Trump backs down over dispute by racist groups



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WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump was quick to quell an uproar over his inability to explicitly denounce white supremacist groups during his debate debacle with Joe Biden, calling his electoral rival a “national disgrace.”

Bitter adversaries returned to the campaign a day after their off-the-rails showdown in Cleveland made headlines less for its substance than for its unbridled chaos.

The toxic screaming party, with Trump constantly interrupting and Biden launching personal attacks, even prompted the Presidential Debate Oversight Commission to announce that it would impose new measures to help moderators “keep order” in the next two debates. .

READ: Trump and Biden exchange heated criticism in first debate

“The president of the United States behaved the way he did; I think it was a national disgrace,” Biden said in Alliance, Ohio.

Trump, in an apparent attempt to suppress outrage over his comments, called on white supremacist groups or the far-right Proud Boys to “stand down.”

“I don’t know who the Proud Boys are, but whoever they are, they have to stand down,” Trump told reporters. “Stand back, let the police do their job.”

READ: Trump and Biden head to first debate with the presidency at stake

Trump’s backtracking came after several Republicans distanced themselves from the president’s comment in the debate, and Senator Tim Scott, the only black Republican in the US Senate, said Trump “needs to correct” his comments.

Several other Republicans reportedly offered a similar reaction, including powerful Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Quick polls on the presidential candidates’ performances in the debate leaned toward Biden, who withstood a barrage of spikes from Trump, 74, while offering up some of his own.

An estimated 73.1 million people in the United States saw the two candidates go head-to-head on television, according to data firm Nielsen.

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