Trump Has Condemned White Supremacists”
Read the article and it’s obvious Trump is sending signals to the white supremacists that he is on their side.
If I called you an idiot 10 times a day but also said you were a smart guy once a day, what would be the overall effect of my words?
Here’s what Trump said according to your attached article:
The day of that incident Trump said, “We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence, on many sides. On many sides.” Trump said he had spoken to Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, and “we agreed that the hate and the division must stop, and must stop right now. We have to come together as Americans with love for our nation and true affection — really — and I say this so strongly — true affection for each other.”
The “many sides” language is a qualifier and a dog whistle to the neo-nazis. It says, you guys were provoked! And Does anyone really believe Trump’s comment here about “coming together as Americans…with true affection for each other” is sincere and consistent with his predominant rhetoric?
Two days later, on Aug. 14, 2017, Trump issued a statement from the White House, and referred to “KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.”
So he wasn’t recorded saying these things, instead someone in the White House, certainly not Trump, wrote this statement and issued it. A written statement issued indirectly by others around Trump does not have the impact of Trump saying these words on television. The white supremacists are likely to not even connect that written statement to Trump.
Then in another press conference he says this:
“You had a group on one side that was bad,” Trump said. “And you had a group on the other side that was also very violent.” He added, “I’ve condemned neo-Nazis. I’ve condemned many different groups, but not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me. Not all of those people were white supremacists by any stretch.”
Not exactly a strong condemnation here. I have condemned them (in a written statement penned by someone on my staff) I condemned “different groups”
(these unheard of white supremacy groups like the KKK) but there were just a few bad apples there. (disregard the hundreds carrying torches saying “Jews will not replace us”)
Trump: Excuse me, they didn’t put themselves down as neo — and you had some very bad people in that group. But you also had people that were very fine people on both sides. You had people in that group – excuse me, excuse me. I saw the same pictures as you did. You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down, of to them, a very, very important statue and the renaming of a park from Robert E. Lee to another name.
Trump has been clear he thinks Confederate monuments should stay. These are memorials to slavery, racism, and white supremacy designed to intimidate black people in those areas they are displayed.
Trump: It’s fine, you’re changing history, you’re changing culture, and you had people – and I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists, because they should be condemned totally – but you had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists, okay? And the press has treated them absolutely unfairly. Now, in the other group also, you had some fine people, but you also had troublemakers and you see them come with the black outfits and with the helmets and with the baseball bats – you had a lot of bad people in the other group too.
Here Trump says “they should be condemned totally” but that’s different than saying I condemn neo-Nazis and white nationalists they are terrible people.
