacists present at the rally “very fine people. “This claim fell like wildfire, and then-presidential candidate Joe Biden made Trump’s comments about Charlottesville a cornerstone of his campaign.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a speech that “no one who breaks bread with anti-Semites like Nick Fuentes, and who called the white supremacists in Charlottesville ‘very smart people,’ or who, as reported recently, disgustingly said that Hitler did smart things. “He has the right to lecture American Jews about their private political beliefs. “
Trump supporters have claimed that he condemned neo-Nazis and white supremacists at the rally.
We analyzed those claims and found that while Trump did indeed say there were “very fine people on both sides,” meaning protesters and counterprotesters, he also categorically condemned neo-Nazis and white nationalists, saying that referring in particular to those who only They were there to participate in the protest against the statue. We discovered the original clip on C-SPAN and transcribed the corresponding segment below:
Mr. President, do you put on the same level what you call the far left and white supremacists?
Trump: I’m not putting anybody on higher ethical ground, what I’m saying is this: there was an organization in one aspect and an organization in the other, and they were fighting each other with batons and it was cruel and terrible and it’s a terrible thing to see, but there’s some other aspect. There is an organization in this aspect, we can call it left. You simply called them left, who came here to violently attack the other organization. So you can say whatever you want, but that’s the way it is.
Journalist: Did you say that there is hatred and violence on both sides?
Trump: I think there’s a blame; Yes, I think there is a blame for both sides. You look, you look in any direction. I think there are criticisms from both sides, and I do not doubt it, and you do not doubt it either. And, and, and, and, if I reported it accurately, I would say.
Interviewer: It was the neo-Nazis who started this case. They arrived in Charlottesville.
Trump: Excuse me, they weren’t neo-Nazis themselves, and there were other very bad people in that organization. But there were also other very smart people on both sides. There were other people in this organization (excuse me, excuse me, I saw the same photographs as you), there were other people in this organization who were there to protest the tearing down, for them, of a very, very vital statue and the change of name. of a Robert E. Lee park under another name. George Washington was a slave owner. Was George Washington a slave owner? So, is George Washington going to lose his status now? Are we going to tear down – excuse me – are we going to tear down the statues of George Washington? And Thomas Jefferson? What do you think of Thomas Jefferson? You love him? He’s fine, smart. Are we going to tear down the statue? Because he was a great slave owner. Now, are we going to tear down the statue of him? So you know what? He is smart. History is replaced, culture is replaced, and there were other people, and I’m not talking about neo-Nazis or white nationalists, because they deserve to be condemned completely. But there were a lot of other people in this organization besides neo-Nazis and white nationalists, okay? And the press surely treated them unfairly. Now in the other organization there were other smart people too, but there were also troublemakers, and you see them coming in with black suits, helmets and baseball bats, you have a lot of other bad people in the organization. another organization. organization too.
I’m sorry sir, I didn’t understand what you were saying, were you saying that the press treated white nationalists unfairly? I do not understand what it says.
Trump: No, no. There were other people at that demonstration – and I saw the night before – if you look, there were other people protesting very quietly opposing the removal of the statue of Robert E. I’m sure there were some bad people at this demonstration. organization. The next day, there seemed to be other difficult and unpleasant people. Neo-Nazis, white nationalists, whatever you need to call them. But there were a lot of other people in that organization who were there to protest innocently, and protest legally – because I don’t know if you know, they had a permit. The other organization did not have a permit. So I’m just telling you this: there are two sides to a story. I think what happened was a terrible moment for our country. A terrible moment. But the country has two facets.
Despite Trump’s particular condemnation of neo-Nazis and white nationalists, most far-right leaders and teams positively won the speech.
“Thank you, President Trump, for your honesty and courage in telling the truth about #Charlottesville and condemning left-wing BLM/Antifa terrorists,” Duke, a former KKK grand wizard, posted in X in reaction to Trump’s comments.
