MSNBC host David Gura claimed during live coverage of competing extremist demonstrations in Washington, D.C. on Sunday evening that “we saw the president all but praising David Duke during the campaign, not rejecting what he said.”
Only about two dozen white nationalists showed up for the “Unite the Right 2” protest to commemorate the first anniversary of the Charlottesville riot. They were met by a much larger crowd of left-wing counter-protesters, which also included violent “Antifa” rioters.
Gura made his remark while discussing the day’s events with journalist Vegas Tenold, who emphasized the need for accuracy in describing white supremacy.
President Donald Trump has rejected David Duke specifically, and white supremacy, many times, and did so repeatedly during the presidential campaign.
The sole exception — and it is a debatable one — was during an interview in February 2016 with CNN’s Jake Tapper, where he dodged a question about whether he would disavow Duke’s endorsement.
Trump had already done so two days before, and six months before that. (He claimed he could not hear Tapper’s question properly.) He did so again a few days later, and throughout the campaign.
At no point did Trump ever praise Duke, or come close to it.
Trump supporters have compiled extensive examples of Trump denouncing Duke — both before the Tapper interview and afterwards — and these are widely available on social media.
Confronted on Twitter, Gura attempted to defend his claim by citing the Tapper interview:
Democrats have made charges of racism central to their campaign against Trump and the Republicans in the 2018 midterm elections.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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