Savannah Guthrie called out President Donald Trump for retweeting a false conspiracy theory about Joe Biden to his 87 million followers on Twitter.
“Why would you send a lie like that to your followers?” Guthrie asked Trump at Thursday night’s town hall on NBC News.
“That was a retweet. That was an opinion of somebody. And that was a retweet. I’ll put it out there, people can decide for themselves,” Trump said.
“I don’t get that. You’re the president, you’re not like some crazy uncle who can retweet whatever,” Guthrie responded.
Earlier, Guthrie asked Trump if he would disavow QAnon “in its entirety,” which Trump refused to do.
“It is this theory that Democrats are a satanic pedophile ring and that you are a savior of that. Now, can you just once and for all state that that is completely not true and disavow QAnon in its entirety?” Guthrie asked.
“I know nothing about QAnon,” Trump responded.
“I just told you,” Guthrie fired back.
“I know very little. You told me, but what you tell me doesn’t necessarily make it fact, I hate to say that. I know nothing about it. I do know they are very much against pedophilia, they fight it very hard, but I know nothing about it,” Trump said. “I’ll tell you what I do know about. I know about Antifa and I know about the radical left and I know how violent they are and how vicious they are.”
His response was reminiscent of Trump’s refusal to condemn white supremacists and other militia groups at the first presidential debate with Joe Biden last month, when the president instead told the Proud Boys, an SPLC-designated hate group, to “stand back and stand by.” It wasn’t until a few days later, after Trump was roundly criticized for his comments, that the president backpedaled and said he condemned “all white supremacists.”
Watch President Trump refuse to disavow QAnon here:
Here’s video of Trump refusing to denounce QAnon at the NBC town hall pic.twitter.com/BmSHGYSlxO
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 16, 2020
And watch Guthrie push Trump on his retweeting of conspiracy theories here:
Here's Savannah Guthrie telling Trump, "You're the president, you're not just someone's crazy uncle who can retweet whatever." pic.twitter.com/pkBcnYnpk5
— David Mack (@davidmackau) October 16, 2020