‘IT WAS SAD’: While President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden debated, Americans cringed. PROUD BOYS: Trump tried to walk back his refusal to outright condemn the far right fascist group during the debate, but the inflammatory moment was far from the first time the president has failed to denounce white supremacists or has advanced racist ideas. It was an echo of the way he had blamed “both sides” for the 2017 violence between white supremacists and anti-racist protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia.