CHARLESTON, South Carolina — Former Vice President Joe Biden invoked the debunked “very fine people” hoax to attack President Donald Trump at a rally Monday night in a half-empty college gym.
The rally was intended to show support ahead of Tuesday night’s Democrat debate, and Saturday’s Democratic caucuses. Biden has seen the Palmetto State as his “firewall,” based on his support among black voters, but Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has been catching up. Only about 200 people showed up on Monday night, standing in a circle in half a gymnasium at the College of Charleston.
Biden claimed, as he has since the start of his campaign, that Trump called neo-Nazis and white supremacists who rioted in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017 “very fine people.” In fact, the transcript of Trump’s remarks shows clearly that he said they should be “condemned totally.” He used the phrase “very fine people” to refer specifically to non-violent protesters, left and right, on either side of the question of whether a historic Confederate statue should be removed from a local park.
Joe Biden Gets Hit with a Reality Check After Issuing a Statement on ICE Shooting
Trump hits the road to sell economic wins as Republicans brace for high-stakes midterm showdown
Trump admin marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day honoring millions murdered by Nazi regime
Video: To Assure Attacks on ICE Continue, CNN Airs Guest Suggesting ICE Will Begin ‘Putting People in Ovens’
Florida GOP Rep Vern Buchanan to retire, adding to wave of House exits
Minnesota fraud whistleblower says ‘lack of guardrails was pretty shocking’
Iran Suddenly Wants to Strike a Deal After ‘Big Armada’ Arrives: Trump
Anti-ICE Agitators Arrested After Targeting Gregory Bovino’s Hotel
Trump whistleblower Alex Vindman launches campaign to flip Florida senate seat
Late Breaking: Court Clears ICE to Bring the Pain to Minneapolis Agitators Who Step Out of Line
Outrageous: MSNBC Caught ‘Aggressively’ Photoshopping Pretti Picture to Turn Americans Against ICE
Republicans appeal judge’s decision rejecting New York City GOP district lines
Texas teen dies after Jeep-pulled sled strikes curb and tree during severe winter storm
Chinese spies ‘sham marriage’ scandal exposes ‘targeted’ national security threat at major US base: expert
Conservative immigration experts split on whether Trump is ‘backing down’ in MN ICE fight
The former vice president also claimed, falsely, that the president used the phrase “very fine people” to refer to the extremists who murdered Heather Heyer, a protester against the statue and the neo-Nazis. In fact, the transcript shows, Trump specifically referred to her murder as an act of “terrorism.”
Biden told the half-empty room:
This guy is more George Wallace than he is George Washington … When in fact all those folks came out of the fields in Charlottesville, Virginia — close your eyes, and remember, friends, what you saw on that television — you saw people coming out of fields with lighted torches at night, spewing hate, antisemitic bile, accompanied by white supremacists and Ki Klux Klan, and in fact when a young woman was killed, resisting the hate, they asked the president what he thought, what did he think? He said there were, quote, “very fine people on both sides.” No president has ever done anything like that.
Breitbart News challenged Biden at the Iowa State Fair last summer over his repeated habit of misquoting Trump. Biden has persisted in using the “very fine people” hoax, regardless.
Story cited here.
