A new MassINC poll in Virginia finds just 40% of Virginia voters agree that the white nationalist rally-goers were mostly to blame for the violence in Charlottesville, nearly identical to the 41% who pointed to both sides. Another 6% mostly blame the counter-protesters, bringing the total who assign at least equal blame to the counter-protesters up to 47%.
Race
Thousands March Against Bigotry In Boston
Boston Globe: “A city with a fraught racial past turned out tens of thousands of protesters Saturday for an overwhelming denunciation of racism, anti-Semitism, and religious bigotry, in a demonstration that was largely peaceful though punctuated with scuffles and some edgy nose-to-nose encounters among demonstrators.”
“On a hot, humid day, sweaty throngs on Boston Common chanted — sometimes angrily, often profanely — against Nazis, racism, the Ku Klux Klan, and fascists.”
Statue for Author of Dred Scott Decision Removed
“A statue of the of the U.S. Supreme Court justice who wrote the 1857 Dred Scott decision that upheld slavery and denied citizenship to African Americans was removed from the grounds of the Maryland State House early Friday morning,” the AP reports.
“The statue of Roger B. Taney was lifted away by a crane at about 2 a.m. It was lowered into a truck and driven away to storage. The bronze statue was erected in 1872, just outside the original front door of the State House.”
Bannon Celebrates Trump’s Response to Charlottesville
“On Tuesday night, while Gary Cohn was fuming about President Trump’s latest comments, Steve Bannon was excitedly telling friends and associates that the ‘globalists’ were in mass freakout mode,” Jonathan Swan reports.
“Today, Bannon reveled in the disbanding of the president’s business council, seeing this as yet more evidence that the Trump administration is at odds with the ‘Davos crowd,’ as Bannon often calls these corporate elites, in a voice dripping with contempt.”
“Bannon saw Trump’s now-infamous Tuesday afternoon press conference not as the lowest point in his presidency, but as a ‘defining moment,’ where Trump decided to fully abandon the ‘globalists’ and side with ‘his people.’ Sources who’ve spoken with Bannon since Charlottesville say he views this moment as analogous to the campaign moment when Hillary Clinton condemned half of Trump’s supporters to a ‘basket of deplorables.'”
Meanwhile, ThinkProgress notes that just 16 of 292 Republicans in Congress have released statements that call out Trump directly by name or title for his comments.
Father Denounces His Son’s Hateful Rhetoric
Pearce Tefft writes to the Fargo Forum about his son, Peter, a white nationalist:
On Friday night, my son traveled to Charlottesville, Va., and was interviewed by a national news outlet while marching with reported white nationalists, who allegedly went on to kill a person.
I, along with all of his siblings and his entire family, wish to loudly repudiate my son’s vile, hateful and racist rhetoric and actions. We do not know specifically where he learned these beliefs. He did not learn them at home.
I have shared my home and hearth with friends and acquaintances of every race, gender and creed. I have taught all of my children that all men and women are created equal. That we must love each other all the same.
Evidently Peter has chosen to unlearn these lessons, much to my and his family’s heartbreak and distress. We have been silent up until now, but now we see that this was a mistake. It was the silence of good people that allowed the Nazis to flourish the first time around, and it is the silence of good people that is allowing them to flourish now.
Peter Tefft, my son, is not welcome at our family gatherings any longer. I pray my prodigal son will renounce his hateful beliefs and return home. Then and only then will I lay out the feast.
His hateful opinions are bringing hateful rhetoric to his siblings, cousins, nieces and nephews as well as his parents. Why must we be guilty by association? Again, none of his beliefs were learned at home. We do not, never have, and never will, accept his twisted worldview.
He once joked, “The thing about us fascists is, it’s not that we don’t believe in freedom of speech. You can say whatever you want. We’ll just throw you in an oven.”
Peter, you will have to shovel our bodies into the oven, too. Please son, renounce the hate, accept and love all.
When There Is No Debate
“What’s a Fox & Friends host to do when they desperately want to push President Trump’s narrative the ‘both sides’ are to blame for Charlottesville, but their guests want to talk about what’s really going on in America right now?,” the Daily Beast asks.
