Nick Sandmann, a junior at Covington Catholic High School who was featured in the viral video that showed him face-to-face with a Native American man, said he felt like he was not being disrespectful in an interview with NBC News’ Savannah Guthrie scheduled to air Wednesday morning.
While many immediately assigned blame to the students, it later became clear, when more video surfaced, that they did not initiate the confrontation.
“Do you feel from this experience that you owe anybody an apology? Do you see your own fault in any way?”
Tune in to @NBCNightlyNews for a preview of @SavannahGuthrie‘s interview with Nick Sandmann. Full interview tomorrow on TODAY. pic.twitter.com/7Croh0Toyj
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) January 22, 2019
“Do you feel that you owe anybody an apology? Do you see your own fault in any way?” Guthrie asked.
Sandmann responded, “As far as standing there, I had every right to do so. My position is that I was not disrespectful to Mr. Phillips. I respect him. I’d like to talk to him. In hindsight, I wish we would have walked away and avoided the whole thing.” (RELATED: Kathy Griffin Gets Dunked On For Suggesting Covington Catholic Basketball Players Used ‘Nazi’ Hand Gesture)
NBC News teased the interview by releasing this clip Tuesday evening.
He has already released a statement explaining his recollection of events after the incident gained national attention. In it, he wrote, “The protestors[sic] said hateful things. They called us ‘racists,’ ‘bigots,’ ‘white crackers,’ ‘faggots,’ and ‘incest kids.’ They also taunted an African-American student from my school by telling him that they would ‘harvest his organs.’”
Nathan Phillips, the Native American man in the video, explained on Tuesday that he may call for the students’ expulsion.