Donald Trump downplayed the severity of the deadly 2017 Charlottesville rally, claiming it was a “little peanut” compared to pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses across the country.
“We’re having protests all over,” Trump told reporters Thursday while leaving court after his criminal hush money trial. “[Biden] is talking about Charlottesville. Charlottesville was a little peanut, and it was nothing compared, and the hate wasn’t the kind of hate you have here. This is tremendous hate.”
Trump doubled down in post on his social media site Truth Social, writing: “Crooked Joe Biden would say, constantly, that he ran because of Charlottesville. Well, if that’s the case, he’s done a really terrible job because Charlottesville is like a “peanut” compared to the riots and anti-Israel protests that are happening all over our Country, RIGHT NOW… And it’s Crooked’s fault because he sends the wrong message every single time. The fact is that Crooked Joe Biden HATES Israel and Hates the Jewish people. The problem is that he HATES the Palestinians even more, and he just doesn’t know what to do!?!?”
In 2017, hundreds of neo-Nazis marched through the streets of Charlottesville with tiki torches chanting “Jews will not replace us.”
Heather Heyer, was killed after a driver plowed into the crowd of counter-protesters.
Trump faced blowback at the time for claiming that there were “very fine people” on “both sides”.
Biden has previously said the events in Charlottesville was part of the reason why he decided to run for president in 2020.
“Donald Trump can spew hatred and nonsense on his failed social media platform all day long but the American people are not going to be lectured to by the guy who called white supremacists very fine people after they chanted ‘Jews will not replace us’ and killed a woman,” Biden campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa said in a statement. “He was never in touch with the vast majority of the American people, but his years down in Mar-a-Lago have him even more unhinged heading into 2024.”
The White House also slammed Trump for calling the Charlottesville protest “peanuts”.
“Minimizing the Antisemitic and white supremacist poison displayed in Charlottesville is repugnant and divisive,” deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement.
“And unlike some figures on the right, President Biden has never invited Neo Nazis and Holocaust deniers over for lunch,” Bates added, referring to Trump’s dining with Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes.
