Roland Martin delivered a blistering commentary in response to Donald
Trump’s bizarre impromptu press conference where he doubled down on his
initial Charlottesville remarks.
Three days after Charlottesville, Virginia, erupted into violence and racial unrest,
the family of Robert E. Lee is denouncing the white nationalist groups
who rallied and marched to preserve a statue of the long-dead Civil War
general.
"There's no place for that," Robert E. Lee V tells Newsweek,
referring to the white supremacist protesters who carried torches and
marched through Charlottesville on Friday. "There's no place for that
hate."
The statue of Lee,
which has stood in Charlottesville since 1924, is now at the center of a
racially charged conflict that has gripped the city and resulted in one woman's death. In February, the local city council decided to remove the statue from the park, noting that
for many people, such Confederate monuments are "painful reminders of
the violence and injustice of slavery and other harms of white supremacy
that are best removed from public spaces." In May, white supremacist
Richard Spencer organized a demonstration
in support of the monument, and on Friday evening, a large group of
torch-bearing white nationalist marchers descended on Charlottesville to
protest the decision to remove the statue.
Lee,
a great-great-grandson of the Confederate hero, and his sister, Tracy
Lee Crittenberger, issued a written statement on Tuesday condemning the
"hateful words and violent actions of white supremacists, the KKK or
neo-Nazis."
Then, Lee spoke with Newsweek by phone.
"We
don't believe in that whatsoever," Lee says. He is quick to defend his
ancestor's name: "Our belief is that General Lee would not tolerate that
sort of behavior either. His first thing to do after the Civil War was
to bring the Union back together, so we could become a more unified
country."
White supremacists gather under a statue of Robert E. Lee during a
rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, August 12. Lee's descendants have
denounced the violent actions that led to a counter-protester's death. Joshua Roberts/Reuters
The
general was a slave owner who led the Confederate Army of Northern
Virginia during the Civil War and who remains a folk hero throughout
much of the South.
"We don't want people to think that they can
hide behind Robert E. Lee's name and his life for these senseless acts
of violence that occurred on Saturday," Lee says.
The Lee heir says it would make sense to remove the embattled statue from public display and put it in a museum—a view shared by the great-great-grandson of Jefferson Davis.
"I
think that is absolutely an option, to move it to a museum and put it
in the proper historical context," Lee says. "Times were very different
then. We look at the institution of slavery, and it's absolutely
horrendous. Back then, times were just extremely different. We
understand that it's complicated in 2017, when you look back at that
period of time... If you want to put statues of General Lee or other
Confederate people in museums, that makes good sense."
Lee, who
works as a boys' athletic director at the Potomac School outside
Washington D.C., says that his family was raised to believe that his
great-great-grandfather "was fighting for his homeland of Virginia" and
not for the preservation of slavery.
Historians, though, typically
agree that the Confederate cause was "thoroughly identified with the
institution of slavery," to quote from Mississippi's own declaration
of secession. The Southern states that seceded were largely motivated by
a desire to continue owning and using black slaves as property. (Lee's
own personal views on slavery are commonly debated, though the general
did own slaves and, as The Atlantic notes, "raged against Republican efforts to enforce racial equality on the South.")
The debate over Confederate monuments has erupted in other cities such as New Orleans, where a statue of Jefferson Davis was recently removed, and Durham, where protesters tore down a Confederate monument on Monday evening.
For
the Lee family, the question of Confederate iconography is complicated
as their family name becomes a rallying point for white nationalists.
The younger Lee hopes that lawmakers and citizens in individual
communities will "talk it over and [decide] what makes best sense for
them in the times that we're living in today."
Lee declined to comment on Donald Trump's administration, nor on his erratic response to Charlottesville.
Here's the Lee family's statement in its entirety:
The
events of the past weekend in Charlottesville were a terrible tragedy
for America, for the state of Virginia and for us, the descendants of
General Robert E. Lee. Our family extends our deepest condolences to the
families who lost a loved one. We send our heartfelt sympathy to those
who were injured, and pray for their recovery.
General Lee's life
was about duty, honor and country. At the end of the Civil War, he
implored the nation to come together to heal our wounds and to move
forward to become a more unified nation. He never would have tolerated
the hateful words and violent actions of white supremacists, the KKK, or
Neo Nazis.
While the debate about how we memorialize figures from
our past continues, we the descendants of Robert E. Lee decry in the
strongest terms the misuse of his memory by those advancing a message of
intolerance and hate. We urge the nation’s leaders as well as local
citizens to engage in a civil, respectful and non-hateful conversation.
As
Americans and as human beings it is essential that we respect one
another and treat others as we ourselves wish to be treated. As General
Lee wrote in his diary, “the great duty of life is the promotion of the
happiness and welfare of our fellow man.”
