Is President Trump doing enough to condemn white supremacy? | The Tylt
One person was killed and more than 30 were injured after a 20-year-old white male drove a car into a crowd at a white supremacy rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. President Trump initially called the incident an “egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides." After widespread complaints about the president's moral failure to condemn white supremacists, Trump issued another statement where he not only denounced specific hate groups but reiterated "racism is evil." Has President Trump done enough?

An editorial in the New York Times sharply criticized the president and said his failure to call out the American white supremacist movement for the violence looked like tacit support.
"Let’s discard the fiction that President Trump wasn’t placating white supremacists by responding so weakly to the neo-Nazi violence that killed Heather Heyer....The neo-Nazis heard his message loud and clear."
But Trump's supporters say no matter what he does, it is never enough for the left.
DJT criticized for not condemning Charlottesville Rally strongly enough. Did BO or HRC EVER condemn ANTIFA or BLM? https://t.co/abiPDY1rOW
— David Lord (@DavidLord4) August 13, 2017
Be prepared for massive hit jobs from the media tomorrow morning declaring Trump didn't do enough. He did more than enough. He's a LEADER.
— Mike (@mike_Zollo) August 13, 2017
Spew Poll: Did President Trump go far enough with his remarks this past weekend?
— Newsradio WTAM 1100 (@wtam1100) August 14, 2017
Many people were horrified that in the president's response to the violence in Charlottesville, he urged Americans to "cherish our history," a phrase that was seen as a callout to neo-Confederates and white nationalist grievances.
"Cherish our history" -- another dog whistle. Nazis at protest were mad about removal of statue from UVA https://t.co/BIICEzpDTh
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) August 12, 2017
Trump is a disgrace. Speech was filled with code words accepting of hate groups. Disgraceful....did not go far enough.
— Voice-of-the-people (@voter_remorse) August 12, 2017
Trump's statement was seen as drawing a moral equivalency between white supremacists and those protesting them.
Trump's Charlottesville disgrace: White supremacists aren't just another 'side' | via @usatodayhttps://t.co/zG8sjW1y2n
— SafetyPin-Daily (@SafetyPinDaily) August 14, 2017
Josh Marshall went even further: he says that Trump deliberately refused to call out white supremacists because they have his support.
In addition to going out of his way not to denounce the white supremacist and neo-nazi marchers yesterday, for those primed to hear it (which is the point) the President made a point of calling out and valorizing the marchers.
But the White House said the president did not mention white supremacists specifically because he did not want to "dignify" them.
"The president not only condemned the violence and stood up at a time and a moment when calm was necessary and didn't dignify the names of these groups of people, but rather addressed the fundamental issue," Bossert told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union."
Trump aide: Trump didn't call out white supremacists because he didn't want to dignify them https://t.co/ND87DA76Kz pic.twitter.com/Q6CwB1gn3a
— The Hill (@thehill) August 13, 2017
And Trump did issue a statement from the White House two days after the Charlottesville deaths in which he name-checked racism, white supremacy, and the Ku Klux Klan.
President Trump delivers a statement condemning KKK pic.twitter.com/3E1MWFSf6U
— Sammy Kibet (@sammy_kibet) August 14, 2017
GOP strategist Rick Wilson wasn't buying the statement, though.
This is a speech from a desperate staff that knows how badly Trump got rekt this weekend.
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) August 14, 2017
And for others, it was too little, too late.
History won’t forget that when the streets of Charlottesville echoed with evil, Donald Trump responded with silence.
— Tom Perez (@TomPerez) August 14, 2017