Sen. Time Kaine wondered why President Trump is so “unwilling” to call out white supremacists.
“What the president did this week was suggesting there was some moral equivalence in Charlottesville. And that is outrageous,” the Virginia Democrat told John Dickerson on CBS’ “Face The Nation” Sunday morning.
Trump has not been consistent in his public comments following the deadly violence in Charlottesville, Va., last weekend in which white supremacists and neo-Nazis clashed with anti-racism protestors. On Tuesday, one day after he condemned the groups by name, he said there was violence on both sides, and that both sides had “very good people.”
Trump’s original statement on Saturday following the Charlottesville violence did not mention white supremacist groups by name, something he defended on Tuesday at an impromptu press conference by saying he wanted to get to “know the facts.”
Kaine — the 2016 Democratic vice presidential nominee — condemned this suggestion by Trump.
“The president didn’t have a hard time when a Somali young man drove a car into a crowd in — at Ohio State in December. He called it an act of terrorism, which it was. When somebody drove a car into a crowd in Barcelona this week, he jumped on it immediately. It was an act of terrorism,” he said.
He added: “But when this white supremacist drives a car into a crowd of people killing Heather Heyer and injuring scores more and the president says, ‘There’s fine people on both sides,’ or, ‘There’s violence on both sides.'”
Trump has faced backlash for his string of comments following Charlottesville.
“Why is he so confused and unclear and unwilling to call out the violent white supremacy that was on such gruesome display in my home state?” Kaine said, adding, “When there are people marching through the streets of Charlottesville chanting ‘blood and soil’ from Hitler rallies or, ‘Jews will not replace us,’ you can’t be polite and kind about that behavior, or certainly about murder or violence.You have to condemn it.”
