The Charlottesville Lie
Did President Trump call neo-Nazis “very fine people” during a famous press conference following the Charlottesville riots of August 2017? The major media reported that he did. But what if their reporting is wrong? Worse, what if their reporting is wrong and they know it’s wrong? A straight exploration of the facts should reveal the truth. That’s what CNN political analyst Steve Cortes does in this critically important video.
It’s our job, as informed citizens, _____________________________.
to only support informed politiciansto do the journalist’s jobs for themto always believe the mediato figure out the truthWhat is journalistic malfeasance?
when a journalist gets a fact wrong, doesn’t know it’s wrong, and doesn’t correct itwhen a journalist gets a fact wrong, knows it’s wrong, and doesn’t correct itwhen a journalist gets a fact wrong, knows it’s wrong, and corrects itnone of the aboveRegarding the Charlottesville incident, which group did President Trump condemn in no uncertain terms?
protestors who wanted the Robert E. Lee statue removedthe policeNeo-Nazisprotestors who wanted to keep the statue and restore the park’s original namePresident Trump’s daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren are Jewish.
TrueFalseNews reporting is supposed to be about ________________________________.
promoting an agendamaking large profitsgathering factsall of the above
- The media has misrepresented Trump’s statements about Charlottesville protestors, falsely accusing him of calling neo-Nazis “fine people.”
After a neo-Nazi ran over and killed peaceful counter-protester Heather Heyer at a protest over the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia, President Trump said at a press conference that there were people “on both sides” of the protests who are “very fine people,” but stressed, “I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and white nationalists because they should be condemned totally.”
View source“[T]hey didn’t put themselves down as neo-Nazis, and you had some very bad people in that group,” Trump said at the tense press conference at Trump Tower. “But you also had people that were very fine people on both sides. You had people in that group – excuse me, excuse me, I saw the same pictures you did. You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down of, to them, a very, very important statue and the renaming of a park from Robert E. Lee to another name.” Later in the press conference, Trump emphasized: “I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and white nationalists because they should be condemned totally. But you had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists.”
View sourceFollowing Trump’s press conference, ABC News reported that Trump’s “very fine people” comments included “white supremacists and white nationalists,” an unfair claim echoed by other mainstream and left-wing outlets.
View source- Trump was not alone in describing violence from “both sides” at the Charlottesville rally—mainstream media sources reported the same thing.
The ostensible reason for the rally was to protest the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee, but many participants approached it as a “White Pride” rally.
View sourceWhile some came to demonstrate peacefully, many members of white nationalist, neo-Nazi, and Antifa groups came prepared for violence. “[M]any of the rally participants were seen carrying firearms, sticks and shields. Some also wore helmets,” Reuters reported. “Counter-protesters likewise came equipped with sticks, helmets and shields.”
View sourceThe mayor and law enforcement in Charlottesville were unprepared to deal with the violence that ensued.
View sourceAfter clashes between white nationalists and Antifa erupted, a young counter-protester, Heather Heyer, was killed by a neo-Nazi who ran over her with his vehicle.
View sourceAt a press conference at Trump Tower, Trump said both the far-right racists and the far-left Antifa bore some of the blame for the violence at the rally. “You had a group on one side that was bad, and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent, and nobody wants to say that, but I’ll say it right now. You had a group — you had a group on the other side that came charging in without a permit, and they were very, very violent.”
View source- President Trump’s press conference after the Charlottesville rally sparked a media firestorm that focused on three words taken out of context.
Out of a heated exchange between the president and the media, one phrase eclipsed the thousands of words exchanged: The media reported that President Trump described neo-Nazis as “very fine people.”
View sourceAs he emphasized in the press conference, Trump was referring to both sides of the debate over the Confederate monument, not neo-Nazis and Antifa.
View sourceIgnoring the distinction, the Atlantic ran a headline stating, “Trump Defends White-Nationalist Protesters.”
View sourceBut as the New York Times confirmed in a story they published the day after the tragic Charlottesville rally, there were indeed people there to protest the removal of the statue who opposed the racist agenda of white nationalists: “’Good people can go to Charlottesville,’ said Michelle Piercy, a night shift worker at a Wichita, Kansas retirement home, who drove all night with a conservative group that opposed the planned removal of a statue of the Confederate general Robert E. Lee. After listening to Mr. Trump on Tuesday, she said it was as if he had channeled her and her friends… who had no interest in standing with Nazis or white supremacists…”
View sourceCommenting on the peaceful protesters at Charleston, President Trump said, “you had a lot of people in that group that were there to innocently protest and very legally protest.”
View source- Despite Trump’s clear condemnation of neo-Nazis and white nationalists, the media has continued to distort his Charlottesville comments.
The false claim that President Trump called white supremacists and white nationalists at the tragic Charlottesville rally “very fine people” continues to be repeated in headlines, such as “Trump Echoes Infamous ‘Both Sides’ Quote By Comparing White Supremacy To Antifa” in HuffPost.
View sourceIn August 2019, a New York Times opinion piece read, “Trump Is a White Nationalist Who Inspires Terrorism,” and repeated the faulty claim that Trump referenced “‘very fine people’ among the neo-Nazis.”
