Joe Biden repeats debunked ‘fine people on both sides’ claim at DNC as he hits out against Donald Trump

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: President Joe Biden has once again rehashed a debunked claim about former president Donald Trump’s response to the 2017 Charlottesville 'Unite the Right' rally.

During a Democratic National Committee (DNC) speech on Monday evening, August 18, in Chicago, Biden pointed to a statement Trump made that has been widely criticized and frequently cited by his opponents, albeit fact-checkers have since set the record straight.

Joe Biden rehashes debunked claim about Donald Trump

Joe Biden stressed the importance of fighting extremism in America.

"We're in a battle for the very soul of America. I ran for president in 2020 because of what I saw in Charlottesville in August of 2017. Extremists coming out of the woods carrying torches, their veins bulging from their necks, carrying Nazi swastikas and chanting the same exact antisemitic bile that was heard in Germany in the early '30s," the POTUS said on Monday night. 

"When the president was asked what he thought had happened, Donald Trump said, and I quote, 'There are very fine people on both sides.' My God, that's what he said. That is what he said and what he meant. That's when I realized … I could not stay on the sidelines. So I ran," Biden continued.

This is not the first time Biden has misrepresented Trump’s comments on Charlottesville.

In 2019, when Biden announced his candidacy, he made similar remarks. "With those words, the president of the United States assigned a moral equivalence between those spreading hate and those with the courage to stand against it," Biden said, adding, "In that moment, I knew the threat to this nation was unlike any I had ever seen in my lifetime."

The aforementioned quote attributed to Trump has been a cornerstone of Biden's critique of the former president. However, the claim that Trump was referring to neo-Nazis as "very fine people" has been widely debunked.

"While Trump did say that there were ‘very fine people on both sides,’ he also specifically noted that he was not talking about neo-Nazis and white supremacists and said they should be 'condemned totally.' Therefore, we have rated this claim 'False,'" Snopes reported in June this year.

Charlottesville protests and their aftermath

The events of Charlottesville in August 2017 were marked by a violent confrontation between White nationalists and counter-protesters. Over two days, the city became a battleground that culminated in the death of a counter-protester. Heather Heyer was killed when a car plowed into a crowd.

The violence during the rally drew condemnation from across the political aisle. In his statements following the rally, Trump denounced the "egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides." His words, however, sparked controversy—particularly when he said there was "blame on both sides" and that there were "very fine people, on both sides."

Democrats accused him of drawing a moral equivalence between the White nationalists and those protesting against them. Trump, however, defended his remarks, reiterating numerous times that his words had been taken out of context.

Despite the debunking and Trump’s clarification, the narrative that he endorsed neo-Nazis has somehow persisted as a Democrat talking point. Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, for instance, referenced the Charlottesville incident on its seventh anniversary.

"Seven years ago today, white supremacists and neo-Nazis marched on Charlottesville, chanting racist and antisemitic bile and killing an innocent woman. This is who Donald Trump calls ‘very fine people,’" the Kamala HQ account posted on X alongside an edited video. 

Anti-Israel protesters gather outside DNC venue

Joe Biden took to the DNC stage late in the evening on Monday around 11.30 pm ET, and concluded his speech just after midnight. His address followed several other prominent Democrats, including a brief surprise appearance by Kamala Harris.

"I want to kick us off by celebrating our incredible President Joe Biden who will be speaking later tonight," Harris said of Biden, adding "We are forever grateful to you."

"This November, we will come together and declare with one voice as one people, we are moving forward with optimism, hope and faith,'" she said.

"When we fight, we win." 

Biden’s speech comes at a time when his political future is in flux. After withdrawing from the presidential race the previous month due to concerns about his mental acuity, Biden endorsed Harris, who has since taken over as the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee.

Harris is set to officially accept the nomination later in the week, during the final speech of the convention.

As the convention began, thousands of anti-Israel and other left-wing activists gathered in Chicago. The protests, dubbed 'The March on the DNC 2024', targeted Biden and Harris over their support for Israel in its ongoing war with Hamas.

The demonstrations escalated on Monday evening, with some protesters attempting to breach security fencing around the convention. There were several arrests by the police, Fox News reported.