By C. Douglas Golden September 10, 2024 at 8:00pm
Just when you thought it couldn’t make another reappearance, Vice President Kamala Harris brought it back in Tuesday night’s debate: “very fine people.”
You’ve heard the story a million times. You’ve also probably heard it debunked if you cared to hear about it. But, speaking about the so-called “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, Harris accused former President Donald Trump of supporting a group of white supremacists who ended up murdering a counter-protester.
Dealing with how Trump addressed the tragedy, Harris claimed this: “What did the president then, at the time, say? ‘There were fine people on each side.’”
Kamala Harris repeats the WIDELY DEBUNKED “very fine people” Charlottesville hoax 👇 pic.twitter.com/oMOAysJwBe
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 11, 2024
In a debate where the moderators aggressively fact-checked Trump on virtually every breath he took, it’s surprising they didn’t dismantle Harris. Perhaps, it’s because everyone else already has, and this reeked of desperation on Harris’ part.
Just so we’re clear, this isn’t just conservative media outlets who have debunked this. Even Snopes, not known as a Trump-leaning outlet, has called this claim outright false.
“On Aug. 11 and 12, 2017, the so-called Unite the Right rally protesting the planned removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a park turned violent when neo-Nazis, white supremacists and others linked to far-right groups clashed with leftist counterprotesters,” the fact-checking site noted.
“One self-identified white supremacist rammed his car into a crowd of people, killing one and injuring at least 19.”
However, during his media briefing about the tragedy, Trump said that there were “very fine people on both sides” when referring specifically to those who thought they were showing up to a rally specifically to protest tearing down the statue.
“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. George Washington was a slave owner,” Trump said.
But as for the extremists at the rally: “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, OK?”
August 15, 2017: Trump called neo-Nazis very fine people after Charlottesville.
Right? Wrong.
The media deceptively cut the context of his remarks where specifically said he was NOT referring to neo-Nazis.
Instead, he was referring to the people who oppose tearing down… pic.twitter.com/83PVDdTBWd
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) March 17, 2024
We’re now over seven years out from Charlottesville, and Kamala Harris dragged out “very fine people” yet again. And, on the same stage, she repeatedly called virtually everything that her opponent said a lie, usually absent counter-evidence.
Funny how that works.
C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he’s written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.
C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he’s written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014. Aside from politics, he enjoys spending time with his wife, literature (especially British comic novels and modern Japanese lit), indie rock, coffee, Formula One and football (of both American and world varieties).
Birthplace
Morristown, New Jersey
Education
Catholic University of America
Languages Spoken
English, Spanish
Topics of Expertise
American Politics, World Politics, Culture
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