In a new interview with the Financial Times, National Economic Council chief and former Goldman Sachs executive Gary Cohn criticized the Trump administration’s response to the racist Charlottesville attack.
Business Insider reports:
“This administration can and must do better in consistently and unequivocally condemning these groups and do everything we can to heal the deep divisions that exist in our communities,” Cohn told the Financial Times.
Cohn said he felt compelled “to voice my distress over the events of the last two weeks.”
Cohn, who is Jewish, was reportedly “disgusted” and “appalled” with Trump’s response to white nationalists’ role in the violence in Charlottesville. The president blamed “both sides” for the violence, which left one counterprotester dead.
“Citizens standing up for equality and freedom can never be equated with white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the KKK,” Cohn told the FT.
After Trump’s remarks, Cohn said, he felt “enormous pressure” both to resign and to stay in the administration. But he told the FT he was “reluctant” to leave based on a “commitment” to the American people.
During his powerhouse rally in Phoenix, President Trump slammed the media for distorting his Charlottesville response.
Jerusalem Post reported:
“I didn’t say I love you because you’re black, or I love you because you’re white,” Trump said. “I love all the people of our country.”
Police used pepper spray to disperse crowds after protesters threw rocks and bottles outside the convention center where Trump spoke, police said.
Trump, who often uses news organizations as a foil, repeatedly singled out the media for criticism of how it covered the violence in the Virginia college town of Charlottesville and the resulting political fallout.
“These are truly dishonest people. They’re bad people. I really think they don’t like our country,” Trump said. “The only people giving a platform to these hate groups is the media.”
Adopting a glib tone, Trump said many reporters ignored his condemnation of white supremacists, including the Ku Klux Klan.
“I hit ’em with neo-Nazi, I hit ’em with everything … KKK? We have KKK. I got ’em all,” he said.
CNN featured a panel of six Trump supporters Wednesday morning and they all pushed back on host Alisyn Camerota’s persistent argument that somehow President Trump did something wrong by condemning both sides for violence and hatred following the protests in Charlottesville.
The entire panel defended President Trump and expressed their distrust of the media.
Camerota started out by asking how many of the panelists were troubled by President Trump’s response to Charlottesville. Not one of the panelists raised their hands.
“I didn’t see anything wrong with it. I mean he addressed the problem. I mean let’s face reality, there are problems on both sides,” said one of the panelists.
Camerota was clearly frustrated that anyone would come to such a logical conclusion so she pushed back.
“Do you think neo-Nazi’s and white supremacists are the same as those who are protesting them?” asked Camerota.
The panelist shot back with an excellent answer, “I think it’s ridiculous to have me choose between Hitler and Stalin which is what I consider what both groups are.”
Camerota once again stuck up for the violent communist Antifa members and got shut down again.
“The Antifa group to me is totally Stalin-ish. If you’re willing to set fires and burn places to the ground, that doesn’t seem like a very peaceful group to me,” the panelist said.
Camerota played a clip of white supremacists chanting slurs against Jews and the panelists pointed out that the majority of Trump supporters do not share those views. There are over 60 million Trump voters, why does the media continue to show a handful of neo-Nazi’s as a representation of the entire voter base?
Camerota continued to demonize the white supremacists and romanticize violent, masked Antifa while the panel destroyed her narrative. The panel said they simply don’t trust the mainstream media. They get their news from alternative media and of course Camerota attempted to discredit that as well.
Video via The Daily Caller:
