President Donald Trump: White supremacist group Proud Boys should 'stand back and stand by'

President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden face off in the first presidential debate Tuesday night, hosted by Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. For access to live and exclusive video from CNBC subscribe to CNBC PRO: https://cnb.cx/2NGeIvi

Republican Sen. Tim Scott said Wednesday that he believes President Donald Trump “needs to correct” comments from his debate with former Vice President Joe Biden, where Trump did not explicitly condemn White supremacists and violent right-wing groups.

Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, said, “White supremacy should be denounced at every turn. I think the president misspoke, and he needs to correct it.”

He added: “If he doesn’t correct it, I guess he didn’t misspeak.”

Scott, a supporter of Trump’s who spoke at the Republican National Convention, gave those remarks to reporters before heading into a meeting with Judge Amy Coney Barrett, Trump’s Supreme Court nominee.

The White House declined to comment on the South Carolina senator’s remarks. But when asked earlier Wednesday about the president’s controversial comments at the debate, White House communications director Alyssa Farah said, “I don’t think that there’s anything to clarify.”

In the vicious, bare-knuckled brawl of a debate Tuesday night, Trump had been asked by the moderator, Fox News’ Chris Wallace, if he was willing to condemn White supremacists and right-wing militia members who have added to the recent civil unrest seen in U.S. cities.

“You have repeatedly criticized the [former] vice president for not calling out antifa and other left-wing groups, but are you willing tonight to condemn White supremacists and militia groups and say that they need to stand down and not add to the violence in a number of these cities as we saw in Kenosha and as we’ve seen in Portland?” Wallace asked.

Trump initially said, “Sure, I’m willing to do that.” But when repeatedly prompted by Wallace and Biden to follow through and flatly condemn those groups, the president pivoted back to his denunciations of the left.

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