{"id":113603,"date":"2017-08-23T05:04:58","date_gmt":"2017-08-23T09:04:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=113603"},"modified":"2017-08-23T05:04:58","modified_gmt":"2017-08-23T09:04:58","slug":"trump-revisits-his-charlottesville-comments-in-angry-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/08\/23\/trump-revisits-his-charlottesville-comments-in-angry-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump revisits his Charlottesville comments in angry speech"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"President<\/a>
President Donald Trump opened his political rally in Phoenix with calls for unity and an assertion that \u201cour movement is about love.\u201d Then he erupted in anger. (Photo<\/a> by Gage Skidmore\/Flickr<\/a>, CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

PHOENIX \u2014 President Donald Trump opened his political rally in Phoenix with calls for unity and an assertion that \u201cour movement is about love.\u201d Then he erupted in anger.<\/p>\n

He blamed the media for the widespread condemnation of his response to violence at a Charlottesville, Virginia, protest organized by white supremacists. And he shouted that he had \u201copenly called for healing, unity and love\u201d in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy and had simply been misrepresented in news coverage.<\/p>\n

He read from his three responses to the racially charged violence \u2014 getting more animated with each one. He withdrew from his suit pocket the written statement he’d read the day a woman was killed by a man who’d plowed a car through counter-protesters, but he skipped over the trouble-causing part that he’d freelanced at the time \u2014 his observation that \u201cmany sides\u201d were to blame.<\/p>\n

That, as well as his reiteration days later that \u201cboth sides\u201d were to blame for the violence that led to the death of Heather Heyer and two state troopers, led Democrats and many Republicans to denounce Trump for not unmistakably calling out white supremacists and other hate groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know where my heart is,\u201d Trump told the crowd of thousands shoehorned into the Phoenix convention centre. \u201cI’m only doing this to show you how damned dishonest these people are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well after his appearance had ended, Trump sent a tweet on his Twitter account saying: \u201cNot only does the media give a platform to hate groups, but the media turns a blind eye to the gang violence on our streets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump’s broadside against the media, and the \u201cfake news\u201d he says is out to get him, was one of several detours he took from his prepared remarks at a rally where he was introduced by Vice-President Mike Pence and other speakers appealing for unity and healing.<\/p>\n

The president unabashedly acknowledged that his own advisers had urged him to stay on message, and that he simply could not.<\/p>\n

He said he’d aimed to avoid \u201ccontroversy\u201d by not immediately pardoning former Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who is awaiting sentencing in Arizona after his conviction in federal court for disobeying court orders to put a stop to his immigration patrols. But he left little doubt he wanted to do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ll make a prediction: I think he’s going to be just fine,\u201d said Trump.<\/p>\n

And he skewered both of Arizona’s Republican senators, insisting that his coy refusal to mention their names showed a \u201cvery presidential\u201d restraint. He said his aides had begged him, \u201cPlease, please Mr. President, don’t mention any names. So I won’t.\u201d Yet he’d clearly described Sen. John McCain as the reason Congress didn’t repeal and replace the much-maligned Affordable Care Act, and he labeled Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake as \u201cweak\u201d on borders and crime.<\/p>\n

As for how he would assist with the upcoming Herculean tasks facing Congress \u2014 passing tax reform, raising the debt ceiling, and agreeing on a budget \u2014 Trump offered little detail. He did threaten that if legislators force a government shutdown \u201cwe’re building that wall,\u201d a reference to his campaign promise to close off the border with Mexico.<\/p>\n

In the comfort of his most fervent fans, Trump often resurrects his free-wheeling 2016 campaign style, pinging insults at perceived enemies such as the media and meandering from topic to topic without a singular theme. This was Trump’s eighth rally since taking office in January, and each event is attended by supporters screened by his campaign.<\/p>\n

His comfort-level was apparent: As he discussed his responses to Charlottesville, he interrupted himself. \u201cI didn’t want to bore you. You understand where I’m coming from. You people understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outside the rally, the divisiveness seen across the country was on display.<\/p>\n

One man on a loudspeaker said the largely Latino protesters belong in the kitchen. A Trump opponent hoisted a sign depicting the president with horns. A day of noisy but largely peaceful protests turned unruly after his speech, as police fired pepper spray at crowds after someone apparently lobbed rocks and bottles at officers.<\/p>\n

Trump is on a two-day trip to the west, which continues Wednesday with\u00a0travel<\/em>\u00a0to an American Legion convention in Reno, Nevada. He began his Arizona visit Tuesday with a brief trip to the southern edge of the country, touring a Marine Corps base in Yuma that is a hub of operations for the U.S. Border Patrol.<\/p>\n

His focus on immigration and rallying a supportive crowd offered a respite from a more uncomfortable development in his presidency.<\/p>\n

Trump on Monday announced in an address to the nation a plan to maintain a U.S. military presence in Afghanistan, upending a campaign vow to end America’s longest war. Senior U.S. officials said Trump’s strategy may involve sending up to 3,900 more troops, with some deployments beginning almost immediately.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PHOENIX \u2014 President Donald Trump opened his political rally in Phoenix with calls for unity and an assertion that \u201cour …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":108621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[21784,21783,9869],"class_list":["post-113603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","tag-angry-speech","tag-charlottesville-comments","tag-donald-trump","mauthors-julie-bykowicz","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113603","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=113603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}