Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmanntold "Today" he wishes he could have walked away from his encounter with Black Hebrew Israelites on Friday.He also said that he wishes he could have walked away from Native American activist Nathan Phillips, who he stared down in a viral encounter after the incident with the Black Hebrew Israelite group.At the same time, Sandmann said he made his smiling expression to indicate that Phillips couldn't provoke him.Nick Sandmann said he could have just "walked away" from the encounter that made him go viral and become the centerpiece in a new political culture war.Sandmann, a student at Kentucky's Covington Catholic High School, went viral Friday when he stared down Native American activist Nathan Phillips at the Indigenous Peoples March in Washington, D.C., while he wore a Make America Great Again hat. His white classmates ' in town to participate in the pro-life March for Life ' stood nearby and made stereotypical Native American war cries and appeared to make "Tomahawk chop" gestures.Sandmann's family hired a public relations firm amid his ongoing media tour following the incident. And in an interview with Savannah Guthrie at NBC's "TODAY" show, he attempted to focus on the Black Hebrew Israelites who verbally assaulted him and other students with insults and homophobic slurs, before his encounter with Phillips."In hindsight, I wish we had just found another spot to wait for our buses," Sandmann told "TODAY." "But at the time, being positive seemed better than letting them slander us with all of these things. I wish we could have walked away."Read more: A Kentucky PR firm was reportedly behind high-schooler Nick Sandmann's statement on his viral confrontation with a Native American protesterIn videos of the encounter between Covington Catholic High School Students and the Black Hebrew Israelites, you can see the students jeer in response to the group. Sandmann didn't answer Guthrie's question about whether he or his classmates responded with racial slurs against the Black Hebrew Israelites."We're a Catholic school, and they don't tolerate racism. And none of my classmates are racist people," Sandmann said.Phillips said he and his group came between the high school students and the Black Hebrew Israelite group to defuse the situation.The viral video shows Sandmann staring down Phillips, mouth closed and smirking as Phillips beats a drum and chants the American Indian Movement song.Sandmann gave "TODAY" two different explanations of his behavior. He told Guthrie he was making an expression meant to signal that Phillips couldn't provoke him. But he also claimed he was receptive to Phillips having a conversation with him at that moment."Now, I wish I would have walked away. I didn't want to be disrespectful to Mr. Phillips and try to walk away if he was trying to talk to me," he said. "But I was surrounded by a lot of people I didn't know that had phones out, had cameras, and I didn't want to bump into anyone or seem like I was trying to do something."Read more:The school at the center of the controversy surrounding the viral video of a confrontation between students and a Native American protester closed Tuesday over safety concerns and threatsA Kentucky PR firm was reportedly behind high schooler Nick Sandmann's statement on his viral confrontation with a Native American protesterTrump tweeted in support of the students involved in Native American protester confrontation at Lincoln MemorialVisitINSIDER's homepagefor more.Join the conversation about this storyNOW WATCH: 7 science-backed ways to a happier and healthier 2019 that you can do the first week of the new year
Click here to read full news..
