Trump slams media for ‘hate’ row
UNITED STATES: President Donald Trump, surrounded by thousands of supporters, yesterday defended his response to the violence at a rally organised by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, and attacked the media for ‘‘giving a platform to hate groups’’.
Trump told the friendly crowd at the political rally in Arizona that his words in the aftermath of the Virginia event had been ‘‘perfect’’.
He revved up the crowd with criticism of journalists, who he said did not report what he had said. Many in the crowd turned and pointed at reporters in the room. Some chanted ‘‘CNN sucks.’’
Trump also suggested he might pardon Joe Arpaio, a former sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, who was found guilty last month of criminal contempt for violating the terms of a 2011 court order in a racial profiling case. Arpaio, 85, lost a re-election bid last year in the county.
‘‘Do the people in this room like Sheriff Joe?’’ Trump asked, sparking loud applause and a chant of ‘‘Pardon Joe!’’
‘‘Was Sheriff Joe convicted for doing his job?’’ Trump asked. ‘‘I won’t do it tonight because I don’t want to cause any controversy.’’
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters travelling with Trump on Air Force One earlier yesterday: ‘‘There will be no discussion of that today at any point and no action will be taken on that front at any point today.’’
Trump drew broad criticism for blaming both white nationalists and counter-protesters for the violence at the Charlottesville rally, which was organised by neo-Nazis and white supremacists. Onewoman was killed.
Protesters outside yesterday’s rally yelled: ‘‘Shame, shame, shame’’ and ‘‘No Trump, No KKK, No fascist USA’’ as Trump supporters began filing into the Phoenix Convention Centre. Supporters chanted: ‘‘Build the wall’’, a reference to Trump’s pledge to erect a wall on the US border with Mexico.
Trump has held a series of 2020 re-election campaign stops despite only having taken office in January.
Phoenix mayor Greg Stanton, a Democrat, had asked him to postpone the event while the nation healed from outrage and division after the deadly rally in Charlottesville.
Neither John McCain nor Jeff Flake, Arizona’s senators, was expected to attend the Phoenix event, said a source familiar with Flake’s re-election campaign and published reports, underscoring Trump’s fractious relationship with some in his own party.
A heavy police presence deployed around the Phoenix venue. Some White House officials privately expressed concern on Tuesday about Trump’s Phoenix rally, fearing he might revisit the Charlottesville issue in the heat of the moment while cheered on by supporters.
‘‘The president is always welcome in Arizona,’’ Flake spokesman Will Allison said. Flake ‘‘hopes the president will speak constructively about moving forward with tax reform, border security, and other important issues facing our country’’, Allison said.
Earlier this summer, Flake published a book questioning the direction of the Republican Party in the Trump era, making him one of the few party members willing to criticise the president.
Last week, Trump sent a tweet voicing support for Flake’s challenger, Kelli Ward, in next year’s Arizona Senate Republican primary. Trump called Flake ‘‘toxic’’ and ‘‘weak’’.
The president has also made caustic remarks about McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee and war hero, who is battling cancer. – Reuters