By Dan Calabrese —— Bio and Archives August 14, 2017
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We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence that's on many sides. On many sides. It's been going on for a long time in our country. Not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama, it's been going on for a long, long time. It has no place in America. What is vital now is the swift restoration of law and order, and the protection of innocent lives. No citizen should ever fear for their safety and security in our society. And no child should ever be afraid to go outside and play, or be with their parents, and have a good time. I just go off the phone with the governor of Virginia, 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 — and really I say this so strongly — true affection for each other. Our country is doing very well in so many ways, we have record, just absolute record employment, we have unemployment at the lowest it's been in almost 17 years. We have companies pouring into our country, Foxcon and car companies, and so many others, they are coming back to our country. We're renegotiating trade deals to make them great for our country, and great for the American worker. We have so many great things happening in our country, so when I watch Charlottesville, to me, it's very, very sad. I want to salute the great work of the state and local police in Virginia. Incredible people, law enforcement, incredible people. And also the National Guard, they've really been working smart and working hard. They've been doing a terrific job. Federal authorities are also providing tremendous support to the governor, he thanked me for that. We are here to provide any other assistance is needed. We are ready, willing, and able.
Above all else we must remember this truth: no matter our color, creed, religion, or political party, we are all Americans first. We love our country, we love our God, we love our flag, we're proud of our country, we're proud of who we are. So we want to get the situation straightened out in Charlottesville, and we want to study it. And we want to see what we are doing wrong as a country where things like this can happen. My administration is restoring the sacred bonds of loyalty between this nation and its citizens, but our citizens must also restore the bonds of trust and loyalty between one another. We must love each other, respect each other, and cherish our history an our future together. So important. We have to respect each other, ideally we have to love each other.Now, the claim is that Trump did not condemn the white supremacists because he didn't specifically name them. I think it would have been good to name them, but that doesn't mean his statement contains no condemnation of them. It clearly does. "We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence that's on many sides." This clearly condemns everyone who's involved with the hatred, bigotry and violence. That clearly includes the neo-Nazis and white supremacists. This isn't even arguable. But if that's not enough for you, he completely assailed their way of thinking when he said this: "Above all else we must remember this truth: no matter our color, creed, religion, or political party, we are all Americans first. We love our country, we love our God, we love our flag, we're proud of our country, we're proud of who we are." That sentence assails everything neo-Nazis and white supremacists believe.
On Sunday, the White House was forced to clarify that President Trump "condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred" in a statement following up on the Saturday protests in Charlottesville, Va. "Of course" the president condemns violence by "white supremacists, KKK Neo-Nazi and all extremist groups," a White House spokesperson said in a statement.
Trump the previous day declined to name the groups behind the rally, instead blaming "hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides — on many sides." "The president said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry, and hatred," the White House clarified on Sunday. "He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together."This is being treated by the media as a backtrack, but it's not. Anyone who wasn't looking for a reason to attack the president understood that the original statement meant the same thing the clarification meant. What happened in Charlottesville was horrible, and ought to lead to some real introspection by this entire nation, as we discussed earlier today. Turning it into yet another cheap shot at Donald Trump is not only dishonest, it also makes it really difficult for the nation to deal with these difficult issues in a serious way. But a lot of people aren't serious. That's why we're wasting time talking about this.
Dan Calabrese’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain
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