> receiving attaboys and cover from the Oval Office
I don't recall of any incident where the President congratulated a white nationalist terrorist or said anything that could even be conceived as such, do you have a source for this?
Context matters. Was he saying that referring to the "terrorist vs innocent people" or "protesters vs counter-protesters" in context of the Charlottesville protest where the terrorist incident occurred? It's a gaffe for sure but I don't think the intention was to congratulate a terrorist.
>"I’ve condemned neo-Nazis. I’ve condemned many different groups. But not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me," Trump said. "You also had some very fine people on both sides,"
I can't even read this as him saying there are fine white nationalists, let alone him saying that white nationalist terrorists are fine.
You can't say you condemn neo-Nazis in the same breath that you praise a white supremacist rally for having good people. A white supremacist rally that resulted in people being killed and seriously injured. A rally where the people yelled 'the Jews will not replace us', waved Nazi flags and more.
Who were the 'very fine people' on the side of the neo-Nazi rally?
The most charitable interpretation is that Trump thought it was originally a rally in defense of the Robert E. Lee statue and was hijacked for neo-Nazi purposes.
I guess you could make the argument that not wanting a statue of Robert E Lee removed inherently makes you a neo-Nazi, but I don't think that necessarily follows.
Fake news much? This quote related to people defending and opposing confederate monuments, not white nationalists. If you read even one more line of the quote, it becomes immediately clear:
“You had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists,” Trump said. “The press has treated them absolutely unfairly.”
“You also had some very fine people on both sides,” he said.
Surely you can see, that "neo-Nazis and white nationalists" is one category, but "other than" is another, and "also very fine people" does not relate to white nationalists - it specifically excludes white nationalists, mentioning it as distinct group. That is immediately clear from reading just two lines of context.
It says, black on white: "You had people and i'm not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists. They should be condemned totally. You had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists.". I conclude that if he says "I am not talking about neo-Nazis and white nationalists" that means he is not talking about neo-Nazis and white nationalists. You call it "tortured, senseless interpretation". I sincerely hope I never, ever will be in a position where you would review code that I need to get into production. Because I can only imagine what you'd see in a moderately complex code if you can't understand a simple phrase like "I'm not talking about X".
> "you had some very bad people in that group. But you also had people that were very fine people on both sides. You had people in that group – excuse me, excuse me. I saw the same pictures as you did. You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down, of to them, a very, very important statue...and I'm not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists, because they should be condemned totally – but you had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists, okay?"
It's clear as day that he condemned the neo-Nazis.
> we are in no way faced with a growing trend of violent leftists
Ever heard of Antifa? BANM? Or maybe Red Brigades? Red Army Faction? Sendero Luminoso? BLA? Japanese Red Army? Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam? There were dozens, probably hundreds, violent leftist groups. I don't know if they shoot up mosques, specifically, but why this specific mode of terror is your sole concern? They certainly did shoot, blow up, hang, cut off heads, poisoned and murdered by other means many people. And that's just terrorists, wait until they get the real power of state coercion... then the count goes to millions.
You mean there's no active leftist militant group in your town right now? Good for you. You may want to familiarize yourself with recent history and wider world though, to get a bit more complete picture than the current news cycle.
Oh and btw, the guy that shot up the mosque was very concerned about the environmentalism and thought China is a model country. Should we start deplatforming environmentalists and those who like China?
