Trump doubles down on racist video, saying no staffer has been disciplined

Key Highlights

• The entire video was, in fact, just over a minute. In Trump’s telling, that racist video was not a problem because it had already been widely seen online.
• “It’s been very well – it’s been shown all over the place, long before that as posted,” Trump claimed, apparently referring to the full-length animated clip the racist depiction of the Obamas was taken from, in which he was depicted as a lion.“But that was … a very strong piece on voter fraud,” Trump added, of the video laying out baseless conspiracy theories, “and the piece that you’re talking about was all over the place, many times, I believe for years.”JD Vance also dismissed concerns about the racist video on Wednesday, telling reporters in Azerbaijan that, because Trump’s vice-president was traveling, “the controversy had started and then died out before I even paid attention to it”. Vance then repeated Trump’s false claim that the video, which was up for 12 hours, was taken down as soon as the racist imagery was discovered.
• In fact, the White House press secretary initially defended the video and it remained on Trump’s account for hours until it was deleted after even Republican supporters of the president denounced it as a racist.“You know, the president said a staffer posted a video, he hadn’t even watched the whole thing, when he watched the whole thing he took it down,” Vance said.
• “It’s not a real controversy.”“Should he apologize for posting a video and then taking it down?
• No, I don’t think so,” Vance said.