The presidential candidates who say Trump is a white supremacist
A number of Democratic 2020 candidates have outright called President Trump a white supremacist in recent days.
When MSNBC's Jacob Soboroff asked former Rep. Beto O'Rourke on Tuesday if Mr. Trump was a white supremacist, O'Rourke replied, "yes, he has made that clear."
In an interview with CBS News on Thursday, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said, "Oh I've called him a white supremacist, as well as a racist, many many times, 'cause he is."
The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Senator Elizabeth Warren answered "yes" to the same question. She explained her decision to do so yesterday in Iowa to CBS News, saying the president "cozies up to the white supremacists, he calls them 'fine fellows,' he's talked about trying to get brown people and black people out of this country."
At the National Association of Black Journalists Presidential Forum on Thursday, Mayor Pete Buttigieg answered "I do" when asked if Mr. Trump is a white supremacist and added, "at best he's emboldening and empowering people with that ideology."
Sen. Bernie Sanders told CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday that he also believes the president is a white supremacist. And in a Friday appearance on the network, businessman Andrew Yang also said Mr. Trump is a white supremacist.
"If someone acts and speaks in a certain way, then you have no choice but to say that's what he is," Yang said.
Billionaire Tom Steyer, the latest candidate to enter the race, tweeted Thursday that Mr. Trump is a "racist and a white supremacist."
Mr. Trump has repeatedly insisted that he is not a racist and has denounced white supremacy. "I'm the least racist person there is anywhere in the world," he told reporters last week. On Friday, he said that Democrats calling him racist are "desperate" and that "they call anybody a racist when they run out of cards."
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee kicked off the conversation when he called the president a white nationalist during second Democratic Debate on July 31. "We can no longer allow a white nationalist to be in the White House," Inslee stated in response to a question about immigration.
Former Vice President Joe Biden, former Rep. John Delaney, and Sen. Kamala Harris have recently accused President Trump of enabling white supremacy, but did not go so far to actually call him a white supremacist.
When asked at the Iowa State Fair on Thursday, Biden said he believes "everything the president does encourages white supremacists." Delaney said Friday that Trump "loves the support" of white supremacist groups and he is "messaging to them all the time and that's enabling them."
Campaign Reporters Cara Korte and Adam Brewster contributed to this report.
