Here's what you need to know this week. Straight from the Editors desk at
The Common Sense Network
Hey Sense-ibles,
President Donald Trump has said a far-right group should "stand down and stand by" after his refusal to explicitly condemn the group in a TV debate sparked a backlash.
Mr Trump said "I don't know who the Proud Boys are", a day after urging them in the election debate with Joe Biden to "stand back and stand by”.
Proud Boys members called his debate comments "historic" and an endorsement.
Mr Biden said Mr Trump had "refused to disavow white supremacists". The exchange came during the first of three televised debates between the two men ahead of the 3 November election. The debate descended into squabbling, bickering and insults, with US media describing it as chaotic, ugly and awful.
The commission that regulates the debates said it would introduce new measures for the next two to "maintain order". Mr Trump said they should get a new anchor and a smarter Democratic candidate.
As we enter into Black History Month here in the UK, many Brits watched the first presidential debates in disbelief. Did the President just struggle to comedy white supremacy?
When confronted with tough or tricky issues, Donald Trump has a tendency to offer a smorgasbord of often contradictory answers, allowing his supporters - and detractors - to pick and choose what to believe.
Nowhere has this behaviour been more pronounced than when he addresses white supremacists and extremist right-wing groups. At times he has renounced them. At others, he equivocates or changes the subject when a direct condemnation would suffice.
Instead, the president ends up offering a rallying cry to hate groups, as he did following the 2017 Charlottesville violence or with his "stand back and stand by" message on Tuesday.
The president can say all the right things politically, then turn around and say all the wrong things, leaving his aides to clean up the mess. Is it because the president is careless with his words, misunderstood by critics and an adversarial press, or because he is sensitive to the concerns of even the more distasteful elements of his support base?
Despite all the talking and tweeting he does, the president - intentionally or not - remains a cypher.
Much love
M.T. Omoniyi
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