On August 12, 2017, before the press conference where he finally categorically condemned white supremacists, Trump posted on X vaguely addressing the violence taking place in Charlottesville. “We will ALL have to stand together and condemn everything that hate represents,” he wrote. “There is no standing for this type of violence in America. Let’s unite as one!”
He then issued a statement from his golf course in New Jersey that began, “We condemn in the most powerful terms imaginable this blatant display of hate, bigotry and violence from all sides, from all sides. ” These ads provoked a lot of backlash because they didn’t explicitly address the presence of Nazis and white supremacists.
In the past we verified that Trump refused to explicitly condemn white supremacists in the September 2020 presidential debate.
In short, while Trump said there were “very fine people on both sides,” he also noted in particular that he wasn’t talking about neo-Nazis and white supremacists and said they should be “totally condemned. “Therefore, we have qualified this claim as “false”.
Dunn, Adrienne. ” Fact check: Trump cites inaccuracies in “very smart people” meme. ” USA TODAY, https://www. usatoday. com/story/news/factcheck/2020/10/17/fact-check-trump – quote-very-fine-people-charlottesville/5943239002/. Accessed June 19, 2024.
Holan, Angie Drobnic. ” In context: Trump’s comments about ‘other very smart people on both sides. ‘”@politifact, https://www. politifact. com/article/2019/apr/26/context-trumps-very-well-other people-both-sides-comments/. Retrieved June 19, 2024.
Joe Biden. Joe Biden as president: America is an idea. 2019. YouTube, https://www. youtube. com/watch?v=VbOU2fTg6cI.
Linda, Dara. ” Unite the Right, White Supremacist Violent Rally in Charlottesville, Explained. ” Vox, August 12, 2017, https://www. vox. com/2017/8/12/16138246/charlottesville-nazi-rally-right-uva.
López, German. ” A consultant of what happened in Charlottesville over the weekend. ” Vox, August 14, 2017, https://www. vox. com/identities/2017/8/14/16143168/charlottesville-va-protests.
MacGuill, Dan. ” Did Trump ‘refuse to condemn’ the white supremacist debate? Snopes, September 30, 2020, https://www. snopes. com//fact-check/trump-condemn-white-supremacists/.
NBC News. “David Duke: The Charlottesville rally is an effort to ‘take back the country. ‘”2017. YouTube, https://www. youtube. com/watch?v=fULPlGwjJMA.
News, A. B. C. ” Trump is attacking the ‘alt-left’ in Charlottesville and pointing fingers at ‘good people on both sides. ‘”ABC News, https://abcnews. go. com/Politics/trump-lashes-alt-left -charlottesville-fine-other folks-sides/story?id=49235032. Retrieved June 19, 2024.
Thrush, Glenn and Maggie Haberman. ” Trump is giving an unmistakable touch to white supremacists. ” The New York Times, August 16, 2017. NYTimes. com, https://www. nytimes. com/2017/08/15/us/politics/trump-charlottesville-white-nationalists. html.
User clip: Trump quote about “very people” | C-SPAN. Org. https://www. c-span. org/video/?c4811891/user-clip-trumps-very-fine-people-quote. Accessed on June 19, 2024.
Wang, Amy B. “One Group Loved Trump’s Charlottesville Remarks: White Supremacists. ” Washington Post, October 26, 2021. www. washingtonpost. com, https://www. washingtonpost. com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/08/13/one-group-loved-trumps-remarks-about – charlottesville -white-supremacists/.
Wilkie, Cristina. “Joe Biden Accepts Democratic Nomination Promising to Serve ‘All Americans. ’” CNBC, August 21, 2020, https://www. cnbc. com/2020/08/20/dnc-joe-biden-nomination-acceptance. html.
June 21, 2024: This story was updated with an editor’s note to explain what Snopes was checking; A link to the NYT video of the occasion in question. Trump’s statements before the press conference “from both sides”; and social posts in 2024 that circulated rumors.
Taija PerryCook is a Seattle-based journalist who has previously worked for the news site PNW Crosscut and the Jordan Times in Amman.