Reporter: "The neo-Nazis started this. They showed up in Charlottesville to protest --"
Trump: "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.
So. Trump admitted that the neo-Nazis are very bad people, but the group ALSO had some very fine people.
To Trump supporters or "enlightened centrists", this is proof that the left is also deliberately distorting the truth, but you're missing the point.
The point isn't that Trump drew a distinction between the Nazis (who were bad) and the non-Nazis (who were good), and therefore he didn't call Nazis good people.
The point is that there people marching with Neo-Nazis are not better than Neo-Nazis.
If you have a political position and you find yourself attracting neo-Nazis, you have to take a long hard look at what you're doing.
"And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? So it'd be interesting to check that."
Pointing to his head, Mr Trump went on: "I'm not a doctor. But I'm, like, a person that has a good you-know-what."
OK. First of all, let's start with the fact that Trump has a Cult of Personality. His supporters don't just love him, they TRUST him implicitly - more than any other authority figure. More than other politicians, but also more than DOCTORS.
An idea from Trump matters more to his supporters than an idea from any medical expert.
So. You have Trump "just asking questions" that if a disinfectant can be shown to knock out the virus on a kitchen counter (and at that point there were COUNTLESS news articles about how to protect yourself from the virus by bleaching and disenfecting all your things. He goes a step further and says maybe there is a way to do the same by taking the same disinfectant INSIDE the body. Finally, he says I'm not a doctor, but I know things. Which basically seals the deal and confirms he thinks it's a promising idea.
So, no, he didn't say the words "MAGA NATION! Go buy bleach and drink it!"
But he did say that he believes that: Disinfectant inside the body could help with the virus through injection or something like it.
It is a plausibly deniable one, but it is an endorsement nonetheless.
> In your link, Trump says: "I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists -- because they should be condemned totally".
BUT HE IS.
The people he is talking about that he is separating out ARE white nationalists.
They are not carrying Nazi flags. They are not chanting "Jews will not replace us." If you asked them point blank, they wouldn't dog-whistle anything about "we don't think blacks are inferior, we just want a separate but equal society".
But their actions are aligned with white supremacy. Their obsession with the Confederacy and their generals is an expression of white supremacy. They are not interested in heritage. They are interested in perpetuating old power imbalances that keep "the poorest white man above the best black man".
> Regarding bleach, "So it'd be interesting to check that" is a suggestion for medical research, not a recommendation for what patients should do now.
That's now how supporters received it.
In both cases you give him the benefit of the doubt. His intentions are not to support white supremacy. his intentions are not to have his supporters drink bleach.
However he has a job, which is colloquially described as "the most powerful man in the world". That has responsibility. His throwaway lines embolden white supremacists who ABSOLUTELY seized on "fine people on both sides" just as much as the left did. His supporters do hear his guidance to the medial community and jump to the next conclusion.
Who is it that repeats the "fine people on both sides" comment again and again, never mentioning Trump's explicit condemnation of white nationalists? It's not Trump, or the Republicans. It's Democrats and the Democrat-supporting news media. If there are any white nationalists taking comfort from the (incorrect) idea that the US president is sympathetic to their cause, it is not Trump's fault. It is, to be blunt, YOUR fault.
And the same for bleach. Why did the news media portray Trump's comments as a recommendation for people to drink bleach, rather than (correctly) portray him as suggesting research into something related to bleach? (If they have to criticize Trump, they could then mock him for thinking he knows anything about what the promising directions in medical research are.)
We all know why, don't we? They prioritized political gains over lives.
ADDED: To address your other point: Sure, one might be able to argue that people wanting to keep up a statue of Robert E. Lee are really more or less white nationalists. Just as you can argue that people in favour of a minimum wage are really more or less communists. Conflating these "more or less X" views with actual X is not a recipe for maintaining a stable democratic society.
https://www.politifact.com/article/2019/apr/26/context-trump...
The exact quote:
Reporter: "The neo-Nazis started this. They showed up in Charlottesville to protest --"
Trump: "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.
So. Trump admitted that the neo-Nazis are very bad people, but the group ALSO had some very fine people.
To Trump supporters or "enlightened centrists", this is proof that the left is also deliberately distorting the truth, but you're missing the point.
The point isn't that Trump drew a distinction between the Nazis (who were bad) and the non-Nazis (who were good), and therefore he didn't call Nazis good people.
The point is that there people marching with Neo-Nazis are not better than Neo-Nazis.
If you have a political position and you find yourself attracting neo-Nazis, you have to take a long hard look at what you're doing.
This is the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_German fallacy. Silently and tacitly accepting fascism because you benefit from it is still fascism.
So in conclusion, yes, Trump called Nazis "very fine people". It's just that you and Trump don't consider those people Nazis, when they are.
> "Trump told people to drink bleach"
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52407177
The exact quote:
"And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? So it'd be interesting to check that."
Pointing to his head, Mr Trump went on: "I'm not a doctor. But I'm, like, a person that has a good you-know-what."
OK. First of all, let's start with the fact that Trump has a Cult of Personality. His supporters don't just love him, they TRUST him implicitly - more than any other authority figure. More than other politicians, but also more than DOCTORS.
An idea from Trump matters more to his supporters than an idea from any medical expert.
So. You have Trump "just asking questions" that if a disinfectant can be shown to knock out the virus on a kitchen counter (and at that point there were COUNTLESS news articles about how to protect yourself from the virus by bleaching and disenfecting all your things. He goes a step further and says maybe there is a way to do the same by taking the same disinfectant INSIDE the body. Finally, he says I'm not a doctor, but I know things. Which basically seals the deal and confirms he thinks it's a promising idea.
So, no, he didn't say the words "MAGA NATION! Go buy bleach and drink it!"
But he did say that he believes that: Disinfectant inside the body could help with the virus through injection or something like it.
It is a plausibly deniable one, but it is an endorsement nonetheless.