During Tuesday night’s debate, Vice President Kamala Harris resurrected the widely debunked “very fine people” narrative, accusing former President Donald Trump of defending white supremacists at the 2017 Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally, where a counter-protester was tragically killed. Told by NBC News.
Addressing Trump’s response to the event, Harris asserted, “What did the president then, at the time, say? ‘There were fine people on each side.’” This claim has been repeatedly fact-checked and refuted, even by non-partisan sources like Snopes, which clarified that Trump’s comments were specifically about those protesting the removal of a Confederate statue, not the violent extremists present at the rally.
In his 2017 remarks, Trump stated, “You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down of a very important statue and the renaming of a park from Robert E. Lee to another name.” He added explicitly, “I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists, because they should be condemned totally.” report from NPR.
Despite this context, Harris’s use of the claim went unchallenged by the debate moderators, who otherwise fact-checked Trump rigorously throughout the night. This omission drew criticism, suggesting a double standard and pointing to Harris’s invocation as a sign of desperation on the debate stage.
The persistence of this narrative, even seven years after the Charlottesville incident, continues to be a point of contention. Critics argue that Harris’s repeated reference to the debunked “very fine people” claim undermines the credibility of her broader criticisms, especially as she consistently labeled Trump’s statements as lies without substantial counter-evidence during the debate.
The resurfacing of this controversial moment highlights the ongoing tension and polarized interpretations of past events that continue to shape the political landscape as Harris and Trump vie for the presidency in 2024.