Trump says he condemns ‘all white supremacists’

US President Donald Trump said Thursday evening that he condemned “all white supremacists” following uproar over his ambiguous comments during the first election debate against his Democratic opponent Joe Biden.

“I’ve said it many times, and let me be clear again, I condemn the KKK, I condemn all white supremacists, I condemn the Proud Boys,” Trump told Fox News.

“I don’t know much about the Proud Boys, almost nothing, but I condemn that,” he said.

During Tuesday’s acrimonious showdown with Biden, debate moderator Chris Wallace called on Trump to explicitly condemn white supremacists.

Instead Trump gave a shout-out to the male-only Proud Boys militia group by saying they should “stand back and stand by,” and that the real problem is “far-left” extremists.

The Proud Boys themselves celebrated Trump’s comments.

“Standing down and standing by sir,” the group said in a social media posting.

jca/leo/mtp/rma

© Agence France-Presse

/AFP