Slams KKK & hate, then whines for credit
one of the counterprotesters was killed by a man who’s been identified as a white supremacist.
An unnamed White House rep told NBC on Saturday the remarks were intentional because there had been violence from the counterprotesters as well.
Trump’s Saturday comments drew praise from the neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer, which wrote: “Trump comments were good. He didn’t attack us. He just said the nation should come together. Nothing specific against us . . . . No condemnation at all.”
Facing pushback from fellow Republicans urging Trump to be more forceful, an unnamed White House rep said Trump’s statement was referring to neo-Nazis and the KKK.
Homeland security adviser Thomas Bossert told CNN on Sunday the President “didn’t dignify the names of these groups of people, but rather addressed the fundamental issue.”
Trump — who frequently criticized former President Barack Obama for not calling out radical Islamic extremists — relented in his address Monday, after praising the job he’s done with the economy.
“As I have said many times before, no matter the color of our skin, we all live under the same laws,” he said.
“We all salute the same great flag. And we are all made by the same Almighty God.
“We must love each other, unite together, and come together against bigotry, hatred and violence.”
Asked by a CNN reporter what had taken him so long to speak out, he said, “They have been condemned,” and then told the reporter he was “fake news.”
Frequent Trump critic Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) praised the President for finally stepping forward. “Well done Mr. President,” he tweeted.
Others noted that he failed to label the attack terrorism, and said the repudiation was too little, too late.
“I wish that he would have said those same words on Saturday,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said on MSNBC. “I’m disappointed it took him a couple of days.”
Former KKK leader David Duke (facing page, left inset) — who was singing Trump’s praises at the Charlottesville rally on Saturday — said the President was bullied into the statement.
“It’s amazing to see how the media is able to bully the President of the United States into going along with their FAKE NEWS narrative,” he wrote on Twitter.
Alt-right leader Richard Spencer (facing page, right inset) said he wasn’t bothered by Trump’s comments — which he didn’t believe were aimed at him.
“Did he say ‘white nationalist’? ‘Racist’ means an irrational hatred of people. I don’t think he meant any of us,” Spencer said, according to the Daily Beast.
He called Trump’s statement “kumbaya nonsense.”
“Only a dumb person would take those lines seriously,” he said.