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Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday night downplayed the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which led to a woman’s death, as a “peanut” compared to the demonstrations happening across the US against Israel’s actions in Gaza.
In August 2017, White nationalists, neo-Nazis and other right-wing groups descended on Charlottesville to protest the city’s decision to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, with some gathered chanting, “Jews will not replace us.” One of the attendees rammed his car into a crowd, killing a 32-yeard-old paralegal and injuring several others.
There have been no reports of any comparable violence occurring during the pro-Palestinian demonstrations taking place across the country, which have centered largely on college campuses. Public officials have condemned incidents of antisemitism that have occurred amid the protests and raised concerns over the safety of Jewish students.
Trump’s comments are his latest attempt to minimize the Charlottesville incident. He was widely condemned in 2017 for declaring there were “very fine people” on both sides of the demonstrations. Joe Biden invoked those comments when he announced his 2020 president campaign against Trump.
“Crooked Joe Biden would say, constantly, that he ran because of Charlottesville. Well, if that’s the case, he’s done a really terrible job because Charlottesville is like a ‘peanut’ compared to the riots and anti-Israel protests that are happening all over our Country, RIGHT NOW,” Trump posted on Truth Social Wednesday night. Trump also accused Biden in the post of hating Israel and the Jewish people, but hating the Palestinian people even more.
When asked about Trump’s post, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told CNN, “President Trump is 100% correct.”
Biden campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa said in a statement that “the American people are not going to be lectured to by the guy who called white supremacists very fine people after they chanted ‘Jews will not replace us’ and killed a woman.”
Biden on Monday decried antisemitic incidents that have occurred amid protests around college campuses and said his administration was working to combat anti-Jewish hatred.
“I condemn the antisemitic protests, that’s why I’ve set up a program to deal with that,” Biden said when questioned about the events at Columbia University in New York. “I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.”
Pro-Palestinian protests have taken place at major universities across the US with nearly 100 people arrested at the University of Southern California and dozens arrested at the University of Texas in Austin on Wednesday.
Protesters at Columbia University, the epicenter of demonstrations that began last week, said they won’t disperse until the school agrees to cut ties with Israeli universities and commits to divesting funds from Israel-linked entities, among other demands.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson visited the campus on Wednesday to call for Columbia University President Minouche Shafik to resign if she cannot bring order to the campus. His calls were amid the growing unrest on these college campuses, leading to numerous congressional hearings and, at least in part, to the resignation of two Ivy League presidents – Claudine Gay at Harvard University and Liz Magill at the University of Pennsylvania.
CNN’s Donald Judd and Shania Shelton contributed to this report.
