The Proud Boys Flap Is Fake News
The media want to hang them around President Trump’s “racist” neck.
Most Americans have heard of Black Lives Matter and antifa. But most Americans have not heard about a small group begun in Portland, Oregon, called the Proud Boys. So, naturally, debate moderator Chris Wallace teamed up with Joe Biden on Tuesday night to demand that President Donald Trump specifically denounce the Proud Boys and white supremacists generally. The Leftmedia heard the dog whistle and saturated the proverbial airwaves with coverage of this obscure group, elevating it solely to attack Trump as a “racist.”
And it’s fake news.
“You have repeatedly criticized the vice president for not specifically calling out antifa and other left-wing extremist groups,” Wallace asserted to set up his gotcha question. “But are you willing tonight to condemn white supremacists and militia groups, and to say that they need to stand down and not add to the violence in a number of these cities, as we saw in Kenosha and as we’ve seen in Portland?”
First of all, a fact-check: White supremacists of any sort did not cause violence in Kenosha. And any violence in Portland or elsewhere that involved the Proud Boys was because they showed up to oppose the radical leftists running roughshod. Heck, the Proud Boys even sought a permit to demonstrate in Portland. Can BLM or antifa say the same?
In any case, back to the debate. Forget for a moment that Wallace did not challenge Biden to denounce any of the radical leftist thugs burning down American cities, or that Biden falsely claimed antifa is nothing more than “an idea.” Trump replied to the question, “Sure, I’m willing to do that.”
Wallace shot back, “Well, then do it, sir.”
After correctly asserting that “almost everything I see is from the left wing, not from the right wing,” Trump asked Wallace to “give me a name.”
Biden helpfully named the Proud Boys. “Okay, Proud Boys, stand back and stand by,” Trump said, then reiterating, “But I’ll tell you what — somebody’s got to do something about antifa and the Left, because this is not a right-wing problem; this is a left-wing problem.”
Unfortunately, Trump said “stand by” when he meant to directly answer Wallace’s “stand down” demand. In fact, on Wednesday, he clarified just that. The Proud Boys should “stand down and let law enforcement do their work,” Trump said, adding, “I don’t know who the Proud Boys are.”
We’re not here to defend the Proud Boys. The best we can tell, they’re a rabble-rousing group that would be better off staying home. To the extent they have a leader, it’s Enrique Tarrio, who says, “We’re a drinking club with a patriot problem.” He insists “we are not” white supremacists.
Who is Tarrio? Wilfred Reilly, a black associate professor of political science at the historically black Kentucky State University, calls Tarrio “a Black Cuban dude.” He says that “saying [the Proud Boys are] white supremacist” is ludicrous. “If you’re talking about a group of people more than 10% people of color and headed by an Afro-Latino guy, that doesn’t make sense.”
Nevertheless, the Leftmedia went into hysterics (or was it free advertising?) with its prepackaged narrative. Trump, they say, is the same man who told us there were “very fine people on both sides” of the violence in Charlottesville.
Except that too was and still is fake news, no matter how many times Biden and Wallace repeat it.
President Trump did NOT call racists “very fine people.” Even CNN’s leftist Jake Tapper said, “Trump did condemn neo-Nazis and white supremacists. So he’s not saying that the neo-Nazis and white supremacists are very fine people.”
Wallace should have asked Biden to denounce rabid anti-Semite Linda Sarsour and radical leftist hater Ilhan Abdullahi Omar.
Trump, by contrast, has repeatedly condemned David Duke, neo-Nazis, and white nationalists, and he has done what Barack Obama and Joe Biden could have done — designated the KKK a terrorist organization.
To reiterate, the violence plaguing American cities is, as Trump accurately noted, perpetrated by Joe Biden’s constituents on the Left. And Biden himself told us in the debate, “I am the Democratic Party.”
On a final note, Dave Rubin points to Chris Wallace asking Trump the exact same question four years ago.
Wow, this is Chris Wallace asking Trump the same question in 2016.
— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) October 1, 2020
Any “journalists” wanna share this?
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