On call to Hannity, Trump condemns white supremacy, equates it again with antifa
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By David Ian Klein October 2, 2020
President Donald Trump condemned white supremacy during a televised phone interview with Sean Hannity on Thursday night, then quickly pivoted to equating white supremacists with left-wing activists.
“I condemn the KKK, I condemn all White Supremacists, I condemn the Proud Boys,” the president said, though he still maintained that he knows little about the group he name-checked during Tuesday’s debate.
Then he urged Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to condemn antifa, which Trump characterizes as a “group” that has murdered people.
However, a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies looking at extremist groups over the past 25 years, found not a single death linked to the largely leaderless movement in that period.
They did find 329 deaths linked to right-wing extremists.
Trump’s statements come after he seemed to give a nod to the militant alt-right group, the Proud Boys, at the debate on Tuesday night; he told them to “stand back” but also to “stand by.”
Since the debate, the president has maintained that he knows little of the group, despite a long-standing connection by his associate Roger Stone.
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