“Let Me Be Clear Again”: Trump Issues Explicit Condemnation Of KKK, “All White Supremacists,” And Proud Boys; Now Let's Hear From Biden on Antifa

“I’ve condemned them in the past,” Donald Trump told Sean Hannity last night, calling the issue from the debate “fake news.” It’s not so fake that Trump’s debate response didn’t require a clean-up, however, and Trump went to his biggest ally in the cable-news firmament to conduct it.

“Let me be clear again,” Trump declared:

President Trump explicitly denounced white supremacists in a Thursday night interview, after facing a number of questions in recent days for his controversial comments on the far-right “Proud Boys” group during the first presidential debate.
“I’ve said it many times, and let me be clear again: I condemn the [Ku Klux Klan]. I condemn all white supremacists. I condemn the Proud Boys. I don’t know much about the Proud Boys, almost nothing. But I condemn that,” Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity.
The president also repeated his view that Vice President Joe Biden should condemn Antifa. Trump called the left-wing group, known to clash with Proud Boys members, “a horrible group of people.”
Trump cleared the air Thursday night after failing in Tuesday night’s presidential debate to outright denounce white supremacists or militia groups who have exacerbated violence in cities experiencing frequent protests.

Trump’s correct in that he has condemned white supremacists in the past, as well as racism. As Allahpundit pointed out on Wednesday, he usually has been pushed into it, as it’s not high on his radar otherwise, but Trump has been on the record in the past. Even some of his critics seem to forget that they’ve covered those times:

pic.twitter.com/8vs92wUPis
— Tina Stull (@tinastullracing) October 2, 2020

The media’s going to drive its narratives, a point that Trump should know by now. It’s incumbent on Trump to prepare for those efforts, especially in debates on national television. This clean-up was necessitated by a lack of preparation for a question that any first-year poli-sci student would have seen coming a mile away. Of course Charlottesville would come up, and of course Trump would be asked about white supremacy. How could he and his team not prepared to deliver the answer Trump gave Hannity two nights later? It would have defanged the issue and given Trump more credibility to demand that Joe Biden condemn Antifa.

Speaking of which, if you read the debate transcript, that was an obvious question for which Biden didn’t seem all that prepared either:

BIDEN: ANTIFA’S an idea, not an organization.
TRUMP: Oh, you got to be kidding me.
BIDEN: Not malicious.
TRUMP: Oh really?
BIDEN: That’s what his FBI –
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: OK.
BIDEN: — his FBI Director said.

Christopher Wray didn’t say Antifa was an “idea,” nor did he say it was “not malicious.” Wray called it an “ideology,” a “real thing,” and testified that the FBI had “any number of properly predicated investigations into what we would describe as violent anarchist extremists,” including people who identify as Antifa. Wray disputed the idea that it was an organization, preferring to call it a “movement,” which irritated Trump no end.

Will Steve Scully, the next debate moderator, follow up with Biden for a condemnation of Antifa? Doubtful, so it will be up to Trump to bring it up again. However, this time Trump had spend more time preparing for the obvious attacks than he did the first time around.

This excerpt had two obviously false statements.

First, that he “failed” to outright denounce White Supremacists” on tuesday. When he was asked, he immediately said SURE. He was asked AGAIN, and said SURE. Then bizarrely Biden started shouting “then do it, say it, do it”, as if in order to condemn someone, it wasn’t enough to say “YES” or “SURE” when asked, do you condemn them, but you have to repeat the mantra.

What he stumbled on was a trick Wallace tried to play. When Trump asked Wallace to name an actual organization committing violence, so he could condemn that organization, Wallace actually said the “right-wing”. Wallace wanted to get Trump to defend the entire conservative wing of his party.

THe second was that Trump is “forced into” the condemnation. But TWO TIMES he gave speeches with clear condemnations, including his first speech after Charlottesville, and a major address later about the incident. Neither of those were responses to questions.

He’s president of the United States. Why would he know about a small group of guys who started a drinking club based on a joke?

This entire thing is a concoction of Leftists who hate a small obscure group who dares to stand up to Antifa and give them the middle finger.

President Trump doesn’t gain anything by aligning with it but can be assaulted with more BS.

Gain McGuiness says he’s going to sue Biden and those people. Well, that’s great I hope they win.

But we have a Republic to save. That’s the focus and President Trump needs prayers and his health because he’s done a ton almost singlehandedly with enemies near and far.

Trump-Pence 2020!

Bishop_Malachi: "Trump knows nothing about the Proud Boys?
They are some of his most arent supporters out on the streets.
Boy, it’s statements like this that make me wonder if Trump really is in touch with his base sometimes."

Trump's base are conservatives, mostly Christians, who do not consider themselves (ourselves) to be racists or supremacists and don't like being called that.

On the Proud Boys, if I remember correctly, Trump's words were to "stand back and stand by" -- it was the "stand by" which got Trump in hot water, because it suggests he might want them to stand up for him later.

As for condemning Proud Boys, Trump said he didn't know much about them, almost nothing, but he condemns white supremacists, assuming they are.

Are they?

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