Abby Huntsman found out this morning.
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
“They tried to kill my child to shut her up. Well, guess what? You just magnified her.”
— Susan Bro, giving a eulogy for her daughter, Heather Heyer, who was killed by a white supremacist in Charlottesville.
Where Is the Republican Outrage?
Matt Latimer: “It is all so surreal—the most apt and yet overused word of the Trump presidency. Can this all really be happening? Is it all a dream? Of course, the most important question, speaking as a Republican for many years, was this: Where is everybody?”
“In the hours that passed since the president’s remarks—in which he seemed to alternately take to task and defend the motives of “both sides” of last weekend’s march in Charlottesville— numerous outlets cited the ensuing bipartisan outrage. The suggestion is that Republicans, too, have taken the president to task.”
“No, they haven’t. Not most of them. The most prominent GOP officeholders in this country—many of whom I personally know to be good people—have made oblique criticisms of the president on social media or, more often than not, said nothing. That’s not true of everyone—Marco Rubio and Cory Gardner are standouts, for example—but it is depressingly true in general.”
McConnell Said to be ‘Upset’ with Trump
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who has been publicly silent so far over President Trump’s latest remarks on Charlottesville, “is privately upset” with the president’s handling of the episode, CNN reports.
What he said publicly: “The white supremacist, KKK, and neo-nazi groups who brought hatred and violence to Charlottesville are now planning a rally in Lexington. Their messages of hate and bigotry are not welcome in Kentucky and should not be welcome anywhere in America. We can have no tolerance for an ideology of racial hatred. There are no good neo-nazis, and those who espouse their views are not supporters of American ideals and freedoms. We all have a responsibility to stand against hate and violence, wherever it raises its evil head.”
“McConnell, who has a long history of working on civil rights issues, is deeply concerned that Trump is reopening long-festering racial tensions, something that could fan the flames ahead of demonstrations expected in Lexington, Kentucky.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“We polled the race stuff and it didn’t matter.”
— Stephen Bannon, quoted in Joshua Green’s Devil’s Bargain.
Associated Press Won’t Use Term ‘Alt-Right’
New guidance from the Associated Press:
At AP, we have taken the position that the term “alt-right” should be avoided because it is meant as a euphemism to disguise racist aims. So use it only when quoting someone or when describing what the movement says about itself. Enclose the term “alt-right” in quotation marks or use phrasing such as the so-called alt-right (no quote marks when using the term so-called) or the self-described “alt-right.”
Baltimore Removes Confederate Statues Overnight
“Confederate statues in Baltimore were removed from their bases overnight, as crews using heavy machinery loaded them onto flat bed trucks and hauled them away, an end to more than a year of indecision surrounding what to do with the memorials,” the Baltimore Sun reports.
Said Mayor Catherine Pugh: “It’s done. They needed to come down. My concern is for the safety and security of our people. We moved as quickly as we could.”
Quote of the Day
“It is not a dog whistle if everybody can hear it.”
— Jon Meacham, on the Charlie Rose Show, on President Trump’s racist messages.
Two Nations, Divisible, Under Trump
Mike Allen: “It started with the dog-whistle presidential campaign: constant plays — some subtle, some blaring — on racial fears.”
“But it wasn’t until the past five days — fittingly, in a fight over a Southern statue narrowly, and the stain of slavery broadly — that President Trump officially and indelibly divided the nation over race: setting us back decades, at least for now, in our common purpose of healing old, awful wounds.”
“Let’s be honest with ourselves: A huge chunk of Trump’s base lapped it up, too. That’s what Steve Bannon thought would unfold, and what the president knows instinctively. It was a green light for more hatred, and probably more violence — because now the president has put white supremacy on the same level as angry people reacting harshly to it.”
USA Today: “Divisions escalate between red states and blue cities.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“Those assholes can go back to their cave, we don’t want them in this country.”
— Sen. Cory Garnder (R-CO), quoted by the Daily Beast, on the white supremacist groups who organized the violent protests in Charlottesville.