Former Vice President Joe Biden’s press team hid President Donald Trump’s post-Charlottesville condemnation of white nationalists in a tweet of a partial transcript of the president’s remarks after the 2017 incident.
Bill Russo, a spokesperson for Biden, tweeted a partial, selectively-edited transcript of Trump’s 2017 comments post-Charlottesville:
"You also had people that were very fine people, on both sides."
cc: @BreitbartNews pic.twitter.com/hxkyCuEdF3
— Bill Russo (@BillR) August 8, 2019
But Russo’s tweet omits the part of the transcript of the same event where a moment later President Trump explicitly states that he was condemning white nationalists and Neo-Nazis, and was not referring to them as “fine people.” Breitbart News shared the full transcript, with the president’s full comments condemning white nationalists, in response to Biden’s spokesperson’s misleading tweet:
Why did you need to omit this? pic.twitter.com/k26qetCCmu
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) August 8, 2019
All of this is in response to a question that Breitbart News’ Joel Pollak asked Biden at the Iowa State Fair on Thursday, where Pollak confronted Biden about how he has been misquoting President Trump about Charlottesville. An indignant Biden doubled down on his misquoting of the president and stormed off.
A transcript of Pollak’s exchange with Biden is as follows:
Breitbart News: Mr. Vice President, are you aware that you’re misquoting Donald Trump in Charlottesville, he never called neo-Nazis “very fine people”?
Joe Biden: No, he called all those folks who walked out of that — they were neo-Nazis. Shouting hate, their veins bulging.
Breitbart News: But he said specifically that he was condemning them.
Joe Biden: Not specifically.
Breitbart News: He said —
Joe Biden: No, he did not. He said, he walked out, and he said — let’s get this straight. He said there were “very fine people” in both groups. They’re chanting antisemitic slogans, carrying flags.
Biden is incorrect, as even CNN’s Jake Tapper has noted that President Trump was not referring to white nationalists as “very fine people.”
Trump campaign officials sprung into action to note that Biden is factually incorrect, per Breitbart News fact-checking him on the spot and per CNN’s Jake Tapper.
That man is correct, according to CNN's Jake Tapper https://t.co/UDWlABOzYo
— Matt Wolking (@MattWolking) August 8, 2019
Now, under more scrutiny, Russo–Biden’s spokesperson–made this next mistake, and team Trump is all over that one as well.
Sounds like @BillR knows what everyone else knows… @realDonaldTrump is sailing to a second term! Therefore, the scorched Earth campaign has begun before the Democrats could find a nominee. #ThanksForPlaying ✌🏽🇺🇸 https://t.co/nsvogrT8u6
— Katrina Pierson (@KatrinaPierson) August 8, 2019
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