{"id":112591,"date":"2017-08-17T02:19:35","date_gmt":"2017-08-17T06:19:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=112591"},"modified":"2017-08-17T02:19:35","modified_gmt":"2017-08-17T06:19:35","slug":"pence-wont-address-trump-comments-but-condemns-supremacists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/08\/17\/pence-wont-address-trump-comments-but-condemns-supremacists\/","title":{"rendered":"Pence won’t address Trump comments but condemns supremacists"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"FILE<\/a>
FILE PHOTO\/ Mike Pence (Photo by Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SANTIAGO, Chile \u2014 Vice-President Mike Pence on Wednesday skirted questions about President Donald Trump’s comments voicing sympathy for Charlottesville protesters, but said he stands with the president nonetheless.<\/p>\n

Pence wouldn’t say during a press conference in Chile whether he agrees with Trump that there were \u201cfine people\u201d among the white supremacists, KKK members and neo-Nazis who took to the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend, and whether \u201cboth sides\u201d were to blame for the deadly violence between white supremacists and counterdemonstrators, as the president claimed.<\/p>\n

One woman died when a car plowed into a crowd of people protesting the white nationalist rally.<\/p>\n

In a carefully-worded statement, Pence called what happened in Charlottesville \u201ca tragedy\u201d and said, \u201cthe president has been clear on this tragedy and so have I.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI spoke at length about this heartbreaking situation on Sunday night in Colombia and I stand with the president and I stand by those words,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Pence on Sunday called out white supremacists, neo-Nazis and the KKK, saying, \u201cThese dangerous fringe groups have no place in American public life and in the American debate, and we condemn them in the strongest possible terms.\u201d<\/p>\n

During a defiant press conference in New York on Tuesday, Trump acknowledged there were \u201csome very bad people\u201d among those who gathered to protest Saturday, but added, \u201cYou also had people that were very fine people, on both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump also expressed support for those seeking to maintain a monument to Robert E. Lee. Pence did not answer questions Wednesday about whether he believes such Confederate movements should be removed.<\/p>\n

Instead, Pence reflected in personal terms, saying that although he was in Chile, \u201cour hearts are in Charlottesville.\u201d The funeral for Heather Heyer, the young woman killed during the protest, was held there Wednesday. Pence said he has been praying for Heyer and her family, adding, \u201cWe will not allow the few to divide the many.\u201d<\/p>\n

The vice-president is on a weeklong trip to Latin America to build ties with the region and speak out against the growing crisis in Venezuela.<\/p>\n

He spent most of Wednesday in Chile, where he met and had lunch with Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and planned to deliver a speech.<\/p>\n

After the meeting, Pence said he will \u201creturn from this trip more encouraged than ever that not only will our commerce grow, strengthening jobs and opportunities in America, strengthening prosperity across Latin America.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also called on Chile to \u201cbreak all diplomatic and commercial ties\u201d to North Korea, including the export of Chilean wine, and made the same request of Peru, Mexico and Brazil.<\/p>\n

North Korea has no diplomatic offices or banking institutions in Chile, but the two countries do have a trade relationship. Chile’s government has repeatedly condemned North Korea’s missile program.<\/p>\n

Pence said \u201cwe are beginning to see progress\u201d when it comes to North Korea, but said \u201cmuch more\u201d must still be done. The Trump administration has been trying to pressure Pyongyang to halt its nuclear and ballistic missile program.<\/p>\n

Bachelet did not address the request in her remarks, but did make clear that Chile \u201cwill not support\u201d U.S. military intervention in Venezuela, which Trump last week said he would not rule out. Instead, Bachelet said Chile would do all it can \u201cto find a peaceful way out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pence also announced Wednesday that he’ll be cutting his trip slightly short so he can join the president for a meeting at Camp David to discuss South Asia strategy. Pence had originally been scheduled to return home Friday afternoon. Instead, he’ll be leaving Panama late Thursday.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pence is still scheduled to travel to Panama, where he will meet with the country’s president and tour the newly-enlarged Panama Canal before returning to Washington.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SANTIAGO, Chile \u2014 Vice-President Mike Pence on Wednesday skirted questions about President Donald Trump’s comments voicing sympathy for Charlottesville protesters, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":112517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[21093],"class_list":["post-112591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","tag-pence","mauthors-jill-colvin","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}