Mitt Romney called on President Donald Trump Friday to apologize for his comments about Charlottesville, Virginia, saying the President’s remarks this week “caused racists to rejoice.”
“The potential consequences are severe in the extreme,” Romney wrote in a Facebook post. “Accordingly, the president must take remedial action in the extreme. He should address the American people, acknowledge that he was wrong, apologize.”
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He said that Trump’s remarks — in which he blamed “both sides” for inciting violence, an equivocation between neo-Nazis and those protesting them — had a hurtful impact on the nation.
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“Whether he intended to or not, what he communicated caused racists to rejoice, minorities to weep, and the vast heart of America to mourn,” Romney wrote. “His apologists strain to explain that he didn’t mean what we heard. But what we heard is now the reality, and unless it is addressed by the president as such, with unprecedented candor and strength, there may commence an unraveling of our national fabric.
It took more than 48 hours, but President Donald Trump finally denounced the white supremacist groups whose rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, this past weekend sparked deadly violence.
But his Monday proclamation that “racism is evil” means little coming from a man who largely has not backed away from the racism upon which he built both his campaign and his real estate business.
Not only did Trump’s condemnation pale in comparison to those from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, celebrities and even the maker of the tiki torches used at the rally, but it also came after he blamed “many sides” for the violent protest.
Throughout his campaign and after his election, HuffPost kept running lists of examples of Trump’s racism dating as far back as the 1970s. We’ll continue to document those incidents here as they happen.
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Joe McNally/Getty Images
In the 1980s, Donald Trump was much younger, but just as racist as he is now.
Some of the biggest-named charities in America are walking away from President Trump.
The American Red Cross, The Salvation Army and Susan G. Komen foundation all said Friday they’re canceling events at Trump’s Palm Beach property Mar-a-Lago. That comes after three organizations made similar announcements on Thursday.
The cancellations follow the spectacular implosion of Trump’s business councils this week over the president’s insistence that counter-protesters shared the blame for violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
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The collapse of the councils was an extraordinary rebuke to a president who prides himself on being business-friendly. High-profile CEOs like JPMorgan Chase’ (JPM)Jamie Dimon have publicly slammed Trump’s reaction to Charlottesville.
Now, Trump’s words are affecting his own business.
The great-great grandchildren of Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and Stonewall Jackson have a message for those who adamantly want to preserve the Confederate leaders’ monuments: Let it go.
Their message, all issued separately in interviews and open letters, are particularly resonant in a climate when there’s so much controversy over the Civil War symbols and when the President of the United States himself said removing them is ripping apart the country.
Steve Bannon, a senior adviser to the president who was largely credited with shaping the strategy that got Donald Trump to the White House, is out from his role as the president’s chief strategist. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said Bannon and Chief of Staff John Kelly agreed Friday would be his last day.
“We are grateful for his service and wish him the best,” Sanders said in a statement.
The details of Bannon’s departure remain unclear. The New York Times reported Trump had decided to remove Bannon, but also that a source close to Bannon said the adviser had submitted his resignation on Aug. 7 to be effective Aug. 14. MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle also tweeted Bannon is “out.”
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Images: Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post
In an interview with the American Prospect, White House chief strategist Steve Bannon offers an important insight into why Democrats lost the election and why they’re struggling with identity politics.
“The Democrats,” he said, “the longer they talk about identity politics, I got ’em. I want them to talk about racism every day. If the left is focused on race and identity, and we go with economic nationalism, we can crush the Democrats.”
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That is as succinct a reading of what happened in the 2016 as any. It is also a prediction about the enduring power of Trump’s strategy. And Bannon may in fact be right — Democrats, including Bernie Sanders, have made the same argument that the left focuses too much on identity politics, to its detriment.
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Yet, in mentioning “identity politics” on the left, and suggesting that no such thing exists on the right, Bannon argues that it’s the left alone that “is focused on race and identity,” and not Trump.
Former CIA director John Brennan slammed President Donald Trump’s “dangerous” and “ugly” comments on the deadly violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia — writing a personal letter to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer after “The Situation Room” anchor spoke publicly about the fact that he lost all four grandparents to the evils of Nazism.
In a rare move, top commanders in the US military are speaking out in the wake of the deadly violence that erupted at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend.
Five US Joint Chiefs are issuing public condemnations of white supremacist groups in the wake of the weekend’s racial unrest. President Donald Trump expanded the controversy Tuesday when he appeared to draw a moral equivalency between neo-Nazis and counter-protesters by blaming “both sides” for contributing to violence.
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The statements are not directly addressing Trump’s comments but are instead presented as a message to the general public, their troops and potential recruits. But the messages are notable as US military leaders traditionally uphold an ironclad commitment to stay out of politics.
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The Romneys’ return to politics
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Images: Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post
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Extinguished
Ex-CIA head: Trumps words a national disgrace
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Blue shoes dancing
James' World 2 