Ross: Taking Trump at face value on condemning white supremacists

Reporters tried again at a White House briefing to get an official statement that President Trump condemns white supremacy.

“As the person who speaks for the president, does the president denounce white supremacism and groups that espouse it in all their forms?,” a reporter asked Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany.

“This has been answered,” McEnany replied.

She then listed the many times President Trump has denounced them, and called them criminals and thugs.

“The president just last week, perhaps you all weren’t covering it, but just last week expressed his desire to see the KKK prosecuted as domestic terrorists,” McEnany said.

… as well as Antifa, by the way.

But what I got from the exchange was that whatever the president said at Tuesday’s debate, he does in fact condemn, denounce, rebuke, and will at some point think up a pejorative nickname for the Proud Boys, the KKK, and any other such groups.

I would expect, based on this condemnation, that if any of his poll watchers catch the Proud Boys approaching a line of voters on Election Day, the president would want the interlopers promptly surrounded and – just like hecklers at his rallies – sent home to their mommies.

Reporters, of course, weren’t satisfied.

“He’s not condemning white supremacy,” one claimed.

But I’ll take Kayleigh’s message at face value. The president is saying Proud Boys go home and stay home. We’ll find out soon enough who’s right.

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