Savannah Guthrie hit back at an increasingly irate Donald Trump at his NBC Town Hall event after the president maintained that retweeting a wild conspiracy theory wasn’t the same as promoting it. The TODAY host pointed out that Trump had retweeted an insane claim that Joe Biden, allegedly tried to have SEAL Team Six murdered, which is reckless at best. “That was an opinion of someone, and that was a retweet,” Trump said. “People can decide for themselves; I don’t take a position.”
“I don’t get that,” a baffled Guthrie interjected. “You’re the president. You’re not like someone’s crazy uncle who can retweet whatever.” Guthrie was clearly getting under the president’s skin during the hour-long October 15 event, which was held after Trump refused to participate in a virtual debate with Biden. The cracks started showing when Guthrie began pressing him about his stance on white supremacy. Trump refused to answer when asked about the topic at the September 29 presidential debate.
Instead, he gave a shout out to the Proud Boys, a far-right hate group that has attacked peaceful protesters across the United States, conducted voter intimidation, and promoted white supremacy. Trump instructed the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.” He alleged after the debate that he was being sarcastic, but the group immediately started using the phrase on social media. Trump blew up at Guthrie, insisting that he did denounce white supremacy days later on TKTKT, but refused to answer why he didn’t at the debate.
Guthrie also asked him if he supports QAnon, a viral conspiracy theory that states “a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles is running a global child sex-trafficking ring and plotting against President Donald Trump, who is battling against them.” Trump insisted that he’s never heard of it, and dodged Guthrie’s follow-up questions — except to say sarcastically say that she’s “cute.”
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