Day 209: Donald Trump’s Charlottesville Rhetoric Disrespects WWII Veterans
In a Trump Tower press briefing that was supposed to tout infrastructure, Donald Trump suddenly backtracked from his Monday words that pinned most of blame for the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia on white nationalists and neo-Nazis. Apparently his statement, read off a teleprompter two days after his disaster on Saturday, didn’t sit well with him and he reverted largely to Saturday’s talking points.
Though he wasn’t planned to answer any questions, he couldn’t help himself and played “whataboutism” until he was blue in the face.
What about comparing George Washington to Robert E. Lee?
What about “alt-left” violence?
What about the fact that not all of the marchers were racists?
What about blaming each side equally?
Trump claimed:
“You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down, to them, of a very, very important statue and a renaming of a park from Robert E. Lee to another name.”
Trump said that the march on Friday night was proof-positive that there were “fine people” on both sides. But if you march silently shoulder-to-shoulder with people screaming “Jews will not replace us,” and claiming the streets are “our streets” how are you any different than the people chanting those words? You are the “our.”
If you knowingly march with neo-Nazis, you are no better than them.
How would a pro-choice march go if suddenly most of the group started chanting “abortion is murder”? Would the rest of the group silently trudge along accepting such antithetical statements? Of course not. If you disagree with those words you are immediately going to step aside or voice your displeasure.
By the looks of it in Charlottesville, no one threw down their torches or said a word.
If you march with neo-Nazis, chant with neo-Nazis, or hold up the same ideals as neo-Nazis, pro-tip: you might be a neo-Nazi. You aren’t “fine people,” you are domestic terrorists.
Trump’s statements led to headlines like “Trump Gives White Supremacists an Unequivocal Boost” (The New York Times), “He ‘Went Rogue’: President Trump’s Staff Stunned After Latest Charlottesville Remarks” (NBC News); “Trump’s rhetorical ricochet on Charlottesville highlights basic truths about the president” (The Washington Post).
But Charlottesville protesters, like former KKK head David Duke, loved Trump’s words.
Trump’s falsely equated white supremacists who showed up in military gear, with assault rifles strapped to their chest, looking for a battle with people who showed up in support of equality and the literal tearing down of a monument of America’s racist past. That should be sickening to everyone, including everyone in the annals of government. But none more so than the World War II veterans and their families.
Tens of millions of Americans are alive that lost siblings and parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles at the hands of Nazis, either in battle or throughout Europe.
Notably, Trump loves to tout America’s veterans and claim how much they love him and vice versa. But Trump’s rhetoric has to be particularly offensive to all of them, especially those who fought the Axis powers, and there are still about 600,000 WWII veterans alive today. They put the uniform and literally fought Nazis for world freedom when most were barely old enough to grow a beard.
Over a half a million Americans who risked everything, who were wounded by the enemy, who saw their brothers killed, are forced to hear yesterday’s words from an American president during their golden years. Words that attempt to paint neo-Nazis and those seeking equality on a level playing field. Words that are giving tacit acceptance to swastikas and hate in America’s streets by casting some of them as fine people.
How anyone could carry a Nazi flag and simultaneously claim to be an American patriot is beyond comprehension. But for that to happen as American heroes who stamped out Nazism are still alive is particularly insane.
Were there counter-protesters who got unlawfully aggressive? Absolutely. But the violence was decidedly one-sided as a group of people marched to Charlottesville in a show of hate.
Never before has a president defended such action. Until now.
209 days in, 1253 to go
Follow us on Twitter @TrumpTimer
