Donald Trump’s claim that the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 was less hateful than pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses lately was “repugnant and divisive,” the White House shot back Thursday night.
After proceedings in his criminal trial in New York concluded for the day, Trump said the torch-lit rally on the campus of the University of Virginia—in which participants chanted “Jews will not replace us” and a Neo-Nazi murdered a counter-protester with his car and injured thirty others—was “a little peanut” compared to the largely peaceful encampments springing up on college campuses in recent weeks.
“It was nothing compared, and the hate wasn’t the kind of hate you have here. This is tremendous hate,” Trump claimed.
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In response, White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates called attention to how the Charlottesville rally spurred Biden’s 2020 presidential bid, “because he has fought Antisemitism and hate his entire life.”
“Joe Biden is the only President to have created and deployed a National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism,” Bates said in a statement to The Daily Beast. “In recent days you’ve heard President Biden forcefully and repeatedly condemn horrifying Antisemitic comments captured on video. Tellingly, yesterday Hamas itself blasted President Biden for showing leadership and speaking out against those Antisemitic remarks.”
Bates also alluded to Trump dining at Mar-a-Lago in 2022 with embattled rapper Kanye West, who lost a lucrative deal with Adidas after a series of antisemitic remarks, and Nick Fuentes, a far-right internet personality and Holocaust denier.
“Unlike some figures on the right, President Biden has never invited Neo Nazis and Holocaust deniers over for lunch,” Bates said.
Shortly after the deadly Charlottesville rally, which was met by counter-protesters, Trump said in a series of now-infamous remarks that it had been attended by “very fine people on both sides.”
