White House trade adviser Peter Navarro Wednesday blamed Fox News anchor and debate moderator Chris Wallace for President Donald Trump's "stand back and stand by" comment about the Proud Boys, saying the veteran newsman acted as a "cutman" for Joe Biden.
"I think that moment for me underscored just how poor Chris Wallace did as a debate moderator," Navarro told MSNBC's Hallie Jackson. "There's an expression in boxing, there is a cutman in a corner. Chris Wallace functioned, essentially, as Joe Biden's cutman and also as a second debater on the president."
Navarro also insisted Trump was going to denounce white supremacists after Wallace's question but claimed Wallace "cut him off."
"I think the president has made it clear that he wants no part of that kind of stuff," he said. "What I saw last night was Chris Wallace interrupting him when the president was about to clear that up."
Navarro added that Trump has "denounced white supremacists repeatedly," but "you guys just aren't hearing that. What I think Chris Wallace did last night was basically serve as Joe Biden's cutman."
Meanwhile, Navarro said the debate showed clear differences between Trump and Biden.
"One of the points President Trump made last night, which is exactly right, is when the president pulled down the China flights on Jan. 31, Joe Biden opposed that," said Navarro. "The fact that he opposed that would suggest that if he had been president, we would have gone months with those flights coming in and instead of 200,000 Americans being dead, there would be 1 million or more. I think that's an important point to recognize."
Trump also made good points with Biden's handling of the H1N1 swine flu pandemic in 2009, Navarro said.
"I think if people are going to vote for Biden because they think he might do better on the China virus, I think they're dead wrong on that. The president underscored that," he added.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.