Trump and Biden Debate Trump’s ‘Fine People on Both Sides’ Response to Charlottesville

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.

“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 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 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.”

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“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 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.”

“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.”