It took a few days, but Donald Trump finally brought himself to condemn white supremacists in the wake of the violence and ramming death in Charlottesville. But Trump’s clearly reluctant statement, made two days after his many-sidesism statement, brought with it the obvious question: Who was the last president to make news by saying racism is evil? Via The Atlantic.
John Podhoretz explains in Commentary why Trump is so unwilling to call out the white supremacists in Charlottesville: Member of marginalized and disaffected groups and their sympathizers were attracted to Trump from the start of his campaign. They would make up the core of Trump’s base.
David French writes in The National Review that if Trump were serious about distancing himself from those hateful elements in the alt-right, the first thing he would do is to fire his chief strategist, Steve Bannon, the man who gave them a platform.
Trump may have promised in his latest statement on Charlottesville that his administration would take on the issue of white supremacy, but his administration’s failure to address the matter to this point suggests otherwise. Via Vox.
A very small portion of corporate America stood up to Trump following the president’s initial failure to call out the white nationalists in Charlottesville. But Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier did quit the president’s American Manufacturing Council and Under Armour chief Kevin Plank followed. Late Monday night, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich announced his resignation in a blog post. So, what are the other CEOs doing (or, more to the point, not doing)? Via The New York Times.
The self-proclaimed Nazis came to Charlottesville prepared to engage in violence. And when the violence began and the mayhem mounted, ProPublica reports, the police stood by and watched.
The mother of the man accused of ramming the car into the Charlottesville crowd, killing Heather Heyer and injuring 19 others, had twice called 911 saying that her son, James Fields, was threatening her with violence. Via The Washington Post.
Meanwhile, Trump is considering pardoning Joe Arpaio, the infamous racial-profiling former sheriff. You think the timing is a coincidence? Via New York magazine.
Protesters in Durham, N.C., resolve the issue of at least one Confederate memorial statue by toppling it themselves. Here’s the video. Via The New York Times.
Photo Credit: Taymaz Valley, Creative Commons, Flickr
