President Trump Still Hasn’t Denounced the Proud Boys

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Wednesday is crash day for me, so I’ve been asleep for the past five hours. Naturally, then, I’m curious: Has President Trump managed to denounce the Proud Boys yet? Let’s take a look:

Q Mr. President, can you explain what you meant last night when you said that the Proud Boys should “stand back and stand by”?

THE PRESIDENT: I don’t know who the Proud Boys are. I mean, you’ll have to give me a definition, because I really don’t know who they are. I can only say they have to stand down, let law enforcement do their work….But again, I don’t know who Proud Boys are. But whoever they are, they have to stand down. Let law enforcement do their work.

Nope, no denouncement there. Just a feeble claim that he’s never heard of a widely known violent neo-fascist group whose members zealously support him. (Trump has played this game for years.) This has prompted a few Republicans to criticize Trump, but most of them are still remaining silent. On the other hand, apparently Jake Tapper has finally had enough:


34 days to go.

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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