White House Calls Trump’s Charlottesville ‘Peanut’ Comments ‘Repugnant and Divisive’

The White House on Thursday blasted former President Trump after he twice minimized the deadly 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., downplaying its severity compared to ongoing campus protests over the war in Gaza.

“Minimizing the Antisemitic and white supremacist poison displayed in Charlottesville is repugnant and divisive,” deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement.

Bates noted the Charlottesville rally “compelled President Biden to run in 2020, because he has fought Antisemitism and hate his entire life.” He also pointed to the Biden administration’s launch of a national strategy to counter antisemitism.

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Trump twice on Thursday downplayed the Charlottesville rally {snip}

“Charlottesville is like a ‘peanut’ compared to the riots and anti-Israel protests that are happening all over our Country, RIGHT NOW,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Later in the day, as he departed the courtroom in Manhattan where his hush money trial is taking place, Trump again ripped Biden’s handling of the ongoing campus protests while minimizing the Charlottesville violence.

“Very importantly as you look at the various colleges all over the country … you see what’s happening on the fronts having to do with Palestine and Israel and protests and hate, anger,” Trump said. “Biden is sending an absolutely horrible message. Horrible, horrible message. He has no idea how to message. He can’t speak. He can’t put two sentences together. He doesn’t know what to do.”

“He was talking about Charlottesville. Charlottesville was a little peanut — and it was nothing compared — and the hate wasn’t the kind of hate you have here,” Trump added.

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