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Alt-right figurehead Richard Spencer has been taken to task for his white supremacist views during an interview that was cut short by the reporter, who said Spencer didn't know what he was talking about.
During an interview with British journalist Gary Young, the American insisted that the United States was built by white people, and laughed off the fact that the White House was built by black slaves, justifying his ancestors' involvement by saying they'd ordered the slaves to build it. At one point, Mr Spencer seemed to admit that he supports America's history of slavery, because he embraces "all of it."
Mr Spencer, who was visibly surprised to find out that his interviewer was a black man, later attempted to tell Mr Younge that he would "never be an Englishman" because of his race. At that point, Mr Younge ended the interview, calling Mr Spencer a "ridiculous man" who had failed to explain the intellectual movement behind America's modern right-wing ethno-nationalist movement.
"You don't get to tell me what I will be," Mr Younge objected. "You, sorry, you're a ridiculous man. This interview is over."
"I was looking for someone who could give some intellectual ballast into what’s going on in this country in terms of race, in terms of white people, but I found the wrong guy. Because you don’t know what you’re talking about," Mr Young continued before walking away.
Mr Spencer has been one of the most prominent figures in the far-right movement that has found a leader in President Donald Trump , who Mr Spencer has described as a nationalist.
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Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Firing a Secretary of State over Twitter The president announced on Twitter that he was appointing Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State, much to the surprise of then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
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Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Calling African nations "S***hole Countries" Ever one for diplomacy, the president reportedly referred to African nations as "s***hole countries". Asked to confirm this when meeting with Nigeria's President Buhari, Trump stated that there are "some countries that are in very bad shape".
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Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Defending Russian President Vladimir Putin Trump appeared to equate US foreign actions to those of Russian president Vladimir Putin, saying: “There are a lot of killers. You think our country’s so innocent?”
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Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Asking for people to 'pray' for Arnold Schwarzenegger At the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump couldn’t help but to ask for prayers for the ratings on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s show to be good. Schwarzenegger took over as host of “The Apprentice” — which buoyed Trump’s celebrity status years ago
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Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Hanging up on Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull Early in his presidency, Trump reportedly hung up the phone on Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull after the foreign leader angered him over refugee plans. Mr Trump later said that it was the “worst call” he had had so far
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Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... The 'Muslim ban' Perhaps one of his most controversial policies while acting as president, Trump’s travel ban targeting predominantly Muslim countries has bought him a lot of criticism. The bans were immediately protested, and judges initially blocked their implementation. The Supreme Court later sided with the administration’s argument that the ban was developed out of concern for US security
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Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... 'Little Rocket Man' During his first-ever speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Trump tried out a new nickname for North Korea leader Kim Jong-un: Rocket Man. He later tweaked it to be “little Rocket Man” as the two feuded, and threatened each other with nuclear war. During that speech, he also threatened to totally annihilate North Korea
Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Attacking Sadiq Khan following London Bridge terror attack After the attack on the London Bridge, Trump lashed out at London Mayor Sadiq Khan, criticising Khan for saying there was “no reason to be alarmed” after the attack. Trump was taking the comments out of context, as Khan was simply saying that the police had everything under control
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Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Claiming presenter Mika Brezinkski was 'bleeding from the face' Never one not to mock his enemies, Trump mocked MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski, saying that she and co-host Joe Scarborough had approached him before his inauguration asking to “join” him. He noted that she was “bleeding badly from a face-lift” at the time, and that he said no
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Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Claiming the blame for Charlottesville was on 'both sides' Trump refused to condemn far-right extremists involved in violence at 'the march for the right' protests in Charlottesville, even after the murder of counter protester Heather Heyer
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Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Retweeting cartoon of CNN being hit by a 'Trump train' Trump retweeted a cartoon showing a Trump-branded train running over a person whose body and head were replaced by a CNN avatar. He later deleted the retweet
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Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Not realising being president would be 'hard' Just three months into his presidency, Trump admitted that being president is harder than he thought it would be. Though Trump insisted on the 2016 campaign trail that doing the job would be easy for him, he admitted in an interview that living in the White House is harder than running a business empire
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Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Accusing Obama of wiretapping him Trump accused former president Barack Obama of wire tapping him on twitter. The Justice Department later clarified: Obama had not, in fact, done so
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Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Claiming there had been 3 million 'illegal votes' Trump was never very happy about losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by 2.8 million ballots. So, he and White House voter-fraud commissioner Kris Kobach have claimed that anywhere between three and five million people voted illegally during the 2016 election. Conveniently, he says that all of those illegal votes went to Clinton. (There is no evidence to support that level of widespread voter fraud.)
Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Leaving Jews out of the Holocaust memorial statement Just days after taking office, Trump’s White House issued a statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, but didn’t mention “jews” or even the word “jewish” in the written statement
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Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Anger over Inauguration crowd size Trump’s inauguration crowd was visibly, and noticeably, smaller than that of his predecessor, Barack Obama. But, he really wanted to have had the largest crowd on record. So, he praised it as the biggest crowd ever. Relatedly, Trump also claimed that it stopped raining in Washington at the moment he was inaugurated. It didn’t, the day was very dreary
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Just after the 2016 election, Mr Spencer was captured in a video giving a passionate speech accompanied by the Nazi salute and shouts of "hail Trump", in an apparent reference to the salutes of soldiers during Nazi Germany during Adolph Hitler's reign.
During the interview between Mr Younge and Spencer, the alt-right figurehead argued that African Americans who were enslaved in the US were better off than their counterparts who now live in Africa, pointing toward high life expectancy rates in the United States, a developed country, compared to those in Africa, where many countries are still developing.
Mr Younge took issue with the comparison, noting that the US benefited from the practice of forcibly removing Africans from their communities and bringing them to America.
"It’s such a ridiculous notion that people forcibly removed from their homes and taken to this country to work for nothing for a couple of centuries and that benefited them," Mr Younge said. "Have you ever for a second considered that if they were able to stay in the countries where they were born and lived and weren’t forcibly removed that those continents might be in a better state now?"
"I seriously doubt that," Mr Spencer responded.
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