Finally ...Trump blasts ‘repugnant’ neo-nazis and KKK
DONALD Trump last night bowed to intense pressure and belatedly condemned far-Right violence in Virginia and the white nationalist groups behind it.
Reading a prepared statement from an autocue, the President said that ‘racism is evil’ and called the Ku Klux Klan, neo-nazis and white supremacists ‘repugnant’.
For two days he had faced growing anger over his mealy-mouthed claim that ‘many sides’ were to blame for the fighting in Charlottesville, in which a female protester was mown down and killed by a car allegedly driven by a white supremacist and admirer of Adolf Hitler.
Mr Trump, who dragged his feet during the election campaign about disavowing the support of the Ku Klux Klan, had been looking increasingly isolated as senior members of his administration pressed him to personally condemn the far-Right groups.
The radical organisations have largely orchestrated the bloodshed during the ‘Unite the Right’ protest.
However, even after calling a special Press conference at the White House, Mr Trump made a point of first boasting about his administration’s economic good news. Only then did he turn to the worst race violence the US has seen for years.
‘Racism is evil. And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo- nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans,’ he said.
‘We are a nation founded on the truth that all of us are created equal.
‘Those who spread violence in the name of bigotry strike at the very core of America.’
Mr Trump said the Department of Justice had opened a civil rights investigation into the weekend’s violence.
‘We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence,’ he said.
‘As I have said many times before, no matter the colour of our skin, we all live under the same laws.’
In the 48 hours before Mr Trump’s statement, White House spokesmen and members of his cabinet, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions, had been forced to defend the President against accusations he was unwilling to condemn white supremacists – many of whom voted for him.
In private, some of his top advisers, including chief of staff John Kelly, urged him to issue a more forceful condemnation after his remarks on Saturday suggesting white nationalists and counterprotesters were equally to blame caused widespread outrage.
Mr Trump stoked the anger yes- terday after he attacked a prominent black businessmen for quitting a Trump advisory board over the row. Kenneth Frazier, chief executive of pharmaceutical giant Merck, resigned from the administration’s American Manufacturing Council, saying he objected to Mr Trump’s statement blaming ‘many sides’.
Mr Frazier said US leaders had to ‘honour our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy’. An angry Mr Trump then tweeted: ‘Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President’s Manufacturing Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!’
Yesterday Mr Sessions said the ‘evil attack’ in Charlottesville met the legal definition of an act of domestic terrorism.
James Fields, who is accused of ramming his car into a crowd – killing Heather Heyer, 32, and injuring 19 others – was denied bail on Monday on charges including second degree murder.
Fields, 20, from Ohio, told the court he worked for security firm Securitas. One of his former teachers, Derek Weimer, said Fields was infatuated with the Nazis and had extreme views on race – and that he may have been on anti-psychotic drugs at the time of the attack.
‘All of us are created equal’