Rex: 'Prez speaks for himself'
Tillerson cold to Trump’s Va. remarks
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Sunday distanced himself from President Trump’s response to the white-supremacist violence in Charlottesville, Va.
“The president speaks for himself,” Tillerson told “Fox News Sunday” when asked if Trump’s comments represent American values.
Trump initially condemned hatred and bigotry on “many sides” after a white-nationalist demonstration Aug. 12 led to the murder of counterprotester Heather Heyer, 32.
The president eventually denounced the KKK, Nazis and white supremacists, only to add at a subsequent press conference that there were “very fine people” on both sides in the Charlottesville demonstrations.
The United Nations Commit- tee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination responded with the unusual step of calling out the US for its “failure at the highest political level to unequivocally reject racist violent events.”
Tillerson said the international community should not doubt Americans’ commitment to freedom and racial equality.
“I don’t believe anyone doubts the American people’s values or the commitment of the American government or the government’s agencies to advancing those values and defending those values,” Tillerson said when asked about the UN rebuke.
Fox News’ Chris Wallace responded: “And the president’s values?”
“The president speaks for himself,” Tillerson said.
“Are you separating yourself from that, sir?” Wallace asked.
“I have spoken,” Tillerson said. “I have made my own comments as to our values as well in a speech I gave to the State Department this past week.”
Tillerson’s response is further evidence of how the Charlottesville violence has fractured the GOP and Trump’s inner circle.
Economic adviser Gary Cohn reportedly had drafted his resignation letter after Trump blamed “both sides” for the violence.
Cohn also issued a public rebuke in an interview with the Financial Times, in which he said, “Citizens standing up for equality and freedom can never be equated with white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the KKK.”
The administration “must do better in consistently and unequivocally condemning these groups,” added Cohn, who is Jewish.
After Charlottesville, two White House aides — Stephen Bannon and Sebastian Gorka — left the Trump administration and returned to Breitbart News, an online site associated with the far-right, nationalist movement.
Meanwhile, Tillerson called North Korea’s recent firing of three short-range ballistic missiles a “provocative act” but said the US will still push for diplomatic negotiations.
“The firing of any ballistic missile is a violation of UN Security Council resolutions and we do view it as a provocative act, a provocative act against the United States and our allies,” Tillerson said on “Fox News Sunday.”
He added: “We’re going to continue our peaceful-pressure campaign, as I have described it, working with allies, working with China as well, to see if we can bring the regime in Pyongyang to the negotiating table.”