After posting a racist video depicting former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes, President Donald Trump said on Friday he “didn’t make a mistake.”
Trump posted the video to his Truth Social on Thursday night and deleted it about 12 hours later following an outcry, according to The New York Times.
And on Friday, Trump declined to apologize for the upload as he talked to reporters aboard Air Force One.
“I just looked at the first part, it was about voter fraud in some place, Georgia,” Mr. Trump said, as seen in a USA Today clip, before reiterating baseless claims about fraud in the 2020 election.
“I didn’t see the whole thing,” Trump added. “I guess during the end of it, there was some kind of a picture that people don’t like. I wouldn’t like it either. But I didn’t see it.”
Trump indicated it was a staffer who posted the video. “I gave it to the people,” he said. “Generally, they’d look at the whole thing, but I guess somebody didn’t, and they posted, and we took it down. … We took it down as soon as we found out it.”
One reporter mentioned the Republicans calling upon Trump to apologize, but the president refused to do so. “No, I didn’t make a mistake,” he replied. “I look at a lot of, thousands of things. I looked at the beginning of it. It was fine.”
Seemingly referring to his staff, Trump said “nobody knew” the racist imagery was included in the video. “If they would have looked, they would have seen it, and probably they would have had the sense to take it down,” he added.
When asked whether the post would harm Republicans’ favor with Black voters, Trump said, “I am, by the way, the least racist president you’ve had in a long time, as far as I’m concerned.”
And when a reporter asked him whether he condemns the racist parts of the video, the former star of The Apprentice said, “Of course I do.”
The video has elicited rebukes from both sides of the aisle. John Curtis, a Republican U.S. senator from Utah, called the video “blatantly racist and inexcusable,” per the BBC News.
Tim Scott, a Republican U.S. Senator from South Carolina, said the video upload was “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom, meanwhile, said the president showed “disgusting behavior” that “every single Republican must denounce,” while Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said, “Donald Trump is a racist.”
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