Donald Trump has ‘apologised’ for retweeting far-right Britain First, saying he knows nothing about the group and has only just learnt they are “horrible, racist people”.
In an exclusive interview with Piers Morgan aired on Good Morning Britain on Friday morning, the President said he wasn’t aware of the impact of the incident as it “wasn’t a big story” in the United States.
When asked if he would be willing to apologise as “it would go a long way” to help US-UK relations, Trump said: “Here’s what’s fair – if you’re telling me they’re horrible, racist people I would certainly apologise – I know nothing about them.
Morgan asked: ”You would disavow yourself of people like that?”
Trump replied: “I don’t want to be involved with people like that but you’re telling me about these people because I know nothing about these people.”
But the President’s words have been questioned by some who suggest it fell short of an actual apology.
Donald Trump to @piersmorgan on those Britain First retweets: “I would certainly apologise if you would like me to do that.” Heartfelt.
Donald Trump’s sort-of-but-not-really apology for retweeting Britain First videos: “If you’re telling me they’re horrible people, horrible racist people I would certainly apologise if you would like me to do that.” (via @GMB)
January 26, 2018
And a tweet from Piers Morgan contains the quote “I certainly apologise” which is not actually heard in the clip or in promotional materials accompanying the interview.
BREAKING NEWS: President Trump has publicly apologised for retweeting far-right group Britain First. Says he didn’t know who they were. ‘I don’t want to be involved with these people. If you’re telling me they’re horrible racist people. I certainly apologise.’ pic.twitter.com/S1apSWC7rR
January 26, 2018
Additionally, his claim that he was unaware of how big a news story it was in the UK is contradicted by events from the time.
The incident in November prompted Theresa May to publicly criticise Trump for the first time, saying it was “wrong for the President to have done this”.
Trump hit back almost immediately:
.@Theresa_May, don’t focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom. We are doing just fine!
November 30, 2017
The videos retweeted by Trump were either unverified or have been debunked.
They included footage of migrants allegedly assaulting a boy on crutches, clips of a boy allegedly thrown of a roof and a video claiming to show a Muslim destroying a statue of the Virgin Mary.
Defending the content of the Britain First retweets, Trump told Morgan: “I don’t know who they are, I know nothing about them, so I wouldn’t be doing that. I am, as I say often, the least racist person that anybody’s going to meet.
“Certainly I wasn’t endorsing anybody. I knew nothing about them. They had I guess a couple of depictions of radical Islamic terror. Radical Islamic terror, whether you like talking about it or not Piers, it’s a fact.
“You look at what’s going on in UK and you look at what’s going on all over the world, you can try and shield it…”