President Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama have had very different reactions to their comments on the race-fueled violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.
President Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama have had very different reactions to their comments on the race-fueled violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Trump faces criticism for his comments saying « many » and « both sides » were to blame for the race-fueled violence, while Obama’s response is now the most liked tweet in Twitter history.
The 44th president of the United States tweeted a Nelson Mandela quote with a photo of himself greeting school children. As of Wednesday morning, Aug. 16, Obama’s tweet has more than 3.2 million likes and 1.2 million retweets.
Twitter confirmed the new record with a tweet of its own past midnight Wednesday.
« No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion… » pic.twitter.com/InZ58zkoAm
This Tweet from @BarackObama is now the most liked Tweet ever. https: //t.co/wEjYaxIHI1
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On the other side, Trump has faced criticism now for placing the blame on both sides during the race-fueled violence between white nationalists and people protesting racism.
After coming under fire from both sides of the aisle for saying « many sides » were to blame for the violence in Charlottesville on Saturday, Trump finally called the KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists are « criminals and thugs » on Monday.
Then on Tuesday, Trump unequivocally blamed both sides again for the weekend filled with race-fueled violence. He said while speaking in the lobby of Trump Tower, via the Associated Press, that there were « some very bad people » but that « you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides. »
Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke rebuked on some soft criticism following Trump’s Monday comments by tweeting, « Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth.
White nationalists protested the removal of Charlottesville, Virginia’s plans to remove a public shrine of Confederate General Robert E. Lee on Saturday. Three people were killed and more than 26 were injured as a result of the gathering.
One of the deaths and the bulk of the injuries occurred when a man drove his car into peaceful, anti-racist counterprotesters, sending bodies into the air and carnage in its wake. The other two deaths were Virginia State Police officers killed in a helicopter crash that has been tied to the protests.
« So, this week it’s Robert E. Lee, » Trump said, via A. P. « I noticed that Stonewall Jackson’s coming down. I wonder, ‘is it George Washington next week and is it Thomas Jefferson the week after?’
« You really have to ask yourself, ‘where does it stop?’ You’re changing history. You’re changing culture. »
Virginia won’t let anyone take us backwards – whether it’s white supremacists or a President who emboldens them
Charlottesville violence was fueled by one side: white supremacists spreading racism, intolerance & intimidation. Those are the facts.
As a Jew, as an American, as a human, words cannot express my disgust and disappointment. This is not my President.
A. P. reports that Trump essentially erasing his Monday statement condemning the alt-right, KKK, neo-Nazis and white nationalists left White House officials off guard. The news organization reports that he agreed to a plan to ignore questions from the press, but overruled the plan when he landed in front of the cameras.
The president has been known to label deadly events in the U. S. as terrorism, but would not commit to linking the events in Virginia to Terrorism. Trump’s Attorney General Jeff Sessions is one of many to condemn the attacks as « Domestic Terrorism. »
« There is a question. Is it murder? Is it terrorism? » Trump said. « And then you get into legal semantics. The driver of the car is a murdered and what he did was a horrible, inexcusable thing. »
