Interior Secretary Doug Burgum refused to flat-out condemn members of a white supremacist group that gathered in Washington, D.C., on the Fourth of July during a Sunday interview on “State of the Union.”
CNN’s Dana Bash gave the cabinet member multiple opportunities to disavow the neo-fascist organization Patriot Front as Burgum hedged, dodged and ultimately dug in on the idea that the group was exercising their right to free speech.
Asked if the hundreds of masked and khaki-clad men stomping around the capital carrying Confederate flags and chanting “Reclaim America” were cause for concern, the secretary first said that race was “something that divided” from “our very founding” before claiming President Abraham Lincoln’s “courage and leadership” during the Civil War allowed the U.S. to “continue to move forward as a country.”
“We can be an exceptional nation because our ideals are exceptional, that all men are created equal,” Burgum said, quoting the Declaration of Independence.
Returning to the core of her question, Bash asked, “Do you condemn this group and what they were doing, and most importantly, what they stand for?”
“Well, I think that certainly what they stand for is nothing that I could possibly agree with,” Burgum continued to waffle. “But one of the foundational principles of the United States, which makes democracy messy, is free speech. And there are plenty of things that I see that I might personally find offensive and reprehensible.”
“But in America, free speech is allowed, and this is by the whole spectrum of things. I mean, we’re a country where someone can run and be elected saying that they’re a communist.”
Bash teed up another angle for Burgum to answer, asking if he’d recommend President Donald Trump denounce Patriot Front and their message to which Burgum offered a weak comparison between people who protest the president.
“But this is white nationalism,” Bash reminded the secretary. “It’s, as you said, a part of America’s history that still has pockets. But the fact that they were here in Washington on such an important day…”
Offering another hollow equivocation, Burgum cited demonstrators who cry “Death to America” during their own protests of the Trump regime.“This is part of free speech in America,” he said. “They can say it, we can object to it, but it is something that comes with free speech in America.”Watch the full exchange above.