Donald Trump has refused to condemn white supremacist violence during an often bitter first presidential debate with his Democrat rival Joe Biden.

In a stormy 90 minute long discussion the US President was asked by Fox News moderator Chris Wallace if he was willing  “to condemn white supremacists and militia groups” for bitter violence at protests in Kenosha and Portland.

Responding, President Trump said: "I would say almost everything I see is from the left wing, not from the right. ... I'm willing to do anything. I want to see peace."

Mr Wallace then encouraged Mr Trump to actually call out the names of the “white supremacists and right-wing militias”  at the centre of much of the violence across the US.

“Who would you like me to condemn? The Proud Boys? Stand back and stand by. But I’ll tell you what, I’ll tell you what. Somebody’s gotta do something about antifa and the left, because this is not a right-wing problem, this is a left-wing problem,” said Mr Trump.

His comments were immediately condemned by Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League.

He wrote on Twitter:” "It's astonishing that, when asked a simple question, will you condemn white supremacists, POTUS responded, 'The Proud Boys should stand back and stand by.' Trying to determine if this was an answer or an admission. POTUS owes America an apology or an explanation. Now."

Throughout the debate the two White House contenders talked over each other and exchanged insults. 

Mr Trump repeatedly interrupted Mr Biden  who at one point lost his patience and snapped: “Will you shut up, man? This is so unpresidential.”

Mr Biden  called Mr Trump a "clown," a "racist," and "Putin's puppy" in reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

At one stage he told the Republican: "You're the worst president America has ever had."Defending his record on the coronavirus pandemic, Mr Trump said: “Joe, you could never have done the job we've done. You don't have it in your blood."

With five weeks until the US elections in November, the president is trailing his rival in the polls.

A far-right group, the Proud Boys were founded by Gavin McInnes. While antisemitism is not the main focus of the group’s racism Mr McInnes has made a series of antisemitic statements in the past and the group have marched alongside neo-Nazi groups.

In 2017 Mr McInnes defended Holocaust denial and repeated antisemitic stereotypes in a video he originally titled “10 things I hate about the Jews.”

“I felt myself defending the super far-right Nazis just because I was sick of so much brainwashing and I felt like going, ‘Well, they never said it didn’t happen. What they’re saying is it was much less than 6 million and that they starved to death and weren’t gassed, that they didn’t have supplies,’” he said, before adding, “I’m not saying it wasn’t gassing.”

He has also blamed Jews for Joseph Stalin’s starvation of millions of Ukrainians.