U.S. President Donald Trump was close to apologizing Friday for sharing three unverified anti-Muslim videos from a British far-right group last November but stopped short of actually saying sorry.
In a sit-down interview with British journalist and TV host Piers Morgan, Trump was pressed on whether he regretted sharing the videos.
“Well, you know, look, it was done because I am a big believer in fighting radical Islamic terror,” Trump said in the interview. “This was a depiction of radical Islamic terror.”
READ MORE: Donald Trump retweets anti-Muslim videos, White House says threat real even if videos aren’t
Trump shared the videos that were first posted by Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader of Britain First, a far-right group founded in 2011 that frequently posts anti-immigration views.
Fransen tweeted the videos with the descriptions: “Muslim migrant beats up Dutch boy on crutches!” “Muslim Destroys a Statue of Virgin Mary!” and “Islamist mob pushes teenage boy off roof and beats him to death!”
Trump, at the time, did not offer any explanation for why he retweeted the videos.
“They’re unverified videos, at least one of them was not what it seemed,” Morgan told Trump.
“Well, they are but I didn’t do it. I didn’t go out and I did a retweet,” Trump said. “It was a big story where you are but it was not a big story where I am.”
British Prime Minster Theresa May had said Trump was wrong to share the anti-Muslim videos from the far-right party.
“Britain First is a hateful organization it seeks to spread division and mistrust among our communities. It stands in fundamental opposition to the values that we share as a nation, values of respect tolerance and common British decency,” May said. “The fact that we work together does not mean that we’re afraid to say when we think the United States have got it wrong, and to be very clear with them and I’m very clear that retweeting from Britain First was the wrong thing to do.”
READ MORE: Theresa May condemned Donald Trump for tweeting anti-Muslim videos, Trump replies
Morgan asked Trump during the interview if he could “get an apology just for the retweets.”
“Here’s what’s fair. If you’re telling me these are horrible people, horrible racist people, I would certainly apologize if you would like me to do that,” the president said. “I know nothing about them.”
In November, Fransen had acknowledged Trump had shared her videos.
“THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, DONALD TRUMP, HAS RETWEETED THREE OF DEPUTY LEADER JAYDA FRANSEN’S TWITTER VIDEOS! DONALD TRUMP HIMSELF HAS RETWEETED THESE VIDEOS AND HAS AROUND 44 MILLION FOLLOWERS! GOD BLESS YOU TRUMP! GOD BLESS AMERICA!” she tweeted.
Her account has since been suspended.
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