‘President speaks for himself,’ Tillerson says
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, addressing President Donald Trump’s blaming of “both sides” in the racially charged violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, declined to say on Sunday whether Trump’s response represented “American values.”
“The president speaks for himself,” Tillerson said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Asked by host Chris Wallace about a United Nations statement condemning the president’s words, Tillerson said, “I don’t believe anyone doubts the American people’s values” or the government’s commitment to them.
Wallace then inquired about Trump’s own values. After Tillerson’s pointed response, Wallace asked whether he was separating himself from the president on the issue.
Tillerson answered: “I have spoken. I have made my own comments as to our values as well in a speech I gave to the State Department this past week.”
The interview with the secretary of state also touched on North Korea’s “provocative” firing of three short-range ballistic missiles Saturday morning, and Tillerson said the U.S. will continue to push for negotiations to de-escalate tension on the Korean peninsula.
“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 with a view to begin a dialog on a different future for Korean peninsula and North Korea,” Tillerson said.
Kim Jong Un’s regime has strongly criticized U.S.-South Korea joint military drills. The U.S. Pacific Command said two missiles flew 155 miles while the other appeared to blow up immediately.
“We do view it as a provocative act — a provocative act against the United States and its allies,” Tillerson said, calling the firing “a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.” He said Kim’s regime was
“clearly” sending the message “that they are not prepared to completely back away from their position.”
The missile tests came shortly after Tillerson praised North Korea for showing restraint and suggested that talks could take place soon.
In Charlottesville on Aug. 12, a 32-year-old woman, Heather D. Heyer, who was protesting a rally of white supremacists, was killed when a car driven by a man who had professed admiration for Nazi ideology slammed into her and other demonstrators. During a wild news conference at Trump Tower three days later, Trump blamed “both sides” for the deadly violence.
Since Heyer’s death, Trump has alternated between singling out neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan for condemnation and asserting that what he called the “alt-left” was also to blame for the Charlottesville violence.