After two days of mounting criticism for his failure to condemn white supremacists after Saturday’s Charlottesville tragedy, Donald Trump attempted damage control on Monday.
“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 that are repugnant to what we hold dear as Americans,” he said in a surprise statement at the White House after first touting some economic news.
He did not take questions. No ad-libbing to risk rolling back the point.
Trump’s initial reaction on Saturday decried hate in general but did not call out the white supremacists and Ku Klux Klan participating in the march. A young woman was killed and others injured when a man with neo-Nazi ties ploughed his car into a crowd of peaceful protesters. Others were hurt in skirmishes with belligerent marchers.
The march ostensibly was to protest the city’s decision to remove a Robert E Lee statue. The real agenda was, in the words of former KKK leader David Duke, to be a “turning point” in the movement to help people like him “fulfil the promises of Donald Trump.”
Trump has no trouble calling out the Islamic State or Al Qaeda by name when they slaughter innocents. After an immigrant murdered Kate Steinle on a San Francisco pier, Trump used the crime to attack all immigrants in America illegally.
The Charlottesville melee presented Trump with the opportunity to finally separate himself from the racist elements of his base. He whiffed. The Monday statement would have been fine as his first reaction. But read from a teleprompter just hours after trashing a critic on Twitter, and lacking any acknowledgment that he could have been clearer originally, it does not erase the initial impression.
Fortunately, more Republican leaders are stepping up to differentiate themselves from their president.
Critics such as Sens. Jeff Flake and Marco Rubio have amped up the rhetoric. But others who have been Trump stalwarts - Senators Orrin Hatch and Cory Gardner, for example - joined them over the weekend. Vice President Mike Pence, while defending Trump’s original statement, himself emphatically called out the racist groups by name.
Could this finally be what galvanises the Republican Party to take back its good name? After eight years with a stated mission of blocking Barack Obama, and with no significant legislation six months after winning the presidency, could the GOP actually get back to governing?
It is possible. In the House, a bipartisan group is discussing immigration reform. Senators of both parties are discussing how to solve the problems of Obamacare instead of taking insurance away from 20mn Americans.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan still are Trump acolytes. But the more GOP members stand on principle and speak up, the sooner the supposed leaders will have to follow them.
More GOP members are differentiating themselves from their president
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