President Donald Trump sat down with Piers Morgan in Davos last night for an exclusive interview, and he apologized for retweeting a string of virulent anti-Muslim videos from a far-right British political party.
The news of the apology was tweeted out by Morgan. “I don’t want to be involved with these people. If you’re telling me they’re horrible racist people. I certainly apologize,” Morgan tweeted that the president said.
BREAKING NEWS:
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) January 26, 2018
President Trump has publicly apologised for retweeting far-right group Britain First.
Says he didn't know who they were. 'I don't want to be involved with these people. If you're telling me they're horrible racist people. I certainly apologise.' pic.twitter.com/S1apSWC7rR
In the interview, Trump said he knew nothing about the Britain First—a group accused of inciting violence and whose leader, Jayda Fransen is on trial for inciting hate in Great Britian—when he retweeted three videos that included titles like, “VIDEO: Islamist mob pushes teenage boy off roof and beats him to death!”
“I know nothing about them, I don’t want to be involved with people [like that],” Trump said to Morgan.
That is a stunning admission from the president, who uses Twitter to issue policy edicts and make proclamations that echo around the world. He’s admitting that he chose to rashly proclaim a religion was guilty of an act of murder rather than click through a few tweets to see if it was a narrative being pushed by a group of racist xenophobes.
Shocking as it is, Trump is often quick to blame Muslims for acts of terrorism before any official conclusion has been reached. Trump’s apology also included the standard shirking of actual responsibility that has become a hallmark of his presidency.
“Here’s what’s fair—if you’re telling me they’re horrible people, horrible racist people, I would certainly apologize if you’d like me to do that.”
The videos Trump retweeted are no longer up on his timeline, but only because the account behind them was suspended by Twitter, not because the president removed them.
As for why he pushed them out into the world, Trump said it was because he is “a big believer in fighting radical Islamic terror.”