A day after the presidential debate, Donald Trump has still refused to condemn white supremacist groups.
During yesterday's debate he instructed one such group, the Proud Boys, to "stand back and stand by".
But today he denied any knowledge of them.
"I don't know who the Proud Boys are," Mr Trump said.
"Whoever they are, they have to stand down. Let law enforcement do their work."
He made a similar plea of ignorance in 2016 when asked to disavow the former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, David Duke.
"Sure, I would do that, if it made you feel better," Mr Trump told a reporter.
"I don't know anything about him."
Duke endorsed Mr Trump in 2016 and again this year.
Who are The Proud Boys?
The Proud Boys are a male-only white supremacist organisation declared by the FBI to be an "extremist group".
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has labelled the group "misogynistic, Islamophobic, transphobic and anti-immigration. Some members espouse white supremacist and anti-Semitic ideologies."
"The Proud Boys bear many of the hallmarks of a gang, and its members have taken part in multiple acts of brutal violence and intimidation," a description on the ADL website reads.
"While the Proud Boys insist that they only act in self-defence, several incidents —including one in which two members of the group were convicted of attempted gang assault, attempted assault and riot— belie their self-professed peaceful nature."
Among the Proud Boys' alumni is Jason Kessler, the organiser of the deadly neo-Nazi demonstration in Charlottesville in 2017.
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Who founded the Proud Boys?
The group was started by the co-founder of the provocative hipster magazine Vice, Gavin McInnes.
After leaving the magazine in 2008, McInnes became a leading figure in the alt-right political movement, but has been banned from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube for his hate speech.
But he has found an outlet on the social media platform Parler, which has become a refuge for people too vile for Twitter.
McInnes quoted Mr Trump's debate comments, quoting him directly to his excited followers.
In his podcasts, McInnes has made hateful comments about women, immigrants, Muslims, Indigenous Australians, Palestinians, transgender people and liberals.
Are the Proud Boys violent?
The Proud Boys claim only to act in self-defence, but there have been numerous instances of the group members initiating acts of violence.
And McInnes himself has not kept the violent nature of the group a secret.
"We will kill you. That's the Proud Boys in a nutshell. We will kill you," he said in a podcast episode in 2016.
In the past month the group has repeatedly engaged in brawls with protesters in Portland, armed with bear mace, clubs and paintball guns.
Yesterday, one member named Alan James Swinney was charged by Portland Police on a dozen assault-related charges.
One member is accused of breaking the finger of investigative journalist Robert Evans last month.
Do the Proud Boys support Donald Trump?
Despite their small size, the Proud Boys are one of Donald Trump's most loyal fan groups, according to the ADL.
"After several years of forging alliances with members of the Republican political establishment, the Proud Boys have carved out a niche for themselves as both a right-wing fight club and a volunteer security force for the GOP," the ADL says.
"Despite their associations with mainstream politicians, Proud Boys' actions and statements repeatedly land them in the company of white supremacists and right-wing extremists."
The group can be easily identified by their "Make America Great Again" baseball caps and black and yellow Fred Perry shirts.
Fred Perry, a UK clothing-maker, discontinued their line of black and yellow shirts this week because they wanted no association with the Proud Boys.
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