DDuring the first presidential debate of the 2024 general election, President Joe Biden repeated his long-standing claim that he felt inspired to run for president four years ago after witnessing the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017.
“What got me involved in the first place after my son died,” Biden said in response to CNN moderator Jake Tapper asking whether a vote for former President Donald Trump is a vote against democracy, “…I said no I would run away again until I saw what happened in Charlottesville, Virginia – people coming out of the woods carrying swastikas on torches and chanting the same anti-Semitic bile they chanted in Germany.”
“He said, ‘I think they’re good people on both sides,’” Biden said of Trump’s response to the rally, which became known as Unite the Right and saw violent clashes between protesters and counterprotesters and led to the deaths of 32-to-100 people. Year-old paralegal Heather Heyer after a man drove his car into a group of counterprotesters.
“This is the guy who says Hitler did some good things,” Biden added, referring to a claim by Trump’s former chief of staff. “I would like to know what they are, the good things that Hitler did. That’s what he said. This guy has no idea about American democracy.”
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“This story has been completely erased,” Trump countered. “He says he ran because of Charlottesville,” the 78-year-old Republican candidate said of his 81-year-old Democratic counterpart, who defeated him in 2020. “He didn’t run because of Charlottesville. He ran away because it was his last chance. He is not equipped to be president.”
“He made up the Charlottesville story and you’ll see it debunked everywhere,” Trump said. “It came out the other day where it was completely debunked,” he added – likely referring to a recent article from a fact-checking website Snopes which was titled “No, Trump Didn’t Call Neo-Nazis and White Supremacists ‘Very Fine People’” and was widely circulated on social media among the right.
Snopes clarified that its “false” ruling was strictly in reference to Trump explicitly labeling neo-Nazis and white supremacists as “very fine people,” when in fact, he said in the same statement that he was not speaking about those specific issues. groups, which should be “totally condemned”. But Trump said there were “very fine people on both sides.”
“Unmasked? It happened,” Biden responded. “Just listen to what was said at the time. And the idea that somehow that was the only reason I ran away? I ran because I was worried that a guy like this would get elected.”
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
