CLAIM: Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, claimed that President Trump has “refused to condemn white supremacists.”
Verdict: False. Trump has condemned white supremacists repeatedly.
Klobuchar used her opening statement on Monday to attack the president, repeating a series of falsehoods.
“We have a president who divides our country each and every day. He has called our military suckers and losers. He’s refused to condemn white supremacists, and he has the gall to hold up a Bible as a prop in front of a church instead of heeding its words, to act justly,” she said.
Klobuchar’s first claim, that Trump has refused to condemn white supremacists, is patently false, as Breitbart News has consistently detailed.
Two days after the incident in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, Trump said, “Racism is evil and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups”:
A month later, the president signed a congressional resolution condemning white supremacy.
In 2019, following shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, Trump said, “In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy. ”
“These sinister ideologies must be defeated. Hate has no place in America. Hatred warps the mind, ravages the heart, and devours the soul,” he added.
During the first presidential debate, moderator Chris Wallace asked Trump, “But are you willing tonight to condemn white supremacists and militia group 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 responded, “Sure, I’m prepared to do it.”
Klobuchar also said Trump called fallen soldiers “suckers and losers” — an uncorroborated claim popularized by the Atlantic. As Breitbart News reported, “more a dozen current and former Trump administration officials have publicly and demonstratively denied the claims in the Atlantic article — including former National Security Adviser John Bolton, who has become a Trump critic.”
Klobuchar also claimed that Trump used a Bible as a prop, though she did not mention the fact that Trump chose to walk to St. John’s Episcopal Church as a response to protesters setting it ablaze.
“We are dealing with a president who doesn’t think truth matters,” the Minnesota senator said.
“And he has allies in Congress how in the past defended our democracy but are now doing his bidding,” she continued, blasting the GOP for failing to follow what she claimed was their precedent that the “president in the election year should wait” to charge forward with a Supreme Court nominee.
Injustice, she continued, can move at “lightning speed, as we are seeing here today.” She also told Americans watching the hearing from home that they cannot “separate this hearing from the moment we’re in and from the judge he’s trying to rush through.”
“This is a rush to put in a justice,” she said, noting the “profound impact” it could have on their lives — in school choice, marriage, abortion, and health care.
“We have a president who has refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power after an election. Every candidate does that. But not this guy, she said, blasting Trump for firing or replacing inspector generals, an attorney general, FBI director, and now “going after their replacements.”
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