President-elect Joe Biden has denounced “all acts of violence” but stopped short of denouncing antifa and the Black Lives Matter movement by name following attacks on supporters of President Trump attending the “Million MAGA March” in Washington, D.C.
“President-elect Biden continues to denounce all acts of violence,” Biden spokesman Andrew Bates told Fox News. “Likewise, he also condemns the repugnant displays of white supremacy that were made in Washington, D.C., this weekend.”
Trump campaign spokeswoman Erin Perrine called on Biden to denounce the violence specifically against Trump supporters during an appearance on Fox Business’s Varney & Co.
“It’s egregious to see that kind of violence break out against really peaceful individuals, who were in D.C. to show support for President Trump,” Perrine said. “Unfortunately, this is not the first time this kind of violent attack has happened against Trump supporters. I remember back in New Hampshire in the primaries when a 16-year-old boy was punched in the face for standing there wearing a MAGA hat.”
Unlike media calls for Trump to denounce groups such as the Proud Boys and QAnon, Biden has faced very little pushback for refusing to denounce far-left groups by name.
During the first presidential debate, moderator Chris Wallace pressed Trump to condemn white supremacist violence six times, but he failed to ask Biden to condemn violence from antifa or the Black Lives Matter movement once. During one particularly heated exchange, both Biden and Wallace pressed the president to condemn far-right groups more specifically, prompting Trump to ask whom they were asking him to condemn.
“Proud Boys, stand back and stand by,” Trump responded after Biden suggested he condemn the Proud Boys.
A similar scene played out the next week during an NBC town hall event when host Savannah Guthrie pressed Trump to answer questions about white supremacy and QAnon. Trump responded by denouncing white supremacy, but he said he didn’t know anything about QAnon, a claim Guthrie apparently found hard to believe as she continued to pepper him with questions about the group.
Biden has continued to allude to the debunked claim that Trump referred to white supremacists as “very fine people” following the 2017 “Unite The Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, citing it as a major reason he decided to run for president.
Monday’s statement was not a departure from Biden’s strategy on the campaign trail, where he refused to be specific in denouncing antifa and Black Lives Matter violence, instead opting to condemn violence “across the board.”
Conservatives participating in the “Million MAGA March” on Saturday were seen being attacked by left-wing counterprotesters, with many videos of the attacks going viral on social media.
Ivanka Trump called on the media to report the violence, saying they would not hesitate to cover it if the attacks were coming from the other side.
“The media’s near total silence about the physical violence being perpetrated against conservatives is shameful & dangerous. Just image [sic] the outrage and indignation if this went the other way,” she tweeted. “Violence is never the answer and instigators must be condemned and prosecuted.”
