The Trump campaign’s view is that he was ambushed by the question and that the president doesn’t even know who the Proud Boys are.

“We’re aggressively pushing back on the narrative,” one official told Axios.

Before boarding Marine One this afternoon, Trump told reporters he doesn’t know the group, but they should stand down and let law enforcement do its work.

One Trump aide said this is a start, but that the general consensus among those close to the president is that he still needs to outright condemn far-right extremists.

Trump’s advisers are also planning to encourage the president to interrupt Joe Biden less in the next two debates.