--- title: Trump and Biden Debate Trump’s Charlottesville Response description: During the first 2024 presidential debate, Biden hit at Trump for saying there were “fine people on both sides” of the 2017 white supremacist rally in Virginia. canonical: https://time.com/6993399/donald-trump-charlottesville-presidential-debate-2024/ author: Chad de Guzman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-06-28T03:45:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T17:51:58.312Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump and Biden Debate Trump’s Charlottesville Response og:description: During the first 2024 presidential debate, Biden hit at Trump for saying there were “fine people on both sides” of the 2017 white supremacist rally in Virginia. og:url: https://time.com/6993399/donald-trump-charlottesville-presidential-debate-2024/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9a7d9777e0629e40/698a583edb2987388226bcb9/trump-biden-debate-2024-002.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: trump-biden-debate-2024-002 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump and Biden Debate Trump’s Charlottesville Response twitter:description: During the first 2024 presidential debate, Biden hit at Trump for saying there were “fine people on both sides” of the 2017 white supremacist rally in Virginia. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9a7d9777e0629e40/698a583edb2987388226bcb9/trump-biden-debate-2024-002.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump and Biden Debate Trump’s ‘Fine People on Both Sides’ Response to Charlottesville > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=b3c08ee0-7d7f-44f4-a36b-4b9fe1da0fe0&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1)  by [Chad de Guzman](https://time.com/author/chad-de-guzman/)  ## Chad de Guzman Reporter Jun 28, 2024 3:45 AM UTC  Former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden during the first 2024 presidential debate, hosted by CNN in Atlanta on June 27. Former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden during the first 2024 presidential debate, hosted by CNN in Atlanta on June 27. Justin Sullivan—Getty Images  by [Chad de Guzman](https://time.com/author/chad-de-guzman/)  ## Chad de Guzman Reporter Jun 28, 2024 3:45 AM UTC During the first presidential debate of the 2024 general election, President Joe Biden repeated his long-standing claim that he was inspired to run for the presidency four years ago after witnessing the [white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., in August 2017](https://time.com/charlottesville-white-nationalist-rally-clashes/). “What got me involved around the first place after my son had died,” Biden said in response to CNN moderator Jake Tapper asking if a vote for former President Donald Trump is a vote against democracy, “…I said I wasn’t going to run again until I saw what happened in Charlottesville, Virginia—people coming out of the woods carrying swastikas on torches and singing the same anti-semitic bile they sang back in Germany.” “He said, ‘I think they’re fine people on both sides,’” Biden recounted of Trump’s response to the rally, which was known as Unite the Right and saw violent clashes between protesters and counterprotesters and led to the [death of 32-year-old paralegal Heather Heyer](https://time.com/4898705/heather-heyer-mother-susan-bro-charlottesville-virginia-rally/) after a man drove his car into a group of counterprotesters. “This is the guy who says Hitler’s done some good things,” Biden added, referencing a [claim](https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/07/politics/donald-trump-adolf-hitler-book-claims/index.html) by Trump’s former chief of staff. “I’d like to know what they are, the good things Hitler’s done. That’s what he said. This guy has no sense of American democracy.” **Read More:** [_These Are the Biggest Moments in the First Presidential Debate_](https://time.com/6993360/first-presidential-debate-biggest-moments-2024/) “That story has been totally wiped out,” Trump shot back. “​​He says he ran because of Charlottesville,” the 78-year-old Republican candidate said of his 81-year-old Democratic counterpart, who defeated him in 2020\. “He didn’t run because of Charlottesville. He ran because it was his last chance. He’s not equipped to be President.” “He made up the Charlottesville story, and you’ll see it’s debunked all over the place,” Trump claimed. “Just the other day it came out, where it was fully debunked,” he added—likely referencing a recent article by fact-checking site [Snopes](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-very-fine-people/) that was headlined “No, Trump Did Not Call Neo-Nazis and White Supremacists 'Very Fine People'” and has been widely-circulated on social media among the right. Snopes clarified that its ruling of “false” was strictly in reference to whether Trump explicitly labeled neo-Nazis and white supremacists as “very fine people” when, in fact, he said in the same statement that he wasn’t talking about those specific groups, which he said should be “condemned totally.” Nevertheless, [Trump did say that there were “very fine people on both sides.”](https://www.politifact.com/article/2019/apr/26/context-trumps-very-fine-people-both-sides-remarks/) “Debunked? It happened,” Biden responded. “All you have to do is listen to what was said at the time. And the idea that somehow that’s the only reason I ran? I ran because I was worried a guy like this guy could get elected.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6993399/donald-trump-charlottesville-presidential-debate-2024/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6993399/donald-trump-charlottesville-presidential-debate-2024/"},"headline":"Trump and Biden Debate Trump’s ‘Fine People on Both Sides’ Response to Charlottesville","datePublished":"2024-06-28T03:45:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T17:51:58.312Z","description":"During the first 2024 presidential debate, Biden hit at Trump for saying there were “fine people on both sides” of the 2017 white supremacist rally in Virginia.","url":"https://time.com/6993399/donald-trump-charlottesville-presidential-debate-2024/","keywords":["2024 Elections","overnight","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9a7d9777e0629e40/698a583edb2987388226bcb9/trump-biden-debate-2024-002.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Chad de Guzman","jobTitle":"Reporter","url":"https://time.com/author/chad-de-guzman/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9a7d9777e0629e40/698a583edb2987388226bcb9/trump-biden-debate-2024-002.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"trump-biden-debate-2024-002","caption":"Former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden participate in the CNN Presidential Debate at the CNN Studios in Atlanga on June 27, 2024.","creditText":"Justin Sullivan—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2024-election/","name":"2024 Elections"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6993399/donald-trump-charlottesville-presidential-debate-2024/","name":"Trump and Biden Debate Trump’s ‘Fine People on Both Sides’ Response to Charlottesville"}}]}] ```