Trump, speaking in Ohio on Friday, referred to Robert E. Lee as a “great general,” and claimed that President Lincoln was afraid of the Confederate leader.
“So Robert E Lee was a great general and Abraham Lincoln developed a phobia. He couldn’t beat Robert E Lee. He was going crazy,” said Trump during the Ohio rally with supporters.
NBC picked up on the statement, posting a clip of the President on Twitter
Today, Trump tweeted in response to NBC, accusing the network of “dishonest reporting” by framing his statement as purely praise for Lee, but not including his comments on Grant.
It was the latter — who hailed from Ohio — that trump praised as “incredible,” though the distinction was somewhat unclear from teh way Trump told the story.
Grant would later go on to be President after his victories in the Civil War, but his presidency was littered with corruption and scandal.
Lee, meanwhile, has been a subject of great dispute. It was a statue of Lee that was initially at the center of the Charlottesville “Unite the Right” march that left one dead and several others wounded when white supremacists descended n the city.
View the president’s comments on Lee and Grant below.
Image via screen capture from video source.