Donald Trump has condemned all white supremacists, including far-right extremist group Proud Boys, despite telling them to "stand by" at the presidential debate on Wednesday (NZ time).
"I condemn all white supremacists, I condemn the Proud Boys. I don't know much about the Proud Boys, but I condemn that," the US President said in a Fox News interview on Friday.
During the debate, when he was asked whether he'd be willing to condemn and stand down "white supremacists and militia groups", Trump refused.
"Proud Boys, stand back and stand by," Trump said at the US presidential debate. "But I'll tell you what, somebody's got to do something about Antifa and the left."
In a statement on Thursday, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) called the Proud Boys a "dangerous strain of far-right extremists" whose ideology is "nationalistic, xenophobic, and misogynistic".
The hate group have a history of violent confrontations against anti-fascist left-wing movement Antifa.
The leader of Proud Boys is a state director of Latinos for Trump and ran for congress as a Republican, The Daily Mail reported on Friday.
After the debate, Proud Boys organiser Joe Briggs celebrated the group's mention on social media platform Parler: "President Trump told the proud boys to stand by because someone needs to deal with ANTIFA...well sir! we're ready!!"
After telling Proud Boys to "stand by", memes were created and shared on social media, including adding the phrase "stand back and stand by" to the hate group's logo.
In 2019, extremists killed at least 42 people in the US, with 90 percent of deaths linked to right-wing extremists, an annual ADL report found.