Robert E. Lee V Great-great-grandson of General Robert E. Lee
Tracy Lee Crittenberger Great-great-granddaughter of General Robert E. Lee
Bill Bunting doesn’t take kindly to white supremacy. Cenk Uygur, Ana
Kasparian, and Brett Erlich, hosts of The Young Turks, discuss. Tell us
what you think in the comment section below. http://www.tytnetwork.com/join
"Man Speaks Out Against White Nationalist Rally In Charlottesvlle VA: "We Was Not Born Hating"
During
the recent events from Charlottesville VA, Bill Bunting took to his
Facebook to speak on his disappointment and how the group does not
represent him.”
Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore on Wednesday didn’t mince words when
discussing Donald Trump’s free-wheeling press conference that equated
neo-Nazi’s with anti-fascist protestors, arguing that the president is a
racist—and so is anyone who supports him.
Moore told Don Lemon
that the first thing he did after Trump’s briefing at Trump Tower was
flip on CNN, where the host was delivering an emotional response to the
president’s rhetoric.
“It was very powerful,” Moore said of
Lemon’s speech. “You talk about African American kids who have to walk
in to a high school under name Robert E. Lee, a statue of a man who
wanted them dead or enslaved. I don’t want to hear this. I don’t want
any fellow American … to ever feel the way you describe how so many
black kids grow up in this country having to feel. This has to stop.”
“He
was elected by white America,” Moore said, later adding “they voted for
Trump because they were angry. They voted for Trump because they wanted
to throw a bomb into the system that hurt them.”
Moore said he believes white Americans have a right to be upset, but black Americans also have a right to be upset.
“[Black
Americans] don’t go to the polls and vote for the hater,” Moore said.
“Black Americans, by a large margin, vote for the person who doesn’t
hate, who’s trying to love.”
Moore explained that most white
people he’s spoken with insist they’re not racists, even if they
supported someone who may be. “If you vote for a racist, what are you
then?” Moore asked.
“Because it sure sounds like racism to me.”
Asked by Lemon if he believes Trump is a racist, Moore replied, unequivocally, yes.
“He’s
absolutely a racist,” Moore said. “He’s not as stupid as people want to
believe he is. He knows exactly what he’s doing, he knows the words to
use and I’m certain the 63 million people who voted for him actually—the
vast majority of them—love that press conference.”
Lemon
countered that Trump supporters might “take offense” to begin called
racists, prompting Moore to provide what Lemon called an “uncomfortable”
comparison.
“If you hold down the woman while the rapist is
raping her, but you didn’t rape her, are you a rapist?” Moore asked.
“Let’s cut the BS, let’s start speaking honestly. If you vote for a man
who says what he said today—that the white nationalists were the
victims, that he equated George Washington and Thomas Jefferson with
Robert E. Lee and said that the people there trying to stop the racism,
the anti-racism protesters, that they were the violent ones—it just went
so far.”
“That’s a very powerful and uncomfortable anecdote you
shared, and people will think you’re comparing Trump voters to rapists,”
Lemon said.
“Yeah, it’s uncomfortable, isn’t it?” Moore asked.
“Because enablers of immoral behavior, of criminal behavior… it is
absolutely criminal to stand behind the people that killed Heather
Heyer, that beat the heads in of people who were trying to speak their
minds in Charlottesville. If you are there, and if it you
participate—even though you’re not the actual person doing it—if you
helped to put Donald Trump in office, you need to think about this
before you kneel down and say your prayers tonight. Think about this
person that you now have leading this country.”
Lemon restated he found Moore’s comparison “uncomfortable.”
“Well,
it was uncomfortable watching this today, and anyone who supports
that—if you still support the racist, you are the racist,” Moore
replied. “That has to end. I’m not sorry. I’m not letting anybody off
the hook here. White people who voted for him.”
“America has to
stand up,” he continued. “We cannot any longer mealy-mouth about this.
Anybody who enables, anybody who votes for and supports a racist, is a
racist. You are culpable white America, I’m sorry. But there is
redemption for you.”
Trump is losing support bigly. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian, the hosts
of The Young Turks, break down the latest polls. Tell us what you think
in the comment section below. https://tytnetwork.com/join/
“There's trouble in Trumpland.
The
voters who backed Donald Trump like the disruption but are looking for
more function from the outsider they helped put in the White House,
members of the USA TODAY Network Trump Voter Panel say.
While
they still approve of the job President Trump is doing, the collapse of
the GOP's promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act has rattled some of
his loyalists. So have chaos in the White House staff and the public
humiliation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
"All the
bickering, fighting and firings take time away from solving all of our
problems," worried Joe Canino, 62, of Hebron, Ct.
