What does “stand by” mean?

During the debate with Joe Biden ahead of the presidential elections, US President Donald Trump was asked to explicitly dissociate himself from far-right armed groups who support his candidacy throughout the country, and from which he has never really distanced himself. Trump seemed quite dumbfounded and asked Biden and moderator Chris Wallace to name one of these groups. After Biden suggested a group called Proud Boys, Trump gave an answer that is being talked about a lot.

Trump replied that the Proud Boys should “stand back e stand by»: Two formulas that in English mean very different things, as the Merriam-Webster dictionary’s Twitter account reminded him. Stand back essentially means “take a step back”, while stand by above all it means “getting ready” (and not “taking a break”, as we often mean it in Italian, perhaps because of electronic devices). The leader of the extremist group, Enrique Tarrio, he said a CNN to have interpreted Trump’s exhortation to keep doing what they are doing; the group is already using Trump’s phrase as a slogan.

‘Stand back’: to take a few steps backwards

‘Stand by’: to be or to get ready to act # Debates2020

– Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) September 30, 2020

Stand by is an expression that has many different meanings depending on the context in which it is used. It can mean standing still while something happens (“to stand by while …”) or it can mean an expression of support for an idea or concept (“to stand by our view”) or even next to a person (the song Stand by me does that tell you anything?). Again, “stand by” can mean also let others take care of a certain thing. Immediately after the debate, Trump specified that the Proud Boys should “let the security forces do their job”. “I think he got the wrong word and should correct himself”, he said yesterday Tim Scott, the only African American Republican senator.

Trump’s aides have been explaining to reporters since yesterday that Trump really meant that the Proud Boys should “step aside,” as former Trump election committee spokesman Jason Miller said.

Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller says on @MeetThePress Daily that when Trump told the Proud Boys to “stand by” last night, he meant “stand by the wayside and get out of the way” of law enforcement.

– Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) September 30, 2020

For many, however, Trump’s response is proof of his ambiguity towards the extreme and violent fringes of the US right, which he does not want to condemn to avoid losing consensus among some of the most enthusiastic supporters of his presidency. In the past Trump has repeatedly had the opportunity to disassociate himself from violent far-right movements or groups – from the group Bogaloo passing through the followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory – but he never did it openly.

The Proud Boys were founded in late 2016 by Gavin McInnes, one of the magazine’s founders Vice. For several years now they have been organizing demonstrations and rallies to support Trump, and they often express racist, homophobic and violent positions. Heidi Beirich, an expert on violent groups belonging to the far right, he told al Washington Post that the Proud Boys have hundreds of members and have been very adept at exploiting recent ethnic tensions in cities like Portland to gain exposure.

In the last hours Trump tried to correct the shot explaining that before the debate he did not know the Proud Boys: however, he again avoided dissociation, continuing to blame the radical fringes of the Democratic Party and the movement ANTIFA to have caused tensions and violence (especially after the killing of African Americans George Floyd and Breonna Taylor by the police).

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