Six months into his presidency, the racist-in-chief told America exactly where he stands on right-wing white supremacists. After a neo-Nazi rally—during which marchers chanted “Jews will not replace us” as well as the well-known Nazi slogan “blood and soil”—Trump declared that there were “very fine people on both sides.”
Six weeks before the American people are going to bring his presidency to an end at the ballot box, Trump stood on the debate stage. When asked to specifically condemn right-wing white supremacist violence, he name-checked one such group, the Proud Boys, and instructed them to “stand back and stand by.”
These two statements provide a perfect pair of bookends to a presidency defined by race-hatred.
Until The Man Who Lost The Popular Vote managed to find his way to the Oval Office, did you ever imagine you’d see a President of the United States act this way? Trump couldn’t even give the simple, obviously correct answer to the very difficult question of whether white supremacist violence is good or bad. This question gave him an opportunity to pretend he’s not the race-baiting hatemonger that he is. He refused. The Proud Boys celebrated, glorying in the new catchphrase provided by their dear leader.
In case any of you still needed some clarification on the difference between these two candidates, today in Ohio Joe Biden was asked what he would say to the Proud Boys. His response: “Cease and desist.”
Even Fox & Friends’ Brian Kilmeade slammed Trump’s remarks—and when President Charlottesville is getting criticized on a show that has spent years with its collective nose sniffing around his rear end, you know he’s crossed a line.
"Donald Trump blew the biggest layup in the history of debates by not condemning white supremacists," Kilmeade said. "I don't know if he didn't hear it, but he's got to clarify that right away. That's like, 'Are you against evil?'"
Kilmeade added that he's "not sure" why Trump didn't "knock it out of the park."
Oh, Trump heard the question. And his answer spoke volumes. Likewise, former Republican Senator Rick Santorum said that Trump’s remarks represented a “huge mistake.” It was a mistake, in that it brought down harsh condemnation, but it was no accident.
Current Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina—the only African American in the GOP Senate caucus—had the following to say.
With all due respect to Sen. Scott, there’s no way Trump misspoke. He could not bring himself to condemn white supremacists because on some level he shares their views. Trump has a decades-long record of expressing racist beliefs. Just as he did in 2017 in Charlottesville, all he did on the debate stage last night in Cleveland was to live down to that record.
The time has come for the American people to render their judgment.
Ian Reifowitz is the author of The Tribalization of Politics: How Rush Limbaugh's Race-Baiting Rhetoric on the Obama Presidency Paved the Way for Trump (Foreword by Markos Moulitsas)