At the first presidential debate in 2020, Donald Trump failed spectacularly to answer the event’s easiest question. Asked if he was willing to condemn white supremacists and militia groups, the Republican incumbent shrugged and said, “Sure, I’m willing to do that, but I would say almost everything I see is from the left wing, not from the right wing.”
As a rule, when asked to condemn white supremacists and militia groups, any answer that begins “Sure, I’m willing to do that, but …” isn’t going to end well.
But the then-president didn’t just hedge when asked to denounce right-wing racist radicals, he also went so far as to send extremists a notorious message: “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.”
Even some prominent GOP voices were not pleased. Sen. Tim Scott — four years before the South Carolinian started sucking up to Trump in the hopes of becoming his running mate — told reporters, in reference to the then-president, “I think he misspoke; I think he should correct it. If he doesn’t correct it, I guess he didn’t misspeak.”
He didn’t misspeak. Trump was given multiple opportunities to walk back the rhetoric, and he declined.
Four years later, the phrasing has returned to the fore, thanks to one of the former president’s most outlandish sycophants. The Associated Press reported: U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz evoked language adopted by the far-right Proud Boys extremist group as he appeared at court Thursday to support Donald Trump at his hush money trial, reflecting the undercurrent of activist elements present among the presumptive GOP nominee’s supporters as he seeks a return to the White House. “Standing back, and standing by, Mr. President,” Gaetz wrote as he posted a photo on social media of him with other congressional Republicans standing behind Trump in a hallway outside the courtroom where the former president’s felony case is in its fourth week of testimony.
It’s important to emphasize the significance extremists have placed on the phrase. As my MSNBC colleague Zeeshan Aleem explained, “The Proud Boys took Trump’s words as a signal of approval: The extremist group’s members reportedly called it ‘historic‘ and viewed it as an endorsement of their violent tactics. A Proud Boys Telegram channel posted the phrases ‘Stand Back’ and ‘Stand By’ above and below the group’s logo in the channel.” For radicals, “stand back and stand by” was, for all intents and purposes, a declaration that cemented a relationship between themselves and Trump. Extremists concluded that the then-president was sending them an encouraging signal, which they were only too pleased to receive. Common sense — and common decency — would suggest that GOP members of Congress would want nothing to do with such a message. And yet, there was Gaetz parroting the line, apparently indifferent to the effect that it might have on the extremist groups and their members.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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