On Monday, Philip Rucker, the White House bureau chief from the Washington Post, claimed that President Donald Trump’s support for those who have rallied against the states’ stay-at-home orders should be equated to his support on neo-Nazi protesters in Charlottesville.

In an interview for left-wing media network, MSNBC, Rucker told The 11th Hour anchor Brian Williams that “The other thing that the president sees when he looks at images of these protesters like the ones playing right now is he sees his own campaign banner.” Rucker continued to say that “Trump, the president, knows that he needs to show in solidarity with them.” He added that “It’s one of the reasons why, for example, after the Charlottesville attack, he showed solidarity with the neo-Nazi protesters there.”

The left-wing smear campaign is nothing new. In fact, there has been increasing concern over media bias and misinformation in the country. For example, Rucker’s claim that Trump supports “neo-Nazi” had already been debunked a few years ago, and yet the media continued to propagate it, not as a hoax, but as a credible fact. Even left-wing media such as CNN, as well as presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden had constantly referred to Trump’s alleged claims, in which the president described neo-Nazi protesters in Charlottesville as “very fine people.”

However, based on Trump’s complete statement, he did not in any way show his support for neo-Nazis, but rather condemned them for their actions. During the controversial statement, Trump defended Charlottesville protesters, saying that not all of them are neo-Nazis. He acknowledged that while there were “bad” people in the group, there were also “very fine people” on both ends of the protest.

The president then clarified his statements, saying that he was not referring to the neo-Nazis and the so-called “white nationalists.” Instead, Trump said that the press had treated non-violent protesters “unfairly.”

In addition, Trump also condemned the death of left-wing protester Heather Heyer by neo-nazis, saying that Heyer’s death should be considered as an act of “terrorism.”

A year after the hoax began circulating, Trump’s vocal critic, Jake Tapper, admitted that the news was fake and that it should be discredited.

On the other hand, Rucker’s comments might be a reflection of a much bigger problem in the media. While other media outlets have focused on targeting Trump’s failure and incapability to handle the virus, they have also used the “neo-Nazi” hoax as another form of a smear campaign. In fact, another MSNBC guest described the GOP protesters as “the Fox News, Nazi, confederate death cult” of the GOP.”

Despite airing his support for the protesters, Trump continued to remind the general public to observe social distancing.