Ryan: Trump 'Screwed Up'

Ryan: Trump 'Screwed Up'
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At a town hall in Racine, Wisconsin House Speaker Paul Ryan told CNN’s Jack Tapper President Trump “Screwed up” when asked about Trump’s failure to directly condemn White Supremacist groups, after a pro-Confederacy protester plowed his vehicle into a crowd of counter-protesters, murdering three and injuring at least nine in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Said Ryan:

I do believe that he messed up in his comments on Tuesday when it sounded like a moral equivocation or at the very least moral ambiguity when we need extreme moral clarity.

But is Speaker Ryan correct? Does President Trump’s response to the Charlottevilles attack constitute a mere slip of the tongue? Did the good-hearted but indiscreet 45th President of the United States simply “mess up” during his response to that particular act of terrorism, perpetrated by a white supremacist on American soil?

Let’s go back in time and look at the context of what Trump said, so we can finally formulate our own opinions.

The day the deranged motorist rammed his car into a group of counter-protesters, Trump had this to say:

We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred bigotry and violence on many sides. On many sides.

The “on many sides” comment rightfully angered many, on the left and some even on the right, prompting Trump to disavow and condemn white supremacist groups the next day.

Said Trump:

Racism is evil -- and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.

This response antagonized the hornet’s nest, so to speak, with Trump’s white supremacist followers. David Duke was especially irked.

After his white supremacist supporters voiced their displeasure with him, Trump very quickly adopted a more neutral tone once again, blaming both the counter protesters, and the protesters.

At the next press conference President Trump said, “I think there’s blame on both sides,” once again taking a more ambiguous stance, as if anti-African American, anti-Mexican and antisemitic protesters belong in the same category as counter-protesters, who killed nobody at the event, and were merely exercising their constitutional rights of freedoom of speech.

Taking all this into consideration I believe it’s safe to say Speaker Ryan’s statement to Tapper was not adequate.

No, Mr. Ryan—President Trump didn’t simply “mess up.” Gene Simmons “messes up” when he sings the wrong lyric to “Rock and Roll All Night”; waiters and waitresses mess up when they bring you the wrong order; I mess up when I try to make a strike at the bowling alley and make a seven/ten split instead.

President Trump had three chances—three!—to directly condemn this domestic terrorist attack in Virginia, and he refused to do it. Refused to do it!

You can sugarcoat it anyway you want, Speaker Ryan. You can try to trivialize this but that too is an exercise in futility. The ugly truth is your party’s president refuses to directly condemn neo-Nazis because they are an integral part of his support base.

When will you, Speaker of the House, finally do the right thing and adequately condemn the cowardice of your president?

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