Setting the Record Straight

There were “very fine people, on both sides…”

Since we’re still circling the wagons here, I thought I’d just bring us all back to what Trump actually said about “very fine people on both sides.” Maybe we should see what he said and take it in context. There may be plenty to dislike about Trump, but we should at least make sure we’re disliking his actual traits and actions or lack thereof, and not some concoction. So here is it:

“Excuse me, excuse me. They didn’t put themselves — and you had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides. You had people in that group. Excuse me, excuse me. I saw the same pictures as you did. 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.”

. . .

“So you know what, it’s fine. You’re changing history. You’re changing culture. And you had people — and I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists — because they should be condemned totally. But you had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists. Okay? And the press has treated them absolutely unfairly.

“Now, in the other group also, you had some fine people. But you also had troublemakers, and you see them come with the black outfits and with the helmets, and with the baseball bats. You had a lot of bad people in the other group.”

You can check out the full transcript here:

You can also see the many, many times he’s disavowed White Supremacists, David Duke, the KKK, etc., here.

Can we move on now?