NBC anchor Andrea Mitchell falsely claimed on Friday that President Donald Trump had not condemned neo-Nazis after the Charlottesville riots in August 2017 in covering a confrontation Thursday between this reporter and former Vice President Joe Biden at the Iowa State Fair.
Biden has repeatedly claimed that Trump called neo-Nazis and white supremacists “very fine people.” In fact, Trump said: “I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists, because they should be condemned totally.” He used “very fine people” to refer to non-violent protesters on either side of the issue of the removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee. The media and Democratic candidates often ignore the full quote.
Ironically, Mitchell had just accused the Trump campaign of taking Biden’s latest gaffe — “Poor kids are just as bright and talented as white kids” — out of context, saying the campaign “notably did not include the full remarks.”
She played footage of the confrontation and said:
Andrea Mitchell: It comes after this confrontation between biden and a reporter from conservative outlet Breitbart. Biden fighting back after the reporter claimed, incorrectly, Biden had misquoted the president after Charlottesville.
Breitbart News: But he said specifically he was condemning them.
Biden: No, he did not. he said he walked out and he said, let’s get this straight — he said there are fine people in both groups. They’re chanting anti-semitic slogans, carrying flags.
Biden remains the favorite in Iowa, the first state to vote (via caucus) in the 2020 presidential primary next year.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He earned an A.B. in Social Studies and Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. 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.