Chris Cillizza, CNN: Donald Trump's incredibly unpresidential statement on Charlottesville

[highplainsdem]

http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/12/politics/trump-charlottesville-statement/index.html

It's hard to imagine a less presidential statement in a time in which the country looks to its elected leader to stand up against intolerance and hatred.

Picking a "worst" from Donald Trump's statement -- delivered from his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club -- isn't easy. But, the emphasis of "on many sides" -- Trump repeated that phrase twice -- is, I think, the low ebb.

-snip-

So, that's the big one. But there are other things in Trump's statement that are also worth calling out -- most notably "not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama."

What Trump is doing here is pre-emptively absolving himself of blame for creating a political climate in the country in which people like these "Unite the Right" demonstrators feel emboldened enough to rally in public. Not my fault, Trump is saying. There were hate groups and hate speech under Obama too!

-snip-

This speech is not the time to tout your accomplishments. I mean "we're renegotiating trade deals to make them great for our country"? Who thought that was a good thing to say in the same speech in which Trump, theoretically, was trying to reassure people that what we all saw in Charlottesville is not, fundamentally, who we are?

That no one -- starting and ending with the President -- raised a red flag about tacking on a laundry list of accomplishments to a speech that should have simply condemned the behavior in Charlottesville and called to our better angels, is staggering, even for this White House.

-snip-

[Thinkingabout]

1. Very true, Trump is never to blame for anything, he blames others, it is the petulant brat he is.

[Elwood P Dowd]

2. Trump can't help it. He was trapped.......