Americans demand leaders who provide clarity of purpose and who reaffirm our strong moral convictions. President Trump's statement regarding the tragedy in Charlottesville, Va., did neither. He demonstrated both incompetence and weakness regarding the values that matter most to Americans.
Protest and demonstration transformed into tragedy on Saturday as hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members stage what they described as a rally to "take America Back." They clashed with counter-protesters on the streets of Charlottesville. By the end, one civilian was dead and 19 others were injured. Two state police officers also died when their helicopter crashed in the outskirts of the city nestled among the Blue Ridge Mountains and home to the University of Virginia.
When a vehicle is driven through a crowd in France, Trump knows to call it terrorism. But a car is driven into Americans and what? It's merely an accident? In his first speech about the events in Charlottesville, Trump condemned violence but failed to single out the white supremacists who brought it. He never came close to calling it the act of domestic terrorism that it was.
"We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides," Trump said. He's trying to play both sides with that mealy-mouthed statement. He tried to create a false equivalence, when there is clear right and wrong. There is no gray area in America's ongoing struggle to protect freedom from its adversaries; whether they come in the form of Vladimir Putin or David Duke.
Trump kept quiet as David Duke, the former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, declared that the scene in Charlottesville is a "turning point" for a movement that aims to "fulfill the promises of Donald Trump."
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05.14.2024