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 'Free speech': Trump aide pressed to condemn White nationalist group


He never condemned it.
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A member of President Donald Trump's Cabinet was pressed in a new interview to condemn the White supremacist group Patriot Front, which marched in Washington on July 4.

During the interview on CNN's "State of the Union," host Dana Bash asked Interior Secretary Doug Burgum about a now-viral photograph which showed a Black woman surrounded by masked White nationalists on a train car.

Patriot Front members were spotted on Independence Day outside Washington's main train station, Union Station, and the Eastern Market metro stop near the U.S. Capitol building. The group is a secretive organization founded in 2017 by Thomas Rousseau following the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where counterprotester Heather Heyer was killed.

When questioned by the CNN anchor if he was concerned about the group's presence, the Interior secretary applauded the nation's 250th anniversary celebrations and told Bash, "we know from our very founding that this is something that divided our nation." He praised the leadership of Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and said, "we can be an exceptional nation because our ideals are exceptional, that all men are created equal."