Nathan Phillips says he forgives the Covington Catholic student from the viral encounter

Over the past several days, the internet has been divided over a viral video depicting students from Kentucky’s Covington Catholic High School appearing to mock Native American protesters outside the Lincoln Memorial on January 18th. Yesterday, January 23rd, Nick Sandmann—the student in the red MAGA hat from the now-viral encounter—told Today host Savannah Guthrie that he felt he “was not disrespectful” toward Native American elder Nathan Phillips. And now, in a new interview on Today, Phillips has responded by saying that he forgives Sandmann. He told Guthrie that he had watched the Covington Catholic student’s interview, and though he thought it sounded “coached,” he still has forgiveness in his heart.

"Coached and written up for him. Insincerity. Lack of responsibility," Phillips said. "Those are the words I came up with. But then I went to go pray about it. And then I woke up, and I woke up with this forgiving heart. So I forgive him."

“Even though I’m angry, I still have that forgiveness in my heart for those students.”

Phillips also reiterated that he heard the students chanting, “Build that wall.” Later, when Guthrie asked him if he felt heshould have been the one to walk away and end the confrontation, Phillips said that he had been trying to do that.

"That's what I was trying to do. I was trying to walk away," he said. "There was a spot, there was a place I could take my peoples because we were surrounded, we couldn’t go right, we couldn’t go left."

Ultimately, Phillips said that he was “blocked” by the Covington Catholic students.

“I asked the young man this question. I’ll ask you the same thing…Should you have walked away?” @savannahguthrie to Nathan Phillips

Phillips said that Sandmann’s statement wasn’t written in his own words since he had the help of a PR firm (the Louisville Courier Journal first reported on Sandmann’s use of a firm). He concluded by saying he wanted to see “some sincerity, some responsibility for his actions” from Sandmann.

We’re happy that Phillips was finally able to share his side of the story—and his reaction to Sandmann’s account—in his own words.