Sen. Mitt Romney said he thinks President Trump should have used his platform on the debate stage to condemn white supremacy explicitly.
“Of course,” the Utah Republican responded when asked about it by reporters on Wednesday, according to The Hill.
During the Tuesday night debate, Trump was directly asked by moderator Chris Wallace if he would condemn far-right militia groups and white supremacists who have been involved in violence during recent nationwide protests.
“Sure, I’m willing to do that,” Trump responded.
“Go ahead, then,” Wallace said.
“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.
“Say it. Do it, say it,” Biden interjected.
“Do you want to call them — what do you want to call them? Give me a name,” Trump asked the moderator. “Proud Boys? Stand back and stand by. But I’ll tell you what, somebody has got to do something about antifa and the Left because this is not a right-wing problem. This is a left-wing problem.”
“Proud Boys” is a right-wing group that is self-described as a “pro-Western fraternal organization for men who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world; aka Western Chauvinists,” according to the Boston Globe.
Romney said he wasn’t sure what effect Trump’s remarks would have on the election. However, he pointed out that the debate, which was punctuated by frequent interruptions as Wallace struggled to maintain control, was dissimilar to a Lincoln-Douglas debate format.
“I can’t tell you what impact that will have. I can say I watched the debate last night. It was not a Lincoln-Douglas debate — that’s for sure,” Romney said.
“I’m not going to give a lot of advice on debate. But when I heard at the very beginning, when Chris Wallace said here are going to be the rules, ‘two minutes for each side’ and then open discussion, I thought, ‘Oh my goodness. I don’t recall that ever being the format,'” the 2012 Republican presidential candidate said.
