Trump Refuses to Denounce White Supremacy, Then Directly Calls Out to His Fascist Thug Followers, in Blatant Moves to Further Pervert and Steal the Election at First Debate

Updated October 1, 2020 | revcom.us

Donald Trump said and did many things in Tuesday night’s presidential debate that made clear the extreme danger that humanity faces if he is to remain in office, but three stand out:

One, when straight-up asked to condemn white supremacy, he refused. Refused. Every white racist felt vindicated and energized.

Two, as part of that section of the debate, when asked if he would condemn the fascist group the “Proud Boys” in particular—a group which has been behind violent attacks on demonstrations all over the country—he directly addressed them from the debate stage, telling them to “stand back… and stand by.” Stand by. Stand by!!! He used the debate stage to give validation, leadership and instructions to his hard-core fascist thugs, in front of the whole world. It is no wonder that they are exulting today.

Three, he told them what to stand by for. Once again telling the totally baseless lie that the use of mail-in ballots meant that the regular election count could not be trusted, he refused when directly asked to tell his supporters to peacefully accept the results. What does it mean when a leader who glories in telling his fascist rallies tales of how protesters and reporters are brutalized and who brags about what his “Second Amendment people” will do when provoked says something like this? What are the implications? Think about it—think hard about it.

The whole night was a flood of fascist lies and a display of fascist bullying that was disgusting to anyone decent, yet was exciting to the hard-core racists, male chauvinists, and America-über-alles fanatics who make up his core support.

If you were to score the debate in terms of who won the most votes, it may have been Biden. But Trump is not intending to “win an election,” in the ordinary meaning of that term. No. What you watched was another installment in Trump’s rolling fascist coup, which we have documented here. As Bob Avakian has said, Trump is already stealing the election and threatening even more violence to stay in power. This debate was a further leap in that. Again, more could be said about all the outrages in this debate—including the way he openly admitted his intent to use the courts, which he is now intending to pack with yet another Christian-fascist Supreme Court judge, as a way to validate that coup.

In the face of all this, if you are taking comfort in Biden’s poll numbers, if you are swayed by Biden’s assurances that “your votes will decide the election”—assurances which are frankly doing a very grave disservice to the necessary rousing of people to see the level of threat we actually confront—you are not getting it. Trump is running for the office of Fuhrer, and he made that clear last night.

Now we must make clear we will not tolerate that. Answer the call of Refuse Fascism to start to take the streets—nonviolently and imaginatively, but determinedly, relentlessly, as if our lives and those of people around the world depended on it—because they do—in demonstrations building from thousands to millions now, beginning October 3 until the regime is driven out.

IN THE NAME OF HUMANITY, WE REFUSE TO ACCEPT A FASCIST AMERICA!

TRUMP/PENCE OUT NOW!