Former Gov. Mike Huckabee, and Vice President Mike Pence responded to attacks by the media on President Trump’s response to the Charlottesville Disaster.
Last Saturday, as the events in Charlottesville unfolded, President issued a statement, declaring, “This egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides — on many sides.” He also took to social media to condemn all violence and hate. However, the media was quick to attack President trump’s insistence that blame for the disaster lay with all groups, and, “many sides.”
The Huffington Post were quick to note, “President Donald Trump is coming under fire for his initial refusal to specifically condemn white supremacists. Even members of his own party are calling him out for his tepid response to the violence in Charlottesville.”
“The Republican politicians still fear the Trump base in their own districts and states,” stated Larry Sabato, the director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, located in Charlottesville. “When he goes down to where Nixon and Truman were, in the mid to low 20s in the polls, then they will start waving bye-bye to him.”
However, Pence’s forceful statement was seen to clear the air, and give the media what they wanted. The Vice President said, “We have no tolerance for hate and violence, white supremacists or neo-Nazis or the KKK.” He also highlighted how the President had, quickly, “clearly and unambiguously” condemned violence.
“I take issue with the fact that many in the national media spent more time criticizing the president’s words than they did criticizing those that perpetuated the violence to begin with,” Pence argued.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee also brought up a salient point, saying, “I don’t know what they expect the president to do,” because, at the time of Trump’s media blitz condemning the violence. “the driver of the car had not even been identified.”
“I have got a special repulsion to white supremacists and it’s part because I’m white, it’s part because I have seen this evil and hateful attitude that elevates some people above others,” Huckabee further argued.
“I don’t know of anyone who is doing anything other than condemning the violence and condemning the very spirit of white supremacy,” he continued.
President Trump has tweeted on Saturday, “We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!” following his news conference to discussing the violence occurring in Virginia.
Remarking that there are some who will never ever be pleased with any of Trump’s actions as President, Huckabee concluded, “If Donald Trump has suddenly jumped on Marine One … down to Charlottesville, walked into the jail where the young man was being held, shot him between the eyes, I guarantee you people said he didn’t use the right caliber bullet.”
The president was “explicitly clear in condemning what happened and the fact was he will never satisfy those who hate his every word,” Huckabee noted.
