'Watch the tape, Karen!': CNN panelists clash over Trump's 'very fine people' comment
Two political strategists sparred Friday on CNN during a discussion over what former President Donald Trump said following a violent rally in Charlottesville that saw white supremacists clash with counter-protesters.
The heated discussion unfolded on "The Situation Room" with host Wolf Blitzer, who hosted former Hillary Clinton spokeswoman Karen Finney and David Urban, former senior advisor to Donald Trump.
Blitzer first asked the panel why Black voters strongly support President Joe Biden in the race, "more than a lot of other groups."
Finney responded first by saying Black voters are "pragmatic."
"People tend to think, 'Oh, well, a Black voter is going to vote for a Black person,'" she said. "No. We're going to vote for the person who we think can deliver."
She said Biden has worked hard to deliver on his promises, but that there's also a "very real fear" in America about a possible second term for Trump.
"We've seen what's happening in states around voting rights, around criminal justice reform, around a lot of the issues that Black Americans care about. And despite what the former president touts, the feat is palpable among Black and brown voters."
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Blitzer pivoted to Urban, who pushed back on Finney, saying Trump worked with Van Jones on criminal justice reform. He then criticized Biden for repeating that he got in the race because Trump went to Charlottesville and said after violence erupted at the rally that there were "good people on both sides."
"He's using a debunked talking point, still!" an angered Urban said.
Finney can then be heard in the background pushing back on Urban: "It's not debunked."
"Yes it is!" Urban shoots back. "No, no, no, no, Karen. Look at Snopes. Watch the tape, Karen. I challenge you to watch the tape, Karen, from start to finish. And if you can come back on here and say, 'the way this has been categorized is truthful,' then I think that's mistaken."
Urban cut Finney off again as she tries to interject. "Watch the — watch the tape."
Snopes called the claim "false" that on Aug. 15, 2017, Trump called neo-Nazis and white supremacists who attended the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, "very fine people."
The fact-checking service found that Trump said there were "very fine people on both sides," referring to the protesters and the counter-protesters, but that he said in the same statement he was not talking about neo-Nazis and white nationalists, who he said should be "condemned totally."
Snopes later defended objections to its fact-check, insisting that it only aimed to confirm what Trump actually said, not whether what he said was true or false.
"For the record, virtually every source that covered the Unite the Right debacle concluded that it was conceived of, led by and attended by white supremacists, and that therefore Trump's characterization was wrong," the site noted.