On Wednesday’s broadcast of ABC’s “Good Morning America,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel argued that the blame for Charlottesville is “squarely” on the KKK and white supremacists and there were peaceful protesters who did what was right in coming out against the hate rally organized by the KKK and white supremacists. She also declared that the GOP has no room for and does not want the votes of racists, anti-Semites, and bigots.
McDaniel said that the president condemned neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and the KKK. She added, “We have no place in our party, at all, for KKK, anti-Semitism, race — racism, bigotry. It has no place in the Republican Party. There is no home here. We don’t want your vote. We don’t support you. We’ll speak out against you. The president has said so, the vice president, leaders across our party.”
McDaniel further stated, “When it comes to Charlottesville, the blame lays squarely at the KKK and the white supremacists who organized this rally and put together an entire event around hate and bigotry.”
Anchor David Muir then asked McDaniel, “So, you disagree with the president?” She responded, “I am saying the president did the right thing condemning it. I’m saying absolutely the events that transpired in Charlottesville were initiated by this white supremacist KKK rally. It would not have happened if those people had not come together in hate, and there were peaceful protesters who did the right thing, coming out against it.”
She also responded to a question on the president saying that there were “fine people on both sides” in Charlottesville by stating, “Well, I — first of all, we have to unequivocally say that the KKK and the white supremacists were wrong. I do think people may have shown up in Charlottesville thinking, hey, this is going to be a discussion about whether we remove historic statues, the second they saw Nazi flags, they should have turned tail. The second you join a group that has a Nazi flag or is joining the KKK, there’s no good there. There is no good KKK member. There’s no nice neo-Nazi. This is not a Republican or Democrat issue. This is un-American what they’re doing.”
McDaniel also argued, “I don’t think comparing blame works in this situation. Because we know what initiated the violence and the death of this young woman, whose life was taken too soon. But I do think, and I’m going to say this about president trump, he is a Republican candidate who came to my state of Michigan during the campaign and campaigned in Detroit in the black churches.”
She also stated that she thinks David Duke’s praise of the president’s comments makes everybody, including the president’s “stomach turn.”
McDaniel concluded that Trump said that both sides “brought violence…and violence isn’t okay, but the blame lays squarely at the KKK, the white supremacists, the neo-Nazis, who organized this rally, caused violence, and are perpetrating — pushing hate across this country.”
(h/t Grabien)
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.