One of the biggest racist hits Donald Trump has faced during his political career was his "very fine people" comment regarding the Charlottesville protests.
Trump has consistently defended his comments, saying he was not speaking about the neo-Nazis, while Democrats have regularly used this to attack Donald Trump.
Talking Points…
- Trump attacked for 'very fine people' comments
- History finally corrected
- Analysis
On August 11 and 12, 2017, the rally took place in Charlottesville, VA. Some of the rally participants were neo-Nazis, yelling antisemitic comments and other phrases associated with their "cause." The rally turned violent when a car drove through the crowd, killing one person and injuring 19 others. The nature of the relay demanded a response from the White House, and Trump tried to quell both sides with one statement. At the time, he stated:
"You also had some very fine people on both sides. You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down, of to them, a very, very important statue and the renaming of a park from Robert E. Lee to another name.
"You had people -- and I'm not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists; they should be condemned totally -- you had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists."
Donald Trump later added that there were "troublemakers" at the rally who were looking to turn the event violent, as we had seen in other protests at the time around the country. The media and Democrats immediately used the narrative that Trump had called neo-Nazis very fine people, and Biden continues to use that as an attack against Trump today, insisting that he ran for office solely because of those comments by Trump.
As Biden has continued to attack Trump on this front, Snopes has finally decided to address this, as have other fact-checking organizations, but they have been very careful about how they corrected the reporting. This weekend, Snopes addressed Joe Biden using this attack against Trump, writing:
"While Trump did say that there were 'very fine people on both sides,' he also specifically noted that he was not talking about neo-Nazis and white supremacists and said they should be 'condemned totally.' Therefore, we have rated this claim 'False.'"
To clarify, they are rating Biden's claim that Donald Trump called neo-Nazis "very fine people" false. With the debate on Thursday night, this is significant for Trump because the moment Biden talks about this, Trump now has ammunition to use against Biden to discredit the statement.
In 2019, PolitiFact addressed the issue, but I think you will find that fact check rather disappointing, even though they admitted to what Trump actually said at the time. At the time, PolitiFact was looking at an interview Trump did after his statement when he was asked why he had waited so long to make the statement from the White House.
Trump insisted that it was only 48 hours, and unlike most politicians, he did not want to make a knee-jerk response. Instead, he insisted on having all the facts before he addressed the incident. The interview got heated, and looking back on that transcript, it is amazing that Trump was able to handle himself as well as he did. In the end, PolitiFact did not call the claims against Trump false but instead stated, "Full context is needed," which is pathetic, but it just goes to show how slanted coverage in the media is today.
I cannot stress how big this is for Trump as he heads into the election. Biden has regularly stated that particular comment by Trump was what made him run for the presidency, but, in my opinion, the real reason Biden ran for president was to protect Hunter Biden and initiate a coverup of his own activities that he knew were borderline at best. Even if Hunter was convicted, which he was, Biden had to know his holding office would put pressure on prosecutors to minimize the sentence.
I have always stated that I wish I would be alive long enough to see how history will judge the Trump presidency and how Democrats conducted themselves during this time period. And listen, Trump is brash, in-your-face, and loves to stir the pot, but the fact of the matter is that his words are often twisted, and the media makes him out to be a racist when that is not the truth, at least now from what I have seen over my lifetime, including local exposure to Trump before he entered politics. Joe Biden has said far more racist things than Trump, and it is not even close, yet the media and Democrats continue to protect him. History will not.
