Snopes Fake-Debunks donald tRump's "Very Fine People" Comment In Reference To NeoNazis & White Supremacists

The "fact checking" website Snopes recently "debunked" the "very fine people" remark made by (then) president donald tRump at Trump Tower in New York on Tuesday August 15, 2017.

Snopes (in a 6/21/2024 "fact check" by Taija PerryCook) says "No, Trump Did Not Call Neo-Nazis and White Supremacists Very Fine People".

Snopes is wrong. Or, rather the "debunk" by Taija PerryCook is inacurate.

Did donald tRump refer to White Supremacists as "very fine people"?

Real fact check rating = True.

See below (following the transcript of predisent tRump's comments) for the explaination.

Video: 6 years ago. President Donald Trump answers questions at a press briefing on infrastructure at Trump Tower in New York on Tuesday August 15, 2017. These are the remarks where predisent tRump refers to NeoNazis and White Supremacists as "very fine" people.

Transcript Reporter: Are you putting what you're calling the alt-Left and White-Supremacists on the same moral plane? predisent dotard: I'm not putting anybody on a moral plane. What I'm saying is this -- you had a group on one side and you had a group on the other -- and they came at each other with clubs and it was vicious and it was horrible and it was a horrible thing to watch. But there is another side. There was a group on this side -- you can call them the left. You've just called them the left -- that came violently attacking the other group. So you can say what you want -- but that's the way it is. Reporter: You said there was hatred -- there was violence on both sides? predisent dotard: Yes, I think there's blame on both sides. You look at -- you look at both sides. I think there's blame on both sides. And I have no doubt about it -- and you don't have any doubt about it either. And, and, and, if you reported it accurately you would say. Reporter: But NeoNazis started this. They showed up at Charlottesville to protest -- they showed up at Charlottesville to protest the removal of that statue. predisent dotard: Excuse me. You had some very bad people in that group. 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 as 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. Reporter: George Washington and Robert E Lee are not the same. predisent dotard: George Washington was a slave owner. Was George Washington a slave owner? So will George Washington now lose his status? Are we gonna take down -- excuse me -- are we going to take down -- are we going to take down statues to George Wash...? How about Thomas Jefferson? What do you think of Thomas Jefferson -- you like him? okay, good. Are we going to take down the statue -- because he was a major slave owner? Now we going to take down his statue? so you know what -- it's fine. You're changing history. You're changing culture. And you had people -- and I'm not talking about the neo-nazis and the white nationalists -- because they should be condemned, totally. But you had many people in that group other than neo-nazis and white nationalists, okay? And the press has treated them absolutely unfairly. Now in the other group also, you had some fine people. But you also had troublemakers and you see them come with a with the black outfits and with the helmets and with the baseball bats you got a you had a lot of bad you had a lot of bad people in the other group too. Reporter: You were saying the press has treated white nationalists unfairly? I don't understand what you're saying. predisent dotard: No. There were people in that rally -- and I looked the night before. If you look they were people protesting very quietly the taking down of the statue of Robert E Lee. I'm sure in that group there were some bad ones the following day it looked like they had some rough bad people neo-nazis, white nationalists -- whatever you want to call them. But you had a lot of people in that group that were there too. Innocently protesting and very legally protesting. Because you know -- I don't know if you know -- they had a permit the other group didn't have a permit. So I only tell you this there are two sides to a story I thought what took place was a horrible moment for our country a horrible moment but there are two sides to the country.

Dervish Sanders: At the "united the right" rally in Charlottesville in 2017, did the people there to protest the removal of the statue and renaming of the park have a permit while the counter-protestors did not have a permit?

Copilot: During the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville in 2017, counter-demonstrators did have permits to protest. These permits allowed them to be in nearby Justice and McGuffey parks from 9 AM until 7 PM Both parks are within a short walking distance to Emancipation Park, where the white supremacist rally was held. On the other hand, the "Unite the Right" rally itself did not have a city permit; they had a judge's order allowing them to use Emancipation Park. [1]

Further Commentary: The counter-protestors DID have a permit, as per Snopes. Also, "the judge issued an injunction ... ordering the City to allow the event to take place in Emancipation Park. ...a formal permit for the event was not issued. The City did comply with the court's direction".

The White Nationalists and NeoNazis did not have a permit and the City did not want them there. Despite the court order, the city did not comply. So, this is quite different than what predisent tRump claimed.

Additionally "The night before that Trump was referring to included the infamous tiki torch march, the one with people chanting Blood and soil! And You will not replace us! And Jews will not replace us! Those were the people Trump was specifically referring to in his defense of attendees. (Why Is Snopes.com Helping Trump Clean Up "Very Fine People"? 6/26/2024).

This fact check of Snopes fact check (by The New Republic) proves that donald tRump was SPECIFICALLY calling NeoNazis and White Nationalists "very fine people". So he said the exact opposite just previously... "neo-nazis and the white nationalists ... they should be condemned, totally"?

That is what is called Doublethink. "Doublethink is a process of indoctrination in which subjects are expected to simultaneously accept two conflicting beliefs as truth, often at odds with their own memory or sense of reality".

Saying the NeoNazis and White nationalists should be "condemned totally" and then saying the people protesting the "night before" are "very fine people" is Doublethink. Because the people from the night before were carrying tiki torches and chanting "Blood and soil", "You will not replace us" and "Jews will not replace us".

"I looked the night before" means predisent dotard was calling White Nationalists and NeoNazis "very fine people". Snopes is wrong. Their "debunk" is incorrect. As per the New Republic the conclusion of Snopes "fails to recognize the intricacies of Trump's rhetoric, which serves as a prime example of doublespeak".


Image: Taija PerryCook is a Seattle-based journalist.

Snopes Editors' Note: Some readers have raised the objection that this fact check appears to assume Trump was correct in stating that there were "very fine people on both sides" of the Charlottesville incident. That is not the case. This fact check aimed to confirm what Trump actually said, not whether what he said was true or false. For the record, virtually every source that covered the Unite the Right debacle concluded that it was conceived of, led by and attended by white supremacists, and that therefore Trump's characterization was wrong.

What tRump ACTUALLY said was Doublethink. Snopes is taking what predisent tRump said at face value, and that is where they went wrong. Yes, the rally was conceived of, led by and attended by white supremacists. Also, The Sons of Confederate Veterans (organization that wants to keep such monuments because they represent their "heritage") did not participate in the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. They could conceivably be these "very fine people", but they were not there. They did not participate.

And that is the final nail in the coffin of Snopes fake debunk. Nobody from the The Sons of Confederate Veterans attended the rally. ONLY White Supremacists and NeoNazis -- and those opposing them were there. Even taking into consideration Snopes "Editors' Note", their debunk is still BS. You can't even argue that predisent maybe tRump thought SCV members were there, because he SPECIFICALLY referred to the people chanting racist slogans "the night before".

Post authored by the Anti-Racist and Proudly Woke blogger Dervish Sanders. wym313.