Trump, White House yet to condemn 'white power' video he retweeted

As of Tuesday morning, more than 48 hours had passed since President Donald Trump retweeted a video of a supporter repeatedly using a clearly audible racist slur, and he had still not condemned the use of the term, distanced himself from the supporter or apologized for sharing it with his 82 million Twitter followers and the American people.

Despite the uproar over the video of the man at The Villages retirement community in Florida shouting "white power" back at a counter protester, and Trump calling them "great people," White House press secretary Kaleigh McEnany opened Monday's press briefing echoing the president's "law and order" message, providing an update on arrests made amid ongoing nationwide protests against racism, including attacks on statues.

"Law and order are the building blocks to the American dream. But if anarchy prevails, this dream comes crumbling down," McEnany said.

Asked about the "white power" video tweet, McEnany said only that Trump listened to the video before retweeting it out but did not hear that chant, and when asked directly as she left the briefing whether the president condemned the use of the term "white power," she didn't respond.

Within the first eight seconds of the video, a supporter driving a golf cart with Trump 2020 sign, repeatedly and loudly chanted the term "white power" tied to white supremacy.

It showed a scene from a "Villagers for Trump" golf cart parade that took place in The Villages on June 14.

After a few hours on display Sunday, the tweet was taken down from the president's account while he was out golfing with Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., at Trump National Golf club in Sterling, Virginia.

In an interview with Fox News earlier Monday, McEnany also did not take the opportunity to condemn use of the phrase or the sentiment behind it. Instead, she repeated her deputy's statement from the day before.

"The president did not hear that phrase in that portion of the video, and when it was signaled to him that it was in there, he took that tweet down," McEnany said in the interview. "But he made very clear to me that he stands with the people of The Villages, our great seniors, men and women in the villages, who support this president," she said.

"He stands for them and his point in tweeting out that video was to stand with his supporters who are oftentimes demonized," she added. "So, he took it down but he does stand with the men and women of The Villages."

Her deputy, Judd Deere, on Sunday pointed to the "tremendous enthusiasm" of the supporters in the video -- also without noting any issue with the chant.

President Trump, meanwhile, has claimed as recently as April that when it comes to the content he tweets: "I notice everything."

After hours of criticism Sunday morning, including from the only African American Republican in the Senate, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., a supporter Trump mentions almost every time he is asked about race who called it "indefensible," the tweet was taken down from the president's account.

Other than Scott, who was asked about it in a CNN interview, there has been virtual silence from other Republicans.

It's not the first time the president has failed to condemn white supremacy.

During the 2016 campaign, it took him months to disavow David Duke, leader of the Ku Klux Klan -- at one point professing he had no idea who he was.

Trump eventually read a statement from Trump Tower condemning the neo-Nazis and assorted white supremacists in Charlottesville at a "United The Right" rally which left one counter-protester dead. The president infamously said there were "very fine people on both sides."

He later vowed he would never give a statement like that again when it was portrayed as a "course correction."

In recent weeks, Twitter has started flagging several of Trump's tweets with warning labels.

During protests in the wake of George Floyd's death, Trump tweeted "when the looting starts, the shooting starts" tweet, marking the first time the platform slapped a warning label on the president's tweet. It did so again last week for Trump's tweet threatening "serious force" against protesters attempting to form a "Black House Autonomous Zone" outside the White House.

As the nation continues to grapple with unrest, Trump on Monday morning retweeted an ABC News video tweet of a white couple, armed with guns pointed at Black Lives Matter protesters in St. Louis as they marched toward the mayor's home to demand her resignation Sunday night.

ABC News' Ben Gittleson and Elizabeth Thomas contributed to this report.