Left-leaning fact checker says Trump never called Charlottesville neo-Nazis 'very fine people'

The claim that former President Donald Trump called the neo-Nazis and white supremacists who attended the Charlottesville "Unite the Right" rally in 2017 "very fine people" was rated by Snopes, a left-leaning fact checking website, as being false.

Trump's comments regarding the rally recently resurfaced on social media, and Snopes determined in a post last week that claims about his comments were false.

"Trump did say there were 'very fine people on both sides,' referring to the protesters and the counterprotesters. He said in the same statement he wasn't talking about neo-Nazis and white nationalists, who he said should be 'condemned totally,'" the fact-checker said.

After the initial post by Snopes on Thursday, the website was updated to include an editor's note, stating that readers have raised concerns about how the "fact check appears to assume Trump was correct," which Snopes said "is not the case."

The goal of the fact check was to confirm Trump's statement, not the accuracy of his statement, Snopes said.

The fact checker said that Trump's comments, taken out of context, "spread like wildfire" and were used by President Joe Biden in his 2020 campaign.

Follow Madeleine Hubbard on X or Instagram.