It’s too little a little too late, but y’all’s president finally managed to take some time from golfing and tweeting about everything but Charlottesville, Va., to explicitly denounce white supremacists.
“To anyone who acted criminally in this weekend’s racist violence, you will be held fully accountable. Justice will be delivered,” President Donald Trump said Monday afternoon from the White House. “As I said, we condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence. It has no place in America.”
I hate to hit you with the “Well, actually, Mr. President,” but while you were onstage in the Diplomatic Reception Room, suddenly waxing poetic about loving one another, some of us remember Saturday, when it was time to show up and show out, how you did not even bother to mention Heather Heyer, who died while peacefully protesting racism and white supremacy. Some of us distinctly remember you blaming this “egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence” on “many sides,” when there was only one side to blame: that of racism and white supremacy.
Anyway, someone at the White House who somehow still has common sense must have shaken Trump to get some blood flowing back into his brain and handed him an already written speech while explicitly telling him not to
ad lib or add anything or even veer off topic, because he somehow managed to pull himself together on Monday, although it was already too late.
“As I have said many times before, no matter the color of our skin, we all live under the same laws. We all salute the same great flag and we are all made by the same almighty God,” Trump said.
Then he tried to convince us all that we should love one another, because there’s nothing quite like hearing from this particular man that we should love one another.
“We must love each other, show affection for each other, and unite together in condemnation of hatred, bigotry and violence. We must rediscover the bonds of love and loyalty that bring us together as Americans,” he added.
Then POTUS went back to his grade school reading to sound out what is an accepted fact, finally calling out all the hate groups by name and publicly denouncing them.
“Racism is evil,” he said. “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.”
Well, I guess it’s the least he could do at this point after failing in the most basic of ways over the weekend. But let’s see if he manages to put his money, his administration and everything else where his mouth is. I’m not really going to hold my breath. Are you?