Two days after President Donald Trump sidestepped a question about condemning white supremacy during the first presidential debate, the president said he condemns white supremacy and the Proud Boys on Thursday.
In a phone interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, Trump said, “I've said it many times and let me be clear again: I condemn the KKK. I condemn all white supremacists. I condemn the Proud Boys.”
When asked to condemn white supremacists on Tuesday during the presidential debate, Trump said, “What do you want to call them? Give me a name. Give me a name?”
After being told white supremacists by moderator Chris Wallace and Proud Boys by Joe Biden, Trump said, “Proud Boys — Stand back, stand by, but I’ll tell you what, somebody’s got to do something about Antifa and the left because this is not right-wing problem..... This is a left wing problem."
It was hardly a condemnation for a group that is designated as a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center. It was also Trump's latest attempt to side-step condemning far-right groups, dating back to 2017 when he claimed that there were "fine people on both sides" of racial violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.