NJP Analysis of The Trump/Biden Debate

Official Statement by National Justice Party (NJP) Chairman Mike Peinovich

The Trump/Biden debate held on Tuesday night Sept. 29 has been widely criticized in the media for descending into a farce. The National Justice Party agrees that it was indeed a farce, but our reasons differ from those put forward by the media. The phony concern of the media is that the debate took on a “bloodsports” style that gave the advantage to President Trump’s bellicose style and degraded respect for political institutions generally. In reality their concern is that Trump’s behavior reflects certain realities about the American electorate that both candidates and the establishment have to contend with.

Several times Trump was prompted to disavow “White supremacy” by both the Jewish debate moderator Chris Wallace and Trump’s debate rival Joe Biden. Trump cleverly avoided and redirected the question every time. Both Biden and Wallace seemed interested in promoting the bogus narrative put forward by the media and political establishment that “White supremacist terrorists” are the biggest security threat facing America today, a narrative that is completely at odds with the basic observations and experiences of the American people themselves. To be seen to capitulate to this narrative would mean electoral suicide for Trump, a fact the President is keenly aware of.

In one instance, Wallace fed Biden a softball question that was crudely and obviously intended to grant him a platform to express performative outrage over the 2017 Charlottesville rally, but this was cut short by a sarcastic interjection from the President.

In another segment, Trump challenged Wallace and Biden to name the people they wanted him to condemn. They alternately told him “Proud Boys” and “White supremacists.” The choice of Proud Boys is ironic given that it was a member of a Proud Boy affiliated group, Aaron Danielson, that was blatantly murdered by an Antifa terrorist just a few weeks ago. Trump refused to condemn the Proud Boys, a patriotic group that does not engage in racial advocacy one way or another, but he did not mention Danielson’s murder. For his part, Joe Biden cynically and unconvincingly attempted to elicit tears from the audience over the death of “a young woman” in Charlottesville. Needless to say, Biden failed to mention that the young woman in question died while participating in an anarchist mob that was blocking traffic and assaulting cars, much as the anarchist and Black Lives Matter rioters have been doing all over the country for the last several months.

Overall, the questions concerning race, racial issues and protest politics led to the most contentious bickering among all three men during the whole sordid affair.

Much has been made out of this exchange in the media. Trump has been accused yet again of “White supremacy” while Trump’s backers on social media have made hay out of Biden’s refusal to disavow Antifa. Wallace repeatedly demanded a specific disavowal of “White supremacists,” yet threw cold water on Trump’s demand that Biden disavow Antifa and Black Lives Matter groups that have been rioting, burning and murdering around the country for the last several months. Wallace seemed interested in upholding the establishment narrative that these groups are “peaceful protesters” and the real cause of violence is White people that organize to try to defend themselves. Trump is aware that to cooperate with Wallace and Biden in crafting this message would alienate his voters completely and cost him the election. Despite the universal condemnation and vitriol hurled at them by the media, Trump fans and Proud Boys were moralized by this exchange. The Proud Boys have reportedly started selling shirts that reflect the President’s statements.

NJP urges the Proud Boys and similar groups to exercise extreme caution in taking President Trump at his word. His debate performance is a reflection of his understanding of the mood of his voters, not his actual intentions. Trump has been the President for four years now and has yet to order a single investigation into Antifa, despite the group being linked to terrorist attacks in Dayton, Colorado and Portland over the last 2 years. Meanwhile, Trump appointees such as former US Attorney Thomas Cullen have collaborated with Antifa and the mainstream media in staging frame ups of nationalist groups like the Rise Above Movement. Cullen was rewarded for this effort by being fast-tracked by Trump for a spot as a Federal Judge. Trump similarly refused to intervene on behalf of the Proud Boys in 2019 when four of their number were jailed following an Antifa attack outside the New York City Republican club in 2018, another case where Antifa appeared to be working directly with law enforcement and the media. Just as in the frame up of the Rise Above Movement, the Proud Boys were assaulted by masked Antifa members and were subsequently arrested, charged and jailed for defending themselves, while the media portrayed them unsympathetically and Trump remained silent. On Wednesday, the day after the debate, when asked who the Proud Boys were, President Trump denied all knowledge of the group.

Biden’s point that Trump’s own FBI director has pointed the finger at “White supremacists” as the worst threat to the country, while saying that Antifa represents no threat is salient. It’s no wonder Trump ignored and avoided the comment. The actual behavior of the Trump government indicates that their actions and policies are based on the FBI’s assessment rather than on anything Trump may say in order to win re-election.

The delicate line that Trump was walking between pleasing his largely Jewish donor base and his White voter base was apparent when he was asked by Wallace about so-called “racial sensitivity training.”

Although Trump managed to deftly avoid demands to condemn “White supremacy,” he failed to forthrightly stand up for White Americans when given the chance to do so in a way that would have been wildly popular. He could not even say the word “White,” instead euphemistically referring to “a certain person.” Everyone knew what he meant by that, so why not say it? Because to say it out loud would signal that Whites are a legitimate group with legitimate group concerns and grievances, something the political establishment of both parties will not allow under any circumstances. Trump then went on to condemn racial sensitivity training because it is critical of the supposedly anti-racist values of United States, not because it is an unjust racial assault on White people.

It is tempting to try to see in Trump’s comments a glimmer of hope that he is really sympathetic with his White working and middle class base and plans on actually governing in a way that would benefit them should he win a second term. Given his track record, this hope would be in vain.

The National Justice Party was formed for exactly this reason. Many of us were enthusiastic supporters of the President in 2016, but we have learned over the last four years that he will talk a big game come election time, but will either fail to act, or even worse, actively sell out his White base when implementing policy. This situation is no longer tolerable. The President’s debate performance is evidence that far from being fringe or marginal, pro-White views are held by significant numbers of Americans. Indeed, they are held by enough Americans to sway a Presidential election. This fact is why Trump took the unprecedented step of appealing to White racial sentiments in 2016, a move for which many in the establishment and media will never forgive him. Despite Trump’s inaction and betrayals, the people are fed up with anti-White racial policy and unchecked violence from radical anti-White groups. It is imperative that a genuine and uncompromising White voice become part of the National debate.