White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Thursday sparred with news outlets over President Donald Trump’s comments on white supremacy and the Proud Boys.
Trump, during the first presidential debate, failed to explicitly condemn white supremacists and violent right-wing groups when debate moderator Chris Wallace pressed the president to do so.
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."
Fox News’ John Roberts on Thursday asked McEnany for a straight answer regarding white supremacy.
“I’d like to ask you for a definitive and declarative statement without ambiguity or deflection,” he said Thursday. “As the person who speaks for the president, does the president denounce white supremacism and groups that espouse it in all their forms?”
McEnany pointed to previous comments made by the president condemning the ideology, including remarks from Wednesday.
“Can you right now denounce white supremacy and the groups that espouse it?” Roberts asked.
“I just did,” McEnany responded, accusing Roberts of fixing a story.
When asked by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins why the Proud Boys were celebrating Trump’s comments, McEnany responded: “I don't speak for that group, so I'm not sure why you're asking me why they're saying certain things.
“The president did denounce them,” she added.
“He was asked, 'Will you tell them to stand down?' He said, 'Sure.' He said, 'Stand back.' And then just yesterday when he was asked, he said specifically, 'Stand down,' a synonym with 'stand back.' And the president said 'sure' when asked by the moderator whether they should stand down. It's really interesting too to see the media seems to be the only one putting the names of these groups into headlines, into media reporting. He didn't know who the Proud Boys were."
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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