President Donald Trump “needs to correct” remarks from his debate with Democrat nominee Joe Biden after he failed to explicitly condemn white supremacists and violent right-wing groups, Republican Sen. Tim Scott said Wednesday, CNBC reported.
“White supremacy should be denounced at every turn. I think the president misspoke, and he needs to correct it,” said Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate who spoke at the Republican National Convention in August.
The South Carolina senator added that if Trump “doesn’t correct it, I guess he didn’t misspeak.”
The White House declined to comment on Scott’s comments, but when asked earlier about Trump’s controversial remarks at the debate, White House communications director Alyssa Farah said, “I don’t think that there’s anything to clarify.”
Debate moderator Chris Wallace pressed Trump to condemn white supremacists and right-wing militia members who have used violence, with Biden interjecting that the president should specifically condemn far-right extremist group the Proud Boys.
Trump responded by saying, “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by, but I’ll tell you what, I’ll tell you what, somebody’s gotta do something about antifa and the left because this is not a right-wing problem, this is a left-wing problem."
NBC News reported that the Proud Boys lauded Trump’s answer, with some members pledging allegiance to the president and making “stand back and stand by” into a slogan.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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