Photos: Far-right groups, feeling support from Trump, find fertile recruiting ground in the Northwest
Members of the Proud Boys, including leader Enrique Tarrio, second from left, rally with right-wing demonstrators in Portland, Ore., on Saturday. During Tuesday night’s debate, President Trump didn’t condemn white supremacist groups and their role in violence this summer. Instead, he said the violence is a “left-wing” problem and told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.”
President Trump on Tuesday again refused to condem white supremacists and nationalist groups. When asked during his debate with Joe Biden to disavow the Proud Boys, an extremist right-wing organization with an ardent following in Oregon, the president said the group should “stand back and stand by.” The group’s leadership regarded the comments, which Trump sought to walk back Wednesday, as an endorsement similar to the one he gave white supremacists who who marched in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017.