August 2017

[Commentary] Here is what President Donald Trump said August 12 about the violence in Charlottesville (VA) sparked by a demonstration of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members: "We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides. On many sides." Here is what a presidential president would have said:

"The violence Friday and Saturday in Charlottesville, Va., is a tragedy and an unacceptable, impermissible assault on American values. It is an assault, specifically, on the ideals we cherish most in a pluralistic democracy — tolerance, peaceable coexistence and diversity....Under whatever labels and using whatever code words — ‘heritage,’ ‘tradition,’ ‘nationalism’ — the idea that whites or any other ethnic, national or racial group is superior to another is not acceptable. Americans should not excuse, and I as president will not countenance, fringe elements in our society who peddle such anti-American ideas. While they have deep and noxious roots in our history, they must not be given any quarter nor any license today."

Kenneth C. Frazier, the CEO of Merck, announced on Twitter that he is resigning from President Donald Trump’s American Manufacturing Council in direct response to the president’s failure to denounce the neo-Nazis and white supremacists who rioted in Charlottesville (VA) over the weekend. While he didn’t name President Trump directly, in his statement, Frazier wrote that, “America’s leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal.”

Newly minted Republican Federal Communications Commission Commissioner Brendan Carr was among the public officials to make a definitive statement denouncing the white nationalists behind a deadly protest in Charlottesville, Virginia. "These racists & white nationalists have only evil as their pedigree. Sickening," he wrote in a tweet. "It will always be beaten as justice & equality will prevail." FCC Chief of Staff Matthew Berry also slammed the "hatred, bigotry, and white nationalism on display in Charlottesville" in a post, which was later shared by Chairman Ajit Pai. A number of Republicans - including Sens. Cory Gardner (CO), Ted Cruz (TX) and Orrin Hatch (UT) - have spoken up against the white supremacist groups behind the rally, where a woman was killed after a car rammed through a crowd of counter-protesters. President Donald Trump has been criticized for failing to specifically name and condemn the extremists in his remarks.