But McConnell said Trump’s performance in the debate wouldn’t hurt his efforts to keep the Senate: “I don’t know of any of my colleagues who will have problems as a result of that.”
Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) said Wednesday that Trump seemed to believe he’d already condemned white supremacy: “In his mind he did.” But Thune prodded Trump to “clear it up.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said Trump should “unequivocally condemn white supremacy,” while Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) , a frequent critic of the president, responded that “of course” Trump should have denounced white supremacists.
Other GOP senators did not criticize Trump directly, but instead reiterated their own personal denunciation of white supremacy.
“I condemn white supremacy, all extremist groups. I think that all of these groups are equal, and I condemn them on the strongest terms and we need to remain one nation under God,” said Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.).
Some GOP lawmakers came to Trump’s defense.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Sen Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), argued that the president said recently he would designate the KKK a terrorist organization.
“He has been very clear that there is no place for racism in this country,” Loeffler said.
Meanwhile, Democrats and anti-racism advocates were outraged by what they characterized as essentially a dog whistle from Trump to hate groups.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) decried Trump’s comments, calling it a “sad night for our country.”
“I lost a lot of sleep last night over that one fact,” she said in an interview on MSNBC. “But I did know he has never respected the dignity of his office, and he demonstrated that last night. I think one thing he did present was the authenticity of who he is.”
Other surrogates for Trump worked to defuse the fallout before Trump himself offered a new take on hate groups. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, downplayed the alarm many had to the president’s remarks, saying on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that he “heard it differently.”
Pressed by “Good Morning America” anchor George Stephanopoulos on the president’s “stand by” directive, Christie reiterated that he “didn’t read it that way, but if you want to read it that way that’s your prerogative.”
Christie, who along with ex-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, helped prep Trump for the debate, said that Trump needed to quickly go out and clear up any confusion on the matter.
“The way to do that is the next opportunity the president has to clarify that answer because folks like you and others are confused by it, then he should do that,” Christie said.
Alyssa Farah, the White House communications director, meanwhile told Fox News that “I don’t think that there is anything to clarify” from Trump’s comments the night before.
“He’s told them to stand back,” she said, pointing to the president’s efforts to tamp down violence in cities across the country.
The president, typically loathe to admit an error, has fumbled such attempts in the past — most notably his declaration that there were good people “on both sides” during the deadly 2017 Charlottesville white nationalist demonstration and counter protests.
Other observers typically sympathetic to the president seemed to recognize the potential ramifications of Trump’s debate response. “Fox & Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade said Trump “ruined the biggest layup in the history of debates” and, like Christie, urged the president to make amends.
“That’s like [asking] ‘are you against evil?,’” Kilmeade said. “Why the president didn’t just knock that out of the park, I’m not sure.”
Democratic nominee Joe Biden on Wednesday said that Trump’s conduct during the debate was a “national embarrassment” and warned hate groups rallying around the president’s remarks to “cease and desist.”
“That’s not who we are. This is not who we are as Americans,” Biden said at a campaign stop in Alliance, Ohio.
Melanie Zanona contributed to this report.