"The caveat or
the pause there is, he's got to figure out a way to get more done
collaboratively with Capitol Hill," Barney Carter of St. Marys, Ga.,
said. "The Hill to me has the most to blame for it, but he's got to
figure out a way to solve that problem.”
Rep. Gwen Moore called for the removal of President Trump following his
comments about the violence in Charlottesville. House Speaker Paul Ryan
also tweeted his opposition of the president's remarks on Tuesday.
Michael Eric Dyson had an intense conversation with Jeff Dewit on Tuesday as the two of them debated whether President Trump has done enough to condemn racism throughout his political life.
The political commentator and the former Trump campaign advisor appeared on CNN, where Kate Bolduan asked for their thoughts about Trump attacking CEOs
who seem to have left his manufacturing council in protest of how he
handled the aftermath of Charlottesville. DeWit ran defense for Trump,
while Dyson expressed the view among critics that Trump’s condemnation of white supremacists was overdue and insufficient.
Much of the discussion gravitated around the question of why did Trump attack the media
for addressing the bipartisan criticism he got for not denouncing white
supremacists in Charlottesville right away. While DeWit declined to say
whether Trump’s initial statement went far enough, Dyson went off and
accused DeWit of making excuses for the fact that Trump failed to
deliver an adequate statement against bigotry.
“Shame on [Trump] for that. We have to stop making
excuses as our guest is making for a president who is a fully grown man.
Grow up, take responsibility for your actions. Republicans and
Conservatives are always telling us in this nation, ‘pull yourself up by
the boot strap, be responsible,’ and you make excuse after excuse for a
full-grown man who violates the fundmental principals that occupies the
highest office in the land.”
DeWit reacted by saying the president has already denounced racism in
the past, and he accused Dyson and Bolduan of ignoring this. Dyson
responded by bringing up Trump’s history of racially-provocative
comments, as well as his tendency to avoid directly condemning white
supremacists.
“It’s not what’s in his heart that makes a difference,
it’s what’s in his mouth and its what’s in his public policy and his
public statements that make a difference here. It’s not his sentiment
and emotions which are private, it’s his public expression of the
reprehensible emotions against vulnerable people.”
As the discussion continued, Bolduan brought up how often Trump takes
criticism for reversing on his old public positions. Bolduan also asked
DeWit to explain how the president is creating national unity by
tweeting things like that meme of CNN getting run over by the Trump Train.
You can watch how DeWit and Dyson responded in the video above, via CNN.
Peter Cvjetanovic didn’t really think this through. Cenk Uygur and Ana
Kasparian, hosts of The Young Turks, discuss. Tell us what you think in
the comment section below. http://www.tytnetwork.com/join
"They
didn't wear hoods as they chanted "Jews will not replace us." They
weren't hiding their faces as they waved Confederate flags, racist signs
and swastikas. They looked straight at a sea of cameras as they made
the Nazi salute.
As Matt Thompson wrote for The Atlantic, the
white supremacist march and rally this past weekend wasn't a KKK rally:
"It was a pride march."
The bare-faced shamelessness was the point. But it was also an opening.
On
the Internet, some people are crowd-sourcing efforts to identify and
shame the people participating in the rally. Most prominently, on
Twitter, the account called "Yes, You're Racist" has been soliciting
help and posting IDs. "I'll make them famous," the account pledged.”
Pete Tefft, Charlottesville riot attendee (Photo: Facebook)
One father of a marcher in Charlottesville, Virginia over the weekend
is denouncing his own son after the young man was seen on national news
spouting hate.
In a letter to Fargo, North Dakota’s Inforum, father Pearce Tefft wrote that his family wasn’t sure where his son Peter picked up his racist beliefs.
“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,” Tefft wrote, clarifying that he certainly didn’t learn such
values 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,” he continued. However, he acknowledged, that Peter chose another
path.
The family has remained largely silent, but Tefft said these recent
events pushed them over the edge.
Remaining silent, he believed, would
be 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,” he wrote.
He went on to say that his son is no longer welcome in their home or
at family gatherings until he renounces the hate. The beliefs of the
younger Tefft has also brought hate targeted at his relatives, who are
being considered guilty by association.
His father recalled a time when his son 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,” Tefft
recalled.
“Peter, you will have to shovel our bodies into the oven, too. Please
son, renounce the hate, accept and love all,” the father closed.
“In brief, we reject him wholly – both him personally as a vile
person who has HIMSELF made violent threats against our family, and also
his hideous ideology, which we abhor,” his nephew Jacob Scott said. “We
are all bleeding-heart liberals who believe in the fundamental equality
of all human beings.”
