Reportedly, at a recent working meeting with Trump in which an agreement was reached on Dreamer legislation, Senator Schumer gave Trump a “litany of what he saw as Mr. Trump’s presidential sins.” Among them was his failure to unequivocally denounce anti-Semitism and racism in the wake of the Charlottesville violence.
To the surprise of everyone in the room, Trump “responded positively, if vaguely, and laughed.”
Who knows to what extent that may have had in influencing his recent decision to sign a resolution condemning white supremacists.
Nevertheless, the White House announced that Trump signed the measure hours after the president revisited his controversial response to the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, but apparently not backing away from his opinion that "some pretty bad dudes on the other side also."
The resolution was introduced by a bipartisan group of senators amid concerns about Trump's response to the violence, which erupted as white nationalists rallied to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
The resolution rejects "white nationalism, white supremacy, and neo-Nazism as hateful expressions of intolerance that are contradictory to the values that define the people of the United States."
What’s important here is it took a Congressional resolution to get President Trump to say he rejected the hate that was Charlottesville. It’s not an ‘about face’ for Trump. His beliefs have not changed. He signed the resolution because his back was against the wall. What’s in it for him and the fact he doesn’t tell the truth are the primary considerations when judging Trump’s words and actions.
By Eli Watkins
