Nick Sandmann said on NBC he was ‘not disrespectful’ during his interaction with Nathan Phillips, an Omaha tribe leader

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The high school student filmed in an apparent standoff with a Native American activist in Washington DC has said he was “not disrespectful” and “wasn’t smirking” during the interaction, as a spokesman for Donald Trump said students from Covington high school may be invited to the White House.

“As far as standing there, I had every right to do so,” Nick Sandmann told NBC Today’s Savannah Guthrie. A video which was widely shared over the weekend showed Sandmann grinning inches from Nathan Phillips, an Omaha tribe leader, as Phillips sang and played a drum.

“My position is I was not disrespectful to Mr Phillips. I respect him. I’d like to talk to him. In hindsight I wish we could have walked away and avoided the whole thing,” Sandmann said.

On Wednesday morning White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told Fox News Trump would “certainly be open to having them here” after the government shutdown ends. Trump tweeted in support of the students on Tuesday.

In the immediate aftermath of the video’s release many perceived Sandmann to have been mocking Phillips by smiling inches from the Native Americans face. Sandmann said that was not his intention.

“I see it as a smile saying that this is the best you’re going to get out of me, you won’t get any further reaction or aggression,” Sandmann said. “I wasn’t smirking.”

Sandmann and other students from Covington Catholic high school, in northern Kentucky, had been attending the anti-abortion March for Life in DC on Friday. Video subsequently emerged of the students chanting and shouting in front of Phillips, who has said he felt threatened by the group.

After the initial video went viral, other footage emerged shedding more light on the confrontation. A small group of Black Hebrew Israelites were shown shouting at the group of Covington students, with one man appearing to call the students “incest babies”.

Play Video 1:28 Fresh footage gives more detail on confrontation between Native American and teenagers – video

“Our school was slandered by the African Americans who had called us all sorts of things,” Sandmann said.

Aside from the Sandmann and Phillips confrontation the Covington students have also been criticized for chanting and shouting school songs or mocking Phillips and other Native Americans present.

“They provoked us into a peaceful response of school spirit,” Sandmann said of the students’ response.

On Monday separate footage emerged of Covington students wearing black face at a 2012 school basketball game. Sam Schroder, a Covington student who was at the March for Life, told Fox News on Wednesday that that incident was not racist.

“I just explain it as showing our school spirit,” Schroder said.

“We had many themes, like nerd, business, white-out, blue-out, black-out, as you’ve seen in the video.”

Schroder, who was not a Covington student at the time of the basketball game, said the school has stopped students from wearing black face at sporting events.

“I know the kids meant nothing by it,” Schroder said of the students shown in the basketball video.