“Peter is a maniac, who has turned away from all of us and gone down
some insane Internet rabbit-hole, and turned into a crazy Nazi. He
scares us all, we don’t feel safe around him, and we don’t know how he
came to be this way. My grandfather feels especially grieved, as though
he has failed as a father.”
The younger Tefft posted a photo of himself prior to the rally at the base of the statue in Charlottesville.
The site, which was involved in organizing the white supremacist rally
in Charlottesville, has been given 24 hours to move its domain or have
it cancelled.
As we get underway today, a few thoughts on yesterday. In addition to
going out of his way not to denounce the white supremacist and neo-nazi
marchers yesterday, for those primed to hear it (which is the point)
the President made a point of calling out and valorizing the marchers.
In his at length on-camera comments, in addition to bromides and calling
for people to love each other, Trump noted that we must “cherish our
history.”
Here’s the passage …
Above
all else, we must remember this truth: No matter our color, creed,
religion or political party, we are all Americans first. We love our
country. We love our God. We love our flag. We’re proud of our country.
We’re proud of who we are. So we want to get the situation straightened
out in Charlottesville, and we want to study it. And we want to see what
we’re doing wrong as a country, where things like this can happen.
My
administration is restoring the sacred bonds of loyalty between this
nation and its citizens, but our citizens must also restore the bonds of
trust and loyalty between one another. We must love each other, respect
each other, and cherish our history and our future together. So important. We have to respect each other. Ideally, we have to love each other.
I
spent the better part of a decade training as an historian. I’m
definitely pro-history. But in context, this is an explicit call-out to
the white supremacist and neo-Confederate forces at the march whose
calling card is celebrating Southern ‘heritage’ and America’s history as
a white country. Zero ambiguity or question about that. And they heard
the message. White supremacist leaders cheered Trump’s refusal to denounce them and his valorization of their movement.
Where
does this come from? Who knows who wrote this text for Trump. But many
of Trump’s most important speeches were written by white nationalist
aide Stephen Miller, who came from Jeff Sessions’ senate office. Miller literally worked with Alt-Right leader (he coined the phrase) Richard Spencer
on racist political activism when he was in college at Duke (Spencer
was a grad student at the time). This isn’t some vague guilt by
association. He’s one of them.
When Gabriel Sherman asked what he
identifies as a ‘senior White House official’ why the White House didn’t
denounce the Nazis in Charlottesville, he got this: “What about the
leftist mob? Just as violent if not more so.” Maybe I’ve missed some
other background comments out of the White House. But I haven’t heard
anything that approaches that level of venom about the nazis or white
supremacists. When the top ideologues at Trump’s White House look at
yesterday’s spectacle, they instinctively see the counter-protestors as
enemies.
Was that official Miller? Who knows? It could have been
Bannon or Gorka or frankly a number of others. There are plenty to
choose from. That’s the point. This wasn’t resistance to making a
conspicuous denunciation or being cute. Those were Trump’s supporters.
He recognizes them as supporters, indeed as part of his movement. And he
supports them. This is probably largely instinctive on Trump’s part.
It’s more ideological and articulate on his aides’ part.
A panel discussion on MSNBC’s AM Joy on the violence in the streets
in the city of Charlottesville turned to the root causes of the rise of
white nationalism under Donald Trump.
“This is the face of fascism, this is Breitbart news,” declared former Bush era ethics czar Richard Painter.
As
live video of the clashes showed on the split screen, Painter lashed
out at President Donald Trump and called for him to fire White House
advisers Steve Bannon and Sebastian Gorka.
“I don’t always agree
with everything the Republican administrations do but we have never ever
seen rhetoric similar to what has come out of this White House,” the
clearly disgusted Painter said. “We never had anyone like Steve Bannon
or Sebastian Gorka in the Bush White House, to that president’s
inauguration.”
“That is disgusting. We never would have tolerated
that and we can disagree,” he continued. “I disagree with my own party
on some issues, but we never would have had any of this in the Bush
White House and these people need to be fired immediately. This is
Breitbart News, and Breitbart News is a racist organization and it needs
to acknowledge as such, they should not be given preferential access to
the White House which is what they’re now getting under Steve Bannon.”
“Bannon
needs to be fired, Sebastian Gorka and the rest of the fascists or we
have to remove this president,” he said while indicating the violence.
GOP strategist Ana Navarro has finally had enough of Donald Trump’s
nonstop lying, and during a recent media appearance she compared the
president to a used car salesperson who just keeps making things up to
make a sale. Trump’s lies are certainly growing out of control, but he
doesn’t appear to be pulling back any time soon. Ring of Fire’s Farron
Cousins discusses this.
White supremacists gather under a statue of Robert E. Lee during a
rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, August 12. Lee's descendants have
denounced the violent actions that led to a counter-protester's death. Joshua Roberts/Reuters 
