Interior Secretary Doug Burgum condemned the ideology of the white nationalist group Patriot Front but stopped short of saying President Donald Trump should publicly denounce the organization, instead emphasizing that the First Amendment protects even offensive speech.

“I think certainly what they stand for is nothing I could possibly agree with,” Burgum said on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday. “But one of the foundational principles of the United States, which makes democracy messy, is free speech.”