As Vox reported today, just one day after he defended using the phrase "very fine people" to describe the the "Unite the Right" marching in Charlottesville, and on the eve of the deadly shooting at a synagogue in San Diego, Trump tried to have it both ways on the issue of anti-Semitism:
“Tonight, America’s heart is with the victims of the horrific synagogue shooting in Poway, California — just happened,” Trump said at the start of his speech. “Our entire nation mourns the loss of life, prays for the wounded, and stands in solidarity with the Jewish community. We forcefully condemn the evil of anti-Semitism and hate, which must be defeated.” [...]
Trump went on to praise law enforcement officials who responded to the scene of the shooting and vowed, “we will get to the bottom of it. We’re gonna get to the bottom of a lot of things happening in this country.” [...]
Trump’s denunciation of anti-Semitism at the rally came a day after he went out of his way to again defend the white supremacists who marched through the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017 — a weekend that resulted in the murder of a counter-demonstrator named Heather Heyer.
During a question-and-answer session with reporters on Friday, Trump was asked if he still thinks there were “very fine people” on both sides of the Charlottesville rallies — a question prompted by a video released Thursday by Joