Donald Trump supports pro-slavery generals’ statues and their racist defenders

This 15 August 2017 video from the USA is called Ta-Nehisi Coates: Given Trump & GOP History of Racism, Violence in Charlottesville was Predictable.

Another video from the USA used to say about itself:

Full Interview: Ta-Nehisi Coates on Charlottesville, Trump, the Confederacy, Reparations & More

15 August 2017

Ta-Nehisi Coates speaks to Democracy Now! in his first major interview since the inauguration of Donald Trump. Coates is the national correspondent at The Atlantic, where he writes about culture, politics and social issues. His forthcoming book, out in October, is titled “We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy”. He is the author of “Between the World and Me,” for which he received the 2015 National Book Award for Nonfiction.

From Politico.com in the USA today:

Trump said at a news conference … at Trump Tower in New York City [about his extreme right adviser Stephen Bannon]: “He is a good person, and I think the press treats him frankly unfairly.”

From CNN in the USA today:

Trump: Taking down Confederate memorials is ‘changing history’

As pressure mounts around the country demanding the removal of monuments lionizing the Confederacy, President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the removal of such monuments is “changing history.”

“I wonder, is it George Washington next week?” Trump asked.

Trump, in an agitated back-and-forth with reporters in Trump Tower, defended members of the “Unite the Right” protest last weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a white supremacist has been charged with murder for ramming a car into a crowd of counter-protesters. He went on to make a slippery slope argument — equating Confederate general Robert E. Lee with presidents like Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who were slave owners.

But who did not fight on Civil War battlefields against the federal government to keep slavery. And who, unlike Robert E. Lee’s army when invading Pennsylvania, did not enslave free African Americans to sell them down south.

Trump said: “Not all of those people [of the ‘alt-right‘ violent demonstration in Charlottesville] were white supremacists, by any stretch. Those people were also there because they wanted to protest the taking down of a statue of Robert E. Lee.”

Charlottesville, like many southern towns across the US, has grappled with its Confederate legacy and the decision in the past to honor men who fought to keep the institution of slavery alive. In his comments, Trump lamented the push to take down Confederate statues.

“So, this week it’s Robert E. Lee,” Trump said. “I notice that Stonewall Jackson is coming down. I wonder is it George Washington next week, and is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You know, you really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop?”

Also from CNN today:

Trump says both sides to blame amid Charlottesville backlash

President Donald Trump, in a staggering, impromptu press conference in New York on Tuesday, blamed the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia over the weekend on both sides of the conflict — equating the white supremacists on one side with the “alt-left” on the other side — after his top White House aides spent days trying to clean up after Trump’s initial vague response to the violence.

“I think there is blame on both sides,” Trump said during a contentious back-and-forth with reporters in the lobby of his Midtown Manhattan building.

“What about the ‘alt-left‘ that came charging at, as you say, the ‘alt-right,’ do they have any semblance of guilt?” Trump asked. …

“I wanted to make sure, unlike most politicians, that what I said was correct, not make a quick statement,” Trump said, calling his initial comment a “fine statement.” …

[Trump said] there was some who came out to protest the removal of Robert E. Lee’s statue who were “fine people.”

“You had people in that group [the violent ‘Unite the Right’ demonstrators] that were there to protest the taking down, to them, of a very, very important statue and a renaming of a park from Robert E. Lee to another name,” Trump said. …

Trump’s slippery slope argument [on Jefferson and Washington] is straight out of the ‘alt-right‘ playbook.

Oh and don’t forget the winery plug Trump included in his remarks Tuesday.

President defends far-right marchers and equates Confederate generals Robert E Lee and Stonewall Jackson with George Washington and Thomas Jefferson: here.

THE AFTERMATH OF TRUMP’S DEFENSE OF ‘BOTH SIDES’ “President Donald Trump spoke again Tuesday on the white supremacist conflict in Charlottesville, Virginia, defending his much-criticized initial statement on the protests and offering an even stronger critique of demonstrators and the causes they fought for during the violent weekend gathering.” Trump was clear to say there was violence on “both sides” and referenced the “alt-left.” You can watch the speech here, which white nationalists praised and politicians rushed to condemn. CNN commentator Van Jones was tearfully at a loss at the president’s words, Anderson Cooper opened his show with blistering commentary, and Fox News commentator Charles Krauthammer called Trump’s speech “a moral disgrace.” [HuffPost]

Trump aide Katharine Gorka helped end funding for a group that fights white supremacy.

All four of Baltimore’s Confederate statues were removed overnight, just days after a white nationalist rally erupted into chaos and violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. The Baltimore City Council voted unanimously Monday night to immediately take down the monuments after more than a year of indecision: here.

NEW MEMORIAL IN ALABAMA HONORS CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS It was dedicated Sunday. [HuffPost]

This Is Why You’re Seeing The Confederate Flag Across Europe. It was shocking to see the flag greet Donald Trump in Poland. But European groups — some of them white supremacist — have waved it for years: here.

THE FEDS WANT THE VISITOR RECORDS FOR A SITE LINKED TO TRUMP PROTESTS “The request is so broad it seems like the administration is trying to obtain ‘an enemies list,’ one legal expert said.” [HuffPost]

So many CEOs resigned from Trump’s manufacturing council that he just disbanded it. Trump’s response to the Charlottesville white nationalism march caused many business leaders to resign in protest: here.

Trump’s Two Big Business Councils Disband Amid Uproar Over Charlottesville. The president took credit for dissolving the groups: here.