Congresswoman Gwen Moore calls for removal of Donald Trump as president
MILWAUKEE -- Congresswoman Gwen Moore (D - Milwaukee) issued a statement on Tuesday, August 15th, calling for the removal of Donald Trump as president.
The statement reads as follows:
"As we once again hear Donald Trump defend those responsible for the deadly riot in Charlottesville and receive praise by hate groups like the KKK and neo-Nazis, the time has come for Republicans and Democrats to put aside our political differences and philosophical debates for a higher cause. For the sake of the soul of our country, we must come together to restore our national dignity that has been robbed by Donald Trump’s presence in the White House. My Republican friends, I implore you to work with us within our capacity as elected officials to remove this man as our commander-in-chief and help us move forward from this dark period in our nation’s history."
White nationalists have been parsing President Trump's words since a deadly attack at a Virginia rally over the weekend. A day after the president called them "criminals and thugs," some seemed quite pleased Tuesday when Pres. Trump angrily pivoted back to his initial response and spread out the blame.
Pres. Donald Trump
Members of the Ku Klux Klan, white supremacists and neo-Nazis who supported Trump's campaign and have felt emboldened by his presidency praised Pres. Trump's initial reaction on Saturday, which blamed "many sides" for the violence. They were disheartened two days later, when Pres. Trump, facing immense bipartisan pressure, belatedly criticized their hate groups by name and called them "repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans."
But by Tuesday evening, Pres. Trump flipped again.
Taking questions that had to be shouted in the lobby of Pres. Trump Tower in New York, Pres. Trump praised his initial statement that had caused so much criticism, and angrily laid blame on liberal groups advocating for the removal of Confederate statues.
President Donald Trump
Before this latest news conference, it had become clear that the man who rammed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing a woman and injuring dozens of people, had idolized Adolph Hitler long before he joined the white nationalist rally.
But when asked repeatedly whether this was an act of terror, Pres. Trump wouldn't clearly condemn it as such, saying: "You can call it terrorism. You can call it murder. You can call it whatever you want."
Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke seemed thrilled, tweeting a link to Pres. Trump's latest comments Tuesday and saying: "Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth about #Charlottesville & condemn the leftist terrorists in BLM/Antifa," referring to the Black Lives Matter movement and an anti-fascist group.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA - AUGUST 13: Flowers surround a photo of 32-year-old Heather Heyer, who was killed when a car plowed into a crowd of people protesting against the white supremacist Unite the Right rally, August 13, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virgin
A day earlier, Duke had posted a video mildly criticizing Pres. Trump's prepared statement, saying "President Trump, please, for God's sakes, don't feel like you've got to say these things. It's not going to do you any good."
Also on Monday, white nationalist Richard Spencer — who popularized the term "alt-right" to describe the fringe movement mixing white supremacy, white nationalism, anti-Semitism and anti-immigration populism — told reporters that Pres. Trump's prepared statement "sounds like we might want to all bring out an acoustic guitar and sing "Kum ba yah." It's just vapid nonsense."
Occidental Dissent, a white nationalist website, posted a statement Monday saying whites had been "deserted by their president."
"He has sided with a group of people who attack us on sight and attempt to kill us and for that the Alt-Right can no longer support him. What Donald Trump has done today is an unforgivable betrayal of his supporters," the message said.
Andrew Anglin, the publisher of The Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website, had praised Pres. Trump's initial reaction to the violence Saturday as "no condemnation at all ... really really good. God bless him."
Anglin dismissed Pres. Trump's Monday statement as "childish nonsense." In an email to The Associated Press before Pres. Trump's latest statements, Anglin said "If he actually believed that nonsense, or was planning on implementing it as policy, he would have said it before being bullied into it by the international thought police."
By Tuesday afternoon, The Daily Stormer posted an article entitled, "Trump Defends Charlottesville Nazis Against Jew Media Lies, Condemns Antifa Terrorists."