President Donald Trump refused to apologize Friday for posting and then deleting a racist video depicting former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes in a jungle, claiming he hadn’t seen the final frames with the offensive content and blaming a staffer for the error.
The statement, given to reporters on Air Force One, was the first admission that Trump had personally watched at least part of the tape that had sent the White House into damage management mode for the majority of the day. Following the video’s removal, the White House stated that a staffer had shared it in error.
The video was posted late Thursday night and remained online for nearly 12 hours before the White House removed it amid bipartisan criticism, even from close Trump friends. The president, however, asserted Friday evening that the video was removed “as soon as we found out about it.”
“I looked at the beginning of it. It was fine,” he said, referring to the first part of the video that contained debunked claims about fraud in voting machines.
“It was a very strong post in terms of voter fraud,” he went on. “Nobody knew that that was in the end. If they would have looked, they would have seen it, and probably they would have had the sense to take it down.”
Trump mentioned that after he watched the first section of the video, he passed it on to a staffer, who he said should have watched it to the end.
“Somebody slipped and missed a very small part,” he said.
However, when asked directly whether he would apologize amid GOP calls to do so, he declined.
“No,” he said. “I didn’t make a mistake.”
When pressed, Trump stated that he condemned the racist portion of the clip. “Of course I do,” he said.
When asked whether the video could hurt Republicans’ standing with Black voters, the president said no and defended his achievements.
“I am, by the way, the least racist president you’ve had in a long time,” he said.
