President Donald Trump and “TODAY” co-anchor Savannah Guthrie are trading jabs over his position on white supremacy.
During his NBC News town hall on Thursday night, Guthrie pressed the president on whether he denounces white supremacy.
She noted during the first presidential debate, Trump failed to directly denounce white supremacy.
Trump interrupted Guthrie, “You always do this. You always do this. You’ve done this to me and everybody. I denounce white supremacy, okay?”
He added, “I’ve denounced white supremacy for years, but you always do it. You always start off with the question. You didn’t ask Joe Biden whether or not he denounces Antifa. I watched him on the same basic show with Lester Holt and he was asking questions like Biden was a child.”
Watch the exchange below:
“I denounce white supremacy. OK?” @realDonaldTrump tells @SavannahGuthrie #TrumpTownHall pic.twitter.com/YZ0OUfZyXg
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) October 16, 2020
Guthrie debated with Trump, “This is a little bit of a dodge.”
Trump fired back and answered the question, “I denounce white supremacy.”
Guthrie pushed back on Trump and suggested he is “hesitant” to denounce white supremacy.
“My people came, ‘I’m sure they’ll ask you the white supremacy question. I denounce white supremacy and frankly, you want to know something, I denounce Antifa and I denounce these people on the left that are burning down our cities,” Trump replied.
The president directly denounced white supremacy just days after the first presidential debate, as IJR previously reported.
“I’ve said it many times, and let me be clear again: I condemn the [Ku Klux Klan]. I condemn all white supremacists. I condemn the Proud Boys. I don’t know much about the Proud Boys, almost nothing. But I condemn that,” Trump said during an interview on Fox News’ “Hannity.”
During the same interview, he called on Biden to condemn Antifa.
Biden called violence never “appropriate” during the first presidential debate.
He said Antifa is “an idea, not an organization.”