(AKA Things President Trump has said…and not said).
Trump did, indeed, say that when Mexican immigrants come in, “they are not sending their best…rapists, murderers,” etc., etc. HE said that, not the media. Trump.
In 2017, after Chartlottesville, when several people were injured and one woman killed, he DID say that there were “fine people on both sides.” He said it. Not the media. His words. Trump’s.
That one is a little more complicated for me because I try not to fit people into categories of “good people,” or “bad people.” If you grew up in a dominating, bullying, or aggressive family, you, yourself are more likely to be dominating, bullying, or aggressive. Or choose a partner who is. Does that mean that, to the core, you are a bad person? For me, it makes it more likely, but isn’t it more layered than that? Aren’t all of us more than one thing? Can’t you be kind in some cases and an ass in another? Of course. People are complex, and I think it is dangerous when we frame people as all one thing: good/bad, kind/cruel. There are just some of us I’d much rather have a beer with, you know? Or not, when it comes to “Unite the Right” folks. Or Trump.
People condemned Trump for his “good people on both sides” statement. He countered the criticism by saying that some of the United Right statue removal protesters were “simply” defending the history of the country by not wanting a statue of General Lee removed. He said that’s what he meant when he claimed there were good people on both sides. The United Right were people who had a permit; the counter protesters did not. Doesn’t really warrant driving a car into people, though, does it?
What was so wrong about Trump’s statement after Charlottesville, where 19 people were injured and one person died is that he missed the point. Heather Heyer, a counter protestor to the United Right, was KILLED. Killed. As in, died. Trump missed the moment. His statement came at a time when he could have–should have– attempted to heal, after the violence. The peaceful counter-protesters suffered, especially Heyer and her mourning family. This was a time when he should have absolutely, without equivocation, 100% condemned the actions of neo-Nazis, anti-Semites, the Ku Klux clan and others who make up the “Unite the Right” movement. The death and the injuries at the hands of neo Nazis, Ku Klux clan is abhorrent…and Trump failed to condemn them. He should have. He didn’t.
Trump did condemn “in the strongest possible terms” what he called an “egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides” after the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. There aren’t “many sides” to this. There was a rally of white supremacists who did not want the statue of General Lee removed. There were counter protesters, who believed that it should be. Period. Trump fell short. What he didn’t do was acknowledge the woman who was run over and killed by James Fields Jr. That moment, was the correct time to put people in boxes of good/bad, right/wrong. In that moment, it was appropriate. In that moment, it was necessary. And he failed.
James Fields Jr. was eventually sentenced to life in prison. Heather Heyer is still dead. Trump is still quiet.
