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Trump tweets — then deletes — video of supporter yelling ‘white power’
WASHINGTON, June 28, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – US President Donald Trump on
Sunday shared a video of a stand-off between anti-Trump protesters and
his supporters in which a man chants “white power” — before deleting
it amid an outcry.
“Thank you to the great people of The Villages,” Trump tweeted above
the video clip. “The Radical Left Do Nothing Democrats will Fall in
the Fall.”
The footage, apparently shot in a Florida retirement community,
shows a man driving a golf-cart bearing “Trump 2020” and “America
First” signs, being heckled by a roadside protester chanting “racist.”
As they yell at each other, the driver repeatedly mouths the words
“white power” with a raised fist.
“White power! There you go, white power. Did you hear that?” the
protester yells back at him.
Trump tweeted the video shortly after 7:30 am. At 11 am it had been
removed from his account — and the White House shortly after issued a
statement saying the president had not heard the “white power” chant
before sharing the footage.
“President Trump is a big fan of The Villages. He did not hear the
one statement made on the video,” said White House spokesman Judd
Deere.
“What he did see was tremendous enthusiasm from his many supporters.”
Trump has long been accused of fanning racial tensions, including
during the nationwide reckoning over racial inequality triggered by
the death-in-custody of African American George Floyd a month ago.
Infamously, after deadly violence pitted neo-Nazis against
counter-protesters in the Virginia city of Charlottesville in 2017, he
declared there to be “very fine people on both sides.”
The “Villages” video triggered an immediate backlash on social
media, and Trump allies were pressed to defend it on the Sunday
morning talk shows.
The Republican Party’s only black senator, Tim Scott, interviewed on
CNN’s “State of the Union,” called the entire video “offensive.”
“We can play politics with it or we can’t. I’m not going to. I think
it’s indefensible. We should take it down. That’s what I think.”
Also questioned on CNN, Trump’s Health Secretary Alex Azar claimed
he had not seen the footage or Trump’s tweet.
“But obviously neither the president, his administration nor I would
do anything to be supportive of white supremacy or anything that would
support discrimination of any kind,” Azar said.
BSS/AFP/MRU/2241hrs