Trump finally raps KKK, neo-Nazis
UNITED STATES: President Donald Trump moved yesterday to quell growing public outrage over his tepid response to the weekend violence in Charlottesville, condemning the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis by name and declaring racist hate groups ‘‘repugnant to everything we hold dear‘‘.
In a hastily arranged appearance at the White House, Trump vowed that his administration would hold the perpetrators of violence at a white supremacist rally fully accountable and said such displays of hatred and bigotry have ‘‘no place in America’’.
‘‘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.’’
Trump’s statement came two days after he did not specifically condemn the ‘‘Unite the Right’’ rally at the weekend when a driver who had espoused racist and pro-Nazi sentiments killed a woman and injured 19 others by slamming his car into a crowd.
Trump’s apparent reluctance to single out white nationalists in Charlottesville contrasted sharply with his frequent eagerness to highlight violence in cases involving minorities, including Islamist terrorists and illegal immigrants.
In his initial public comments on Sunday, Trump characterised the objectionable behaviour in Charlottesville as coming from ‘‘many sides’’ – prompting fierce blowback from Democrats, civil rights groups and some Republicans, who said his failure to single out white supremacist organisations was tantamount to a presidential endorsement of their intolerance.
Senior aides said Trump has long chafed at expectations to bow to political correctness, but they acknowledged that he was frustrated by how he was being characterised by the media. Trump’s reluctance to admit he had erred – and his grudging discomfort at having to clarify his position – were clear from the tenor and optics of his remarks.
He opened his comments by touting the health of the economy, noting that stock markets are near record highs and unemployment is at a 16-year low. And though Trump has regularly employed the phrase ‘‘radical Islamic terrorism’’ to describe other attacks in the US and the Middle East, he chose not to echo Attorney-General Jeff Sessions’s conclusion that the violence in Charlottesville met the Justice Department’s definition of ‘‘domestic terrorism’’.
‘‘As I have said many times before, no matter the colour of our skin, we all live under the same laws, we all salute the same great flag, and we are all made by the same almighty God,’’ Trump said. ‘‘We must love each other, show affection for each other and unite together in condemnation of hatred, bigotry and violence.’’
Trump’s political rivals said he had undercut the effectiveness of his public message by waiting so long to deliver it. And they continued to press him to distance his administration from the alt-Right, a loose coalition of conservatives and fringe groups that promote a nationalist agenda.