A new poll from Rasmussen Reports found that a majority of people don’t believe the media narrative that President Donald Trump referred to neo-Nazi’s in Charlottesville in 2017 as “very fine people,” which sadly a bit surprising, because the media overwhelmingly pushed that bogus narrative based on out-of-context footage.
Not a day goes by that someone doesn’t repeat the smear.
Joe Biden has repeated it a number of times recently, and despite the countless “fact checkers” the media will sick on every Republican out there, he doesn’t have to worry about being called out because they’re all on his side.
Three years ago today, white supremacists descended on Charlottesville with torches in hand and hate in their hearts. Our president said they were "very fine people."
It was clear then, and it's clear now: We are in a battle for the soul of our nation, and we must win.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) August 12, 2020
https://www.facebook.com/joebiden/posts/10157318289766104
According to Rasmussen:
Most voters don’t remember President Trump’s remarks about the 2017 racial melee in Charlottesville, Va. the way Joe Biden does. But the false narrative embraced by the president’s opponents has become fact for a sizable number.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 52% of Likely U.S. Voters correctly believe that the president was critical of radical protesters on both sides of the incident but added that there were also “very fine people” on both sides who were present that day. Thirty-nine percent (39%) say instead that Trump just praised white supremacists in the incident as “very fine people.”
Still, 39% of Americans believing a complete and total lie isn’t a sign of a healthy media landscape. Literally all one has to do is listen to Trump’s comments in context to know the truth about him, which is something most haven’t done especially the 59% of Democrats that believe the lie).
While I’m no fan of Politifact, I’ll quote from their article on this claim because they have a fact checking partnership with Facebook. What Politifact says goes in the minds of Facebook’s censors – so it’ll be interesting to see if Biden receives any kind of warning for the claim. I’m not counting on it.
According to the transcript from the otherwise awful Politifact, which published their fact check in response to Biden repeating the same claim in April 2019, the full exchange is as follows:
Reporter: “The neo-Nazis started this. They showed up in Charlottesville to protest –”
Trump: “Excuse me, excuse me. They didn’t put themselves — and you had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides. You had people in that group. Excuse me, excuse me. I saw the same pictures as you did. You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down of, to them, a very, very important statue and the renaming of a park from Robert E. Lee to another name.”
Reporter: “George Washington and Robert E. Lee are not the same.”
Trump: “George Washington was a slave owner. Was George Washington a slave owner? So will George Washington now lose his status? Are we going to take down — excuse me, are we going to take down statues to George Washington? How about Thomas Jefferson? What do you think of Thomas Jefferson? You like him?”
Reporter: “I do love Thomas Jefferson.”
Trump: “Okay, good. Are we going to take down the statue? Because he was a major slave owner. Now, are we going to take down his statue?
“So you know what, it’s fine. You’re changing history. You’re changing culture. And you had people — and I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists — because they should be condemned totally. But you had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists. Okay? And the press has treated them absolutely unfairly.
“Now, in the other group also, you had some fine people. But you also had troublemakers, and you see them come with the black outfits and with the helmets, and with the baseball bats. You had a lot of bad people in the other group.”
