The White House condemned former President Donald Trump for downplaying the deadly 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, as a “little peanut” compared to the pro-Palestinian protests ongoing on college campuses across the country.
When leaving court after Thursday’s testimony in his criminal hush money trial, Trump condemned Biden for having “no idea” how to handle the campus protests, and he compared the pro-Palestinian demonstrators grappling with police to the events in Charlottesville. Thirty-two-year-old Heather Heyer was murdered during the “Unite the Right” rally when a Neo-Nazi drove his car into a crowd.
“We’re having protests all over, he’s 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,” Trump said. “This is tremendous hate.”
The former president’s remarks elicited a strong response from the White House.
“Minimizing the Antisemitic and white supremacist poison displayed in Charlottesville is repugnant and divisive,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement to Mediaite on Thursday.
Bates said the Charlottesville gathering of white supremacists, “compelled President Biden to run in 2020, because he has fought Antisemitism and hate his entire life.”
“Joe Biden is the only President to have created and deployed a National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism,” he added. “In recent days you’ve heard President Biden forcefully and repeatedly condemn horrifying Antisemitic comments captured on video. Tellingly, yesterday Hamas itself blasted President Biden for showing leadership and speaking out against those Antisemitic remarks.”
Bates then took a dig at Trump’s history of meeting with anti-Semites at Mar-a-Lago.
“And unlike some figures on the right, President Biden has never invited Neo Nazis and Holocaust deniers over for lunch,” Bates said.
Trump posted a similar statement about Charlottesville on his Truth Social account Wednesday night:
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!?!?
