Culture

GOP And Democratic Lawmakers Condemn Trump For Blaming Charlottesville Violence On ‘Many Sides’

This weekend’s chaos in Charlottesville, Virginia began when Nazis/white supremacists marched at the University of Virginia with tiki torches on Friday night. The situation grew even worse on Saturday when a car slammed into counterprotesters, killing one person. At least three people have died in association with these protests, and President Trump addressed Americans while declining to place any blame upon Nazis/supremacists for the events. His speech stood in stark contrast to that of Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who told the bearers of hate-filled messages to “go home … there is no place for you in America.” Whereas the president chose to describe the problem as one sourcing from “many sides.” He did:

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides. It has been going on for a long time in our country — not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama. It has been going on for a long, long time. It has no place in America.”

As one would expect, Trump’s choice of words has prompted disbelief and disgust all over social media, which includes the man who plays Captain America, who tweeted his disbelief: “MANY SIDES?!?”

https://twitter.com/ChrisEvans/status/896468144608481280

Many thousands of other responses followed, but some of the most notable examples came from U.S. lawmakers and politicians on both sides of the spectrum. In other words, Democrats and Republicans came together to bash Trump’s response to this violence.

An utterly disappointed Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) wished that Trump would have accurately described the perpetrators of violence: “Very important for the nation to hear @potus describe events in #Charlottesville for what they are, a terror attack by #whitesupremacists.”

Former Florida governor and Republican primary rival Jeb Bush agreed with Rubio: “The white supremacists and their bigotry do not represent our great country. All Americans should condemn this vile hatred.”

And Ohio Governor John Kasich (also a former Trump rival) stated, “Racism and violence have no place in America. All of us must condemn hate wherever it is found.”

Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) chimed in: “Mr. President – we must call evil by its name. These were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism.”

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) argued against the “many sides” terminology: “No, Mr. President, not ‘many sides.’ There is one side with nazi flags and nazi salutes. America is not on that side.”

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) agreed that Trump’s terminology was not sufficient: “.@POTUS needs to speak out against the poisonous resurgence of white supremacy. There are not ‘many sides’ here, just right and wrong.”

Likewise, Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) would not let the omission stand: “No, Mr. President. This is a provocative effort by Neo-Nazis to foment racism and hatred and create violence. Call it out for what it is.”

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), the most senior Republican in the Senate, spoke out in no uncertain terms: “We should call evil by its name. My brother didn’t give his life fighting Hitler for Nazi ideas to go unchallenged here at home.”

Former VP Joe Biden kept things simple: “There is only one side.”

And even former Governor Mike Huckabee has abandoned his bad jokes (for now) to speak out against this weekend’s terrible events: “‘White supremacy’ crap is worst kind of racism — it’s EVIL and perversion of God’s truth to ever think our Creator values some above others.”

Back in Virginia, the state’s Democratic attorney general, Mark Herring, tweeted, “The violence, chaos, and apparent loss of life in Charlottesville is not the fault of ‘many sides.’ It is racists and white supremacists.”

There’s a joke to be made about Trump encouraging bipartisan discourse, but we’ll let someone make those remarks.

(Via CNN)