Citing an incomplete quote of President Donald Trump’s answer to a question during Tuesday night’s presidential debate, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) declared Trump a fascist white supremacist.
Ocasio-Cortez made the claim in a late-night Tweet following the debate:
“Donald Trump is a white supremacist. People have been warning about this for a long time. They were ridiculed, called hyperbolic & radical - not bc they were wrong, but bc others couldn’t accept that our country elected a supremacist as President. This is fascism at our door.”
In her tweet, Ocasio-Cortez included an Axios tweet of video and its account of an exchange between Trump and debate Moderator Chris Wallace. Axios reported the question and Trump’s answer as:
Chris Wallace: "Are you willing, tonight, to condemn white supremacists and militia groups and to say that they need to stand down..."
Trump: "Proud Boys, stand back and stand by! But I'll tell you what, somebody's got to do something about antifa and the left."
But, as Axios’ own video clip shows, Trump’s “Proud Boys” comment was actually a response to Joe Biden’s prompting at a later point in the exchange.
Before that, Trump twice answered “Sure” to Wallace’s question about whether he was “willing to condemn white supremacists and militia groups” – adding, “Give me a name. Who would you like me to condemn?”:
Donald Trump is a white supremacist.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 30, 2020
People have been warning about this for a long time.
They were ridiculed, called hyperbolic & radical - not bc they were wrong, but bc others couldn’t accept that our country elected a supremacist as President.
This is fascism at our door. https://t.co/sahloCJt25
WALLACE: “Are you willing tonight to condemn white supremacists and militia groups…”
TRUMP: “Sure…”
WALLACE: “And to say that they need to stand down and not add to the violence in a number of these cities as we saw in Kenosha, and as we’ve seen in Portland”
TRUMP: “Sure, I’m prepared to do it. But, I would say almost everything I see is from the left-wing not from the right-wing. I’m willing to do anything, I want to see peace…”
WALLACE: “Then do it, sir.”
BIDEN: “Do it, say it.”
TRUMP: “What do you want to call them? Give me a name. Who would you like me to condemn?”
WALLACE: “White supremacists and right-wing militias”
BIDEN: “Proud Boys”
Trump: “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by. But I’ll tell you what, somebody’s got to do something about Antifa and the left.”