MSNBC’s Hallie Jackson on Wednesday firmly rejected White House trade adviser Peter Navarro’s attempts to deflect and shift blame for President Donald Trump’s failure to denounce white supremacists at the first presidential debate.
Debate moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News explicitly asked the president at Tuesday night’s event if he would condemn white supremacists. Trump said he was willing and then attacked the left. Urged to “do it, sir,” by Wallace, Trump stood in silence and then asked, “What do you want to call them? Give me a name.”
When Biden suggested the Proud Boys, a violent far-right hate group, Trump said: “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by” and then returned to attacking anti-fascists and “the left.”
According to Navarro’s version of reality, Trump was unable to condemn white supremacists because Wallace interrupted him.
“When he asked the president the question about that, he started to say, of course he would denounce that, and Wallace cut him off,” Navarro told Jackson. “I think the president has made it clear that he wants no part of that kind of stuff.”
As he continued, Jackson interjected to point out that that simply wasn’t true,
“People have ears, right? They heard what the president said,” Jackson said. “When asked about the Proud Boys and didn’t denounce them, he did not do that. He said, in fact, ‘stand by.’ Why wasn’t he more forceful about that, and do you believe he needs to clear that up?”
Navarro said, “That’s not for me to say” and returned to blaming Wallace for interrupting Trump when he was “about to clear that up” and spinning theories about the Fox News anchor acting as Biden’s ally in the debate.
″You think it’s Chris Wallace’s fault that the president didn’t denounce white supremacists?” Jackson interrupted again.
Watch the segment below. The conversation about white supremacy begins at the 4:10 mark.
And here’s video of what happened at the debate.
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