Sports journalist Jason Whitlock defended President Trump against critics upset with his answer to a question in the first presidential debate about white supremacy in America.
“Because he’s done it before and it doesn’t matter,” Whitlock responded to a tweet asking why Trump “did not condemn white supremacy” during Tuesday night’s debate.
“It’s a clickbait question asked for the benefit of Twitter. It’s stupid and pointless. It’s like kneeling for the national anthem. Pointless virtue signaling,” he continued.
Because he’s done it before and it doesn’t matter. It’s a clickbait question asked for the benefit of Twitter. It’s stupid and pointless. It’s like kneeling for the national anthem. Pointless virtue signaling. https://t.co/a26yB6lOQW
— Jason Whitlock (@WhitlockJason) September 30, 2020
Trump was widely criticized by several news outlets for his response when asked by debate moderator Chris Wallace if he would tell “white supremacists” to “stand down.”
“Sure, I’m willing to [tell them to stand down], but I would say almost everything I see is from the left wing, not from the right wing. I’m willing to do anything. I want to see peace,” Trump said.
Wallace then asked, “Who would you like me to condemn?”
“Proud Boys,” Biden interrupted, referring to a multiracial fraternal men’s club started by Vice magazine co-founder Gavin McInnes in 2016. It was designated a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center and describes itself as a group of “Western chauvinists who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world” and gained media attention for defending conservative speakers from antifa attacks in places like Berkeley, California.
“Proud Boys — stand back and stand by,” Trump obliged. “But I’ll tell you what. I’ll tell you what. Somebody’s got to do something about antifa and the Left because this is not a right-wing problem.”
Trump deflected an opportunity to condemn white supremacists during the presidential debate, briefly telling the right-wing Proud Boys group to ‘stand back and stand by’ before pivoting to attacking left-wing activists https://t.co/STRRTAVMi7 #Debates2020 pic.twitter.com/6uk0HRxF0a
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 30, 2020
Trump’s answer to that question prompted critical headlines from major news networks, including CNN, which published an article headlined: “Trump refuses to condemn White supremacists at presidential debate.”
Race relations in the United States were brought up at another point in the debate when Wallace asked Biden about the widely debunked talking point that Trump referred to neo-Nazis as “very fine people” in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. The president explicitly said white supremacists should be “condemned totally” at the time.
“He said they were very fine people.”@JoeBiden and Chris Wallace repeat the lie that @realDonaldTrump called white supremacists “very fine people.”
Trump specifically excluded white supremacists and racists, saying they should be “condemned totally” after Charlottesville. pic.twitter.com/lsF4bxJar1
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) September 30, 2020
Whitlock did also offer criticism of Trump’s debate performance, writing at Outkick that he didn’t “like President Trump’s tone” and felt the debate was a “pointless s—show.”
Whitlock has been a vocal critic of violence associated with Black Lives Matter-inspired riots, calling the group a “Marxist political organization” that is not about “black death” or “black men.”
