President Donald Trump is taking a diplomatic stand on the Charlottesville Violence. After the violent protests in Charlottesville for taking down the statues of confederate generals, Trump seems to have taken a cautious, diplomatic stance, choosing to ignore the growing need for support for the White superemist. His refusal to take a stand comes after top White House aides spent days trying to clean up after Trump’s initial, vague response to the violence.
The impromptu media interaction brought out a volley of protests both in Washington and Charlottesville, the latest being from Olivia Wild and the hosts of late night t.v. Unperturbed the President made a statement stating that “I think there is blame on both sides,” Trump said during a contentious back-and-forth with reporters in the lobby of his Midtown Manhattan building.
“What about the ‘alt-left’ that came charging at, as you say, the ‘alt-right,’ do they have any semblance of guilt?” Trump asked. “What about the fact they came charging with clubs in hands, swinging clubs, do they have any problem? I think they do.”
He added: “You had a group on one side that was bad and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent. Nobody wants to say it, but I will say it right now.”
Many sides
On Saturday, as violence in Charlottesville played out on national television, Trump blamed “many sides” for the conflict. Though that answer was quickly panned by Democrats and Republicans alike, Trump remained silent on Sunday, leaving it to his aides to try to clean up his vague answer.
On Tuesday, though, Trump defended his 48-hour delay in denouncing white supremacists, arguing that he took his time because he didn’t know the facts.
“I wanted to make sure, unlike most politicians, that what I said was correct, not make a quick statement,” Trump said, calling his initial comment a “fine statement.”
Removing Confederate statues
Trump also warned against nationwide attempts to remove statues to Confederate leaders, arguing that attempts to remove the statue of Robert E. Lee could lead to attempts to remove monuments honoring former Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
“You are changing history, you are changing culture” by taking down statues to past leaders, he said.
Trump said there were some “very bad people” on both sides, but that there was some who came out to protest the removal of Robert E. Lee’s statue who were “fine people.”
“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.
Pressed by reporters, Trump raised Washington and Jefferson, arguing there could be a slippery slope.
“George Washington was a slave owner. So will George Washington lose his status? Are we going to take down statues to George Washington?” he said. “How about Thomas Jefferson, what do you think of Thomas Jefferson, do you like him? OK good. Are we going to take down the statues, because he was a major slave owner? Now are we going to take down his statue?”
He added: “You know, you really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop?”
Trump’s slippery slope argument is straight out of the ‘alt-right’ playbook.
Corey Stewart, an ‘alt-right’ leader and the former Republican gubernatorial candidate turned Senate candidate in Virginia, tweeted in response to Trump on Tuesday, “They won’t stop until all of American history is erased.”
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