OnPolitics Today: Thinking of you, Charlottesville

August 15, 2017
Washington

The weekend did not grant the reprieve from last week that we were hoping for, as the news rushed out of Charlottesville, Va. AÂ rally protesting the removal of Confederate statues. White supremacists clashing with counter protesters. One woman dying after a car plowed through a crowd. A helicopter crashing, killing two Virginia state troopers. President Trump making a controversial statement. The Justice Department opening a civil rights investigation.

Take a moment. Say a prayer for those who died and were injured and are living through this and will continue to live through this. Now, read on. We promise to keep it on the short side today, because we think everyone needs a breather.

Trump’s second statement

President Trump’s initial reaction to the violence coming out of Charlottesville, Va., was jarring (so much so that this CEO left the president’s business council): “We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides.” It drew criticism for not condemning white supremacists outright.

So, he took another shot at it on Monday, after flying into Washington: “Racism is evil. 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.”

Of course, none of that statement may hold. Before he spoke, former secretary of State John Kerry said that Trump’sÂ first reaction couldn’t be “erased” and that it “empowered the worst of the worst.”

Perhaps proving his point, later that day, alt-right leader Richard Spencer, who attended the rally on Saturday, said he didn’t think that the president’s Monday statement wasÂ a condemnation at all. According to Business Insider, Spencer said, “His statement today was more kumbaya nonsense… Only a dumb person would take those lines seriously.”