View sourceIn the press conference, President Trump repeatedly condemned the KKK, neo-Nazis, and white supremacists, calling them thugs and criminals and saying “they should be condemned totally.”
View sourceWATCH: Trump’s Full, Heated Press Conference on Race and Violence in Charlottesville (Full) | NBC News
View sourceWATCH: Trump: Does the alt-left have any guilt for Charlottesville?
View source- The misrepresentation of Trump’s Charlottesville comments falls in line with a larger campaign to paint the president as a racist.
The media’s insistence on misrepresenting President Trump’s comments about participants in the Charlottesville rally falls in line with a larger trend of the media portraying President Trump and his supporters as racists.
View sourceAccording to Dennis Prager, “nearly every Democrat running for president, New York Times and Washington Post columnist, CNN and MSNBC host, and your left-wing brother-in-law — labels every Trump supporter and, of course, President Donald Trump, a ‘racist.’”
View sourceAt the tense press conference after the violent Charlottesville rally, President Trump made clear that he was not referring to white supremacists as “very fine people.” Not only did Trump stress that point in the press conference — saying, “I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and white nationalists because they should be condemned totally” — the president’s daughter and son-in-law are Orthodox Jews.
View sourceRelated reading: “Trump Didn't Call Neo-Nazis 'Fine People.' Here's Proof.” – Steve Cortes
View source
Politicians lie.
We all know that.
That is not an indictment of all politicians—it’s simply part of the game.
It’s our job, as informed citizens, to figure out the truth. And that’s where journalists and the media come in. They are supposed to help us ferret out fact from fiction. So when they get a fact wrong, that’s bad.
When they get a fact wrong, know it’s wrong, and don’t correct it, that’s worse. That’s not getting a fact wrong; that’s a lie. And that’s journalistic malfeasance.
The best (or maybe worst) example of this followed a presidential press conference at Trump Tower on Tuesday, August 15, 2017.
You remember what happened that previous weekend: A group of white supremacists held a “white pride” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The ostensible reason was to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
An Antifa group showed up to counter-protest. The mayor and the police were totally unprepared to deal with the violence that ensued. Tragically, a young woman, Heather Heyer, was run over and killed by a neo-Nazi.
The press conference itself was raucous. The media was antagonistic. The president was combative.
Out of it all, one phrase eclipsed the thousands of words exchanged: The media reported that President Trump described neo-Nazis as “very fine people.”
Only, he didn’t. In fact, he didn’t even hint at it. Just the opposite: he condemned the neo-Nazis in no uncertain terms. So then, who were the “fine people” he mentioned?
The answer: He was referring to another group of Charlottesville demonstrators who came out that weekend—protestors who wanted the Robert E. Lee statue removed and protestors who wanted to keep the statue and restore the park’s original name.
This is what President Trump said about those peaceful protestors: “You also had some very fine people on both sides. . . . You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down of—to them—a very, very important statue and the renaming of a park from Robert E. Lee to another name.”
A few moments later, in case there would be any misunderstanding, he makes his meaning even more explicit. “…I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists. They should be condemned totally.”
Lest you have any doubts that good people were in Charlottesville to protest the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue, the New York Times confirmed it in a story they published the next day, August 16.
“’Good people can go to Charlottesville,’ said Michelle Piercy, a night shift worker at a Wichita, Kansas retirement home, who drove all night with a conservative group that opposed the planned removal of a statue of the Confederate general Robert E. Lee. After listening to Mr. Trump on Tuesday, she said it was as if he had channeled her and her friends… who had no interest in standing with Nazis or white supremacists…”
There’s another simple test that we can employ to prove that the president was not referring to the neo-Nazis as “fine people.” It’s so obvious, it’s painful to mention: The president’s daughter and son-in-law are Orthodox Jews. His grandchildren are Jewish.
And if that is still not enough to convince you, how about this: Does anyone believe that Donald Trump thinks there are “good” Antifa, the leftist thugs who were counter-protesting the neo-Nazi thugs? After all, if those two groups were the only ones involved, and there were “fine people on both sides,” that means the president believed that there were fine Antifa people.
Even MSNBC should have found that hard to swallow.
Again, the “very fine people on both sides” President Trump described at the press conference were the people who wanted to remove the Robert E. Lee statue and the people who wanted to keep it. Both of these groups were non-violent protesters—fine people with very different ideological views.
The scandal of Charlottesville is not what President Trump said about neo-Nazis. It’s what the media said President Trump said about neo-Nazis. It’s a scandal because news reporting is supposed to be about gathering facts, not promoting an agenda.
In Charlottesville, they got it exactly backwards. We have been living with the consequences ever since.
Plainly put: ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR, the New York Times, the Washington Post and the others spread a malicious lie that has poisoned our national dialogue.
They should apologize to the American people for what they have done.
Don’t hold your breath.
Actually, I have a better idea. Let out a big sigh of relief.
Because now you know the truth.
I’m Steve Cortes, CNN political commentator and columnist for Real Clear Politics, for Prager University.
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