SOME 48 hours after a neo-Nazi allegedly drove a car into anti-racism protesters in Charlottesville killing a 32-year-old woman, Donald Trump finally, begrudgingly, specifically condemned the far right.
Trump’s inability to single out the Klu Klux Klan, white supremacists and the so-called alt-right for the violence they brought to the Virginia town surprised some of his most ardent supporters, and even some of his fiercest critics.
The President was heavily criticised when on Saturday he suggested “many sides” were to blame for the violence at the white supremacist rally, seemingly equating the protesters with the goose-stepping, Hitler-supporting right-wingers marching to save the statue of a confederate hero.
Speaking in the White House after meeting US attorney general Jeff Sessions and FBI director Christopher Wray, Trump finally described the groups as “repugnant”.
“We must love each other, show affection for each other and unite together in condemnation of hatred, bigotry and violence,” he said. “We must rediscover the bonds of love and loyalty that bring us together as Americans.”
“Racism is evil,” Trump added. “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 everything we hold dear as Americans.”
Reportedly Trump had to be pushed into making the statement.
Saturday’s “unite the right” march showed a thinning of the lines between the alt-right who helped Trump get elected and the far-right who believe in white supremacy.
Earlier yesterday Kenneth C Frazier, the head of pharmaceuticals company Merck, had resigned from the President’s American Manufacturing Council because of Trump’s “many sides” comment.
“America’s leaders must honor our fundamental views by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal,” Frazier said in a tweet.
Of the 500 largest companies in America, only five have black chief executives. Frazier is one of them.
Before he had criticised the KKK or the white supremacists, Trump attacked the pharmaceuticals boss.
“Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President’s Manufacturing Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!” the Commander-in-Chief tweeted.
Trump’s attorney general, Jeff Sessions, said earlier that the violence in which a car ploughed into a group of counter-protesters, killing paralegal Heather Heyer, would “meet the definition of domestic terrorism in our statute”.
He told ABC’s Good Morning America: “You can be sure we will charge and advance the investigation towards the most serious charges that can be brought, because this is an unequivocally unacceptable and evil attack that cannot be accepted in America.”
Meanwhile, shocked family, friends and colleagues have been paying tribute to Heyer. Vigils were held across the United States and in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Her mother, Susan Bro, told the Huffington Post: “I don’t want her death to be a focus of more hatred, I want her death to be a rallying cry for justice and equality and fairness and compassion”.
Bro added that her her daughter had always been compassionate and had a “strong sense of right and wrong”.
“No mother wants to lose a child, but I’m proud of her,” she added.
Heyer and friends were walking together at the protest when the car crashed into the crowd. 25 others were injured.
Trump supporter and white nationalist James Alex Fields Jr, 20, has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and failing to stop at the scene of a crash that resulted in a death.
A new poll from Gallup showed Trump’s approval rating has dropped to 34 per cent, the lowest of his presidency.
He has disapproval of 61 per cent, an all-time high.
A GoFundMe campaign created to support Heyer’s family had surpassed $200,000 as of Sunday evening.
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