By David Futrelle
Donald Trump will blithely threaten nuclear war in hair-raising off-the-cuff remarks. But his milquetoast statement on Charlottesville today — referring vaguely to violence “on many sides” — was clearly carefully scripted, seemingly to avoid offending the white supremacists who have been some of his most fervent supporters.
Whatever his intent, White supremacists are cheering his evasive non-response as a sign that “he loves us all.”
it worked pic.twitter.com/ekSZnw6FCK
— Ashley Feinberg (ashleyfeinberg.bsky.social) (@ashleyfeinberg) August 12, 2017
Trump's remarks today were deliberately vague to send a wink and nod to white supremacists, and the alt-right is aware and clearly thrilled. pic.twitter.com/TbQGpdxVed
— The Darkest Timeline Numbersmuncher (@NumbersMuncher) August 12, 2017
White supremacists cheer Trump’s response to Charlottesville violence https://t.co/0G4Wnqw2Rx pic.twitter.com/umc1fJQyzD
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) August 12, 2017
by condemning hatred "on many sides," the president of the United States just handed an immensely valuable gift to David Duke
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) August 12, 2017
And to Richard Spencer, and “Baked Alaska,” and all the other Nazis and quasi-Nazis and “oh-no-I’m-not-a-Nazi”s who marched in Charlottesville.
The closest Trump came to condemning the terrorism was this bizarre tweet, posted late in the day.
Condolences to the family of the young woman killed today, and best regards to all of those injured, in Charlottesville, Virginia. So sad!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2017
BEST FUCKING REGARDS!?
Not that any of this should be a shock at this point, given that during his campaign Trump deliberately and repeatedly incited his supporters to attack those protesting him.
On the campaign trail Trump reminisced about "the old days" where protestors would be "carried out on a stretcher."
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) August 12, 2017
Trump is the one who made it okay to "Beat the crap out of 'em."
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) August 12, 2017
And he’s not the only one to encourage violence. One commenter reminded us that right-wing columnist and University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds literally urged drivers to plow into Black Lives Matter protesters in a tweet last year
https://twitter.com/bax_books/status/896443189669666816
None of this bodes well for the future.
Make no mistake. When Donald Trump loses election or is impeached he will incite these most fanatic supporters to violence. https://t.co/dr0fjzkgj9
— Richard Schiff (@Richard_Schiff) August 12, 2017
Sadly, I think this is almost certainly true.
Probably, but Trump can’t be allowed to stay in power. Besides, Charlottesville proves that there will be violence either way.
I hope UT students are making Glenn Reynolds’ life difficult with protests and sit-ins. Heh. Indeed.
@personalpest Exactly.
According to Australian ABC,
My sympathies, all.
CNN has an occasional guest comment on these things, a republican by the name of Ana Navarro.
She called Trump “mealy-mouthed” over this speech, and I’m inclined to fucking agree. She tore him a new one over not denouncing these fuckers and instead jumping to “both sides are bad!” bullshit that gives his “fans” a free fucking pass.
And of course, there was one white dude who had to be the “devil’s advocate” and say that “No u guis, Trump did denounce them! He’s not bad! Stop dividing us! You’re just attacking him because he’s Trump!”
Like…please fuck off. If any other president was as fucking wishy washy as Trump is when bringing up neo-nazis, we’d have torn them a new one too.
It’s hard to say exactly how many people in the US secretly have explicitly fascist or Nazi beliefs (i.e., those people who’d self identify as fascist if you gave them truth serum, I’m not addressing the issue of whether it’s fair to call everyone who voted for Trump a “fascist” by their actions). Most probably hide those beliefs, because they’d become unemployable if people knew what they really believed. There’s probably a few million people with those beliefs in the US, but that’s enough to flip a few swing states if you can appeal to them without losing votes.
People who say they’re fascists in pre-2016 election studies say they’re not satisfied with either party, and many don’t vote. Some voted Republican reluctantly and some supported Ron Paul because they thought he would weaken the federal government, making it easier to have a violent revolution and set up an authoritarian government at least in local areas. They mostly like Trump because he has always been consistently anti-immigration (since the 1980’s, even when he was a Democrat), he goes out of his way to not offend them, and he’s making the federal government less effective.
