Falwell backs Trump on Charlottesville, admits president could be more ‘politically correct’
August 22, 2017 by admin
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Jerry Falwell Jr., the president of Liberty College and early Donald Trump supporter, on Sunday defended his continuing support for Trump and his views on the deadly protests in Virginia, even as graduates reportedly have threatened to give back their diplomas.
“President Trump is something we haven’t had in national leadership in a long time,” Falwell told ABC’s “This Week.” “He’s substance over form. So many of our politicians, recent leaders, national leaders, have been form over substance.
“They tell people what they want to hear,” continued Falwell, whose evangelical Christian college is about an hour south of Charlottesville, Va., where the deadly protests unfolded Aug. 12. “They sugar-coat everything. … And I think the American people have gotten sort of thin-skinned and I think they need to listen to the substance of what he said.”
In the hours immediately after the rally, which was organized by white supremacists and ended with clashes with counter-protesters and the death of a 32-year-old woman, Trump blamed both sides for the deadly violence.
He later denounced the KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists by name, only to suggest the next day that there were some “very fine people” in both rivaling groups.
Falwell said Sunday he was specifically lauding Trump’s willingness to identify the groups and “call evil and terrorism by its name.”
“There’s no good KKK,” he also said. “There’s no good white supremacist.”
Falwell declined to comment on Trump suggesting well-intended people participated in the protests, suggesting the president had inside information — perhaps video that showed “historical purists” — that he had not seen.
Still, Falwell, who backed Trump before the 2016 Iowa Caucus, traditionally the first in the county, acknowledged that after talking to Jewish and African American colleagues and friends, he believed Trump perhaps could have chosen his words more carefully.
“I understood, after talking to them, how good people could hear the same statement and take away different things from it,” he said Sunday. “So yes, I think he could be more polished and more politically correct, but that’s the reason I supported him, is because he’s not.”
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John Oliver urges conservatives to condemn Trump’s Charlottesville response: ‘Say his name’
August 22, 2017 by admin
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While some observers think Steve Bannon’s Friday ouster from the White House could be a turning point, John Oliver doesn’t see it that way.
“The truly depressing thing about Steve Bannon’s departure is how unsatisfying it is,” he said Sunday on “Last Week Tonight.” “One panderer to white nationalists has left the White House, but the one he was working for is still very much there.”
In case there was any doubt, he was referring to President Trump, who on Tuesday once again suggested an equivalence between the white nationalist protesters who gathered in Charlottesville, Va. last weekend and the counter-protesters who opposed them. One of the counter-protesters, 32-year-old Heather Heyer, was killed.
Oliver focused on the Republican politicians and conservative pundits, many of whom he claimed were eager to distance themselves from such overt displays of racism yet unwilling to condemn Trump by name.
“You can mention him, he’s not Voldemort,” Oliver said. “The problem with not mentioning him is that it suggests that he is somehow not a key part of the problem here.”
According to “Last Week Tonight,” only 54 of nearly 300 congressional Republicans specifically denounced Trump — or roughly 20%.
Commentators, such as Fox News host Melissa Francis, also got defensive about their refusal to disavow the president.
“If you’re getting emotionally overwhelmed and feeling judged for defending Trump in his Nazi-sympathizer phase, stop… doing it,” Oliver said. “It’s that simple.”
Inspired by the lyrics of Destiny’s Child, Oliver urged Republicans to “say his name, say his name, go right onto Fox News, say, ‘Donald, I condemn you, if you ain’t running game.’”
Watch the full segment here.