In Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, protesters peacefully gathered to support and oppose the removal of a Confederate monument in the public square. A white supremacist intentionally drove his car into the protesters, killing one and injuring five. Then-President Donald Trump, during a press conference about the tragedy, said: “I’ve condemned neo-Nazis. I’ve condemned many different groups. But not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me. … And I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists — because they should be condemned totally. But you had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists.” He also said, “You had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides.”
Critics ignored the “and I’m not talking about” part and accused Trump of defending the attacker and violent protesters as “very fine people on both sides.” That lie has become an article of faith for Trump haters.
In March, President Joe Biden, in Brussels, Belgium, repeated the lie. At a press conference, ostensibly about Ukraine, Biden told the world that Trump’s alleged racist response to Charlottesville inspired Biden to enter the 2020 presidential race: “I had no intention of running for president again, and — until I saw those folks coming out of the fields in Virginia carrying torches and carrying Nazi banners and literally singing the same vile rhyme that they used in Germany in the early ’20s or ’30s. …
“And then, when the gentleman you mentioned (Trump) was asked what he thought — and a young woman was killed, a protester — and he asked — was asked what he thought, he said, ‘There are very good people on both sides.’ And that’s when I decided I wasn’t going to be quiet any longer.”
In fact, two CNN hosts, Jake Tapper and Michael Smerconish, have admitted that the Trump-defended-white-supremacists-by-saying-there-were-very-fine-people-on-both-sides narrative is wrong. Tapper, in August 2020, three years after the events in Charlottesville, tweeted, “So (Trump is) not saying that the neo-Nazis and white supremacists are very fine people, but he is saying people protesting alongside those neo-Nazi and white supremacists are very fine people.” Smerconish, on his radio show, on March 27, 2019, more than a year and a half after Charlottesville, said: “Within the last 10 days, I know that I made reference to those words from the president, and I had a phone caller who called and said, ‘That is not what the president said.’ Now, having invested the time to go back and (reexamine) the tape, I think the caller’s right.”
Yet guests on CNN continue to say otherwise — with no pushback.
Biden, in 2019, claimed that Trump never “utter(ed) a word of condemnation” of white supremacy and bigotry. Exactly how many times must he do so?
In a 1991 interview with Larry King, Trump criticized the voters supporting Louisiana gubernatorial candidate David Duke, a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan: “I hate seeing what it represents, but I guess it just shows there’s a lot of hostility in this country.”
In April 2017, Trump said, “Recent threats targeting Jewish community centers and vandalism of Jewish cemeteries, as well as last week’s shooting in Kansas City, remind us that while we may be a nation divided on policies, we are a country that stands united in condemning hate and evil in all of its very ugly forms.”
In August 2017, Trump said: “We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence. It has no place in America.”
In August 2018, Trump tweeted: “The riots in Charlottesville a year ago resulted in senseless death and division. … I condemn all types of racism and acts of violence.”
In April 2019, Trump said: “We forcefully condemn the evil of antisemitism and hate. It must be defeated.”
In 2000, Trump called Duke “a bigot, a racist, a problem.”
Is there any chance we can finally put to rest the Charlottesville lie?
Larry Elder is a bestselling author and nationally syndicated radio talk show host. His latest book, “The New Trump Standard,” is available in paperback from Amazon.com and for Nook, Kindle, iBooks and Google Play. To find out more about Larry Elder, or become an “Elderado,” visit www.LarryElder.com. Follow Larry on Twitter @LarryElder. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
The hatred and treachery of the treasonous, socialist Democrat Party know no bounds.
Democrats see everything as subjective, how they feel or want things to be, their whole world is subjective. Not Objective.
To Democrats, God, Gender, Truth, Facts, Reality and History are all irrelevant, If the Democrats do not WANT to believe them or they disagree with them. Democrats will just make up their own, gods, Gender, Truth, Facts, Reality and History to fit what they WANT to believe or fits into the Con or Deception that they are running at the time.
The more I observe the Democrat Party’s objectives, the more I am convinced that this Democrat Party is but a satanic demonic cult and its supporters are disciples’ of Satan. Just look at what Democrats encourage, support and protect.
To fully advance the Lying, Treasonous, Demonic, Socialist Democrat Party’s destructive beliefs and agendas: is to divide our citizens with hate and promote – racism, open borders, radical feminism, abortion-on-demand, the LGBTQ lifestyle, unfettered sexual identity, transgender gay marriage, child indoctrination into sexual confusion and the like, the pagan Liberal left Democrats must do away with GOD, our Constitution, common sense, morality, Christian values and free religious exercise altogether.
(unless it is the Democrat Party Satanic demonic cult)
Under the Disguise of “anti-discrimination.”
Whites, especially white males, are the ONLY GROUP in the entire nation, who can NEVER have “Pride” in their culture or race, WITHOUT being called out for being racists, or supremacists..
Nope. The mid-terms and 2024 are hanging over their heads—and they are worried.
The only reason Joe got into the race is to increase the Biden Family fortunes tenfold. Joe was born in 1943 when Hitler was at the heights of his power, and should be an expert on the tactics he used to seize German power with a minority of the population, fooling the majority with false propaganda, false strawmen into self-destruction of an entire nation. He learned his lessons well and governs from the same propositions of Never letting a crisis go to waste, and where there are no crisis, just go out and create some.