Most people will agree “it is bad that people engage in unjustifiably violent acts.” But if someone is violent because he believes that whole classes of people, grouped based on traits that they can’t choose or control, shouldn’t be allowed to exist or shouldn’t have the same basic rights as other people, it’s a totally different story. That’s violence directed at the entire group as a whole. And yes, using “all acts of violence are bad” as a moral equivalency argument enables those abusers and perpetrators and harms victims further.
@ croquembouche
Oh it gets worse, they’re now claiming it was an express condemnation of anti fascists. Mind you, it might as well have been.
The Stormer guys seem to have fallen out with the police though.
Which has provoked this charming article:
(asterisk not in original)
The Stormer is engaging in some classic doublethink about the car attack itself.
But also
Guy has been named.
And confirmed a registered Republican.
And placed with alt-right
https://mobile.twitter.com/LorenzoMeow/status/896561497110978561?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
Ugh only second degree murder. I really hope they do due diligence and check his history, computer and records to see if there was any aforethought because I don’t think they can put him away for long with that.
Second degree murder, multiple malicious injury, and hit-and-run. Could be 3 felonies depending on state law.
Also, I’m coming to the feeling that we really need to just call them all Nazis, or neonazi, not alt-right. Godwin’s law no longer applies.
What Trump couldn’t bring himself to say, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe could:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.mediaite.com/online/virginia-governor-terry-mcauliffe-calls-out-white-nationalists-shame-on-you/amp/
Money quote from the article:
Possibly felony murder, which is (more or less) first degree in some states. Then the prosecutor doesn’t need to show premeditation or planning, only that he’s guilty of second degree murder and it was a hit-and-run (usually a felony by itself).
Guy should get federal charges for terrorism, since that’s clearly what it is. He should never set foot outside of prison again.
Terry McAuliffe’s party affiliation? Democrat.
Suprised? Nope.
Senator Ted Cruz surprised me today, by calling for an investigation into this domestic terrorism, and clearly denouncing white supremacists, KKK, and Nazis. He still wants to repeal and replace, but at least he spoke out against these hate groups. Not that that’s enough for me to let him off the hook, or ever vote for him.
My dad read on some website that the dude plowed into the crowd because he felt frightened, and my dad believed this uncritically because he’s white supremacist and thinks being anti-fascist is an ultra-left position.
I have no hope for my family.
I was honestly surprised they weren’t charging it as Felony Murder rule myself in combination with terrorism. I just hope he gets the time he deserved but…. he was afraid so he went into a crowd at 40 mph from across the street?
Most likely only some of the less stable of Trump’s supporters will try and riot. The rest are too chickenshit, I can say that right? But to get back to normalcy we might have to do something a little drastic when this blows over. Nazi’s have gotten into their little heads that what they do is okay, the only way I see that stopping is if one shares the fate of their forebears. Not Operation Paperclip but the ones that were executed for crimes against humanity. The rest of this administration could rot in jail and let the chips fall where they may with them, as long as the cannot escape.
@Policy of Madness
My dad is kind of the opposite, he’s totally sure that they’ll end up charging this guy with domestic terrorism, because he refuses to see white privilege, and so doesn’t see any reason this guy wouldn’t be charged with terrorism.
I admit, an easier mindset to deal with than your father’s; but still, siiiigh.
@JS
Still though, Gold Star for him saying that white supremecists & nazis are evil and saying he wants something done about it.
@Policy of Madness
Hugs.
@SinisterPigeon: Sombrero Golem
Idc whatever they nail him for, just that he goes away for a long, long time. Still peeved that a Nazi can injure 19 people and murder a person and STILL won’t get charged for terrorism.
@Micharion
Nothing scares a bully more than fear of consequence.
@Anisky
yeah, siighh, at least his heart is in the right place
I don’t talk politics with family, especially with my Fox News addled dad. Last time that I did tech support for him I saw him getting emails about “TrumpCoins.” I don’t really think I want to hear his take on this situation.
Gold Star for Cruz, yes. Unfortunately he’s got all these “Red X” stickers he still hasn’t done anything about. Still bleating on about “Repeal and Re… no, we got nothing”. I’ve never got any response from him on any issue I’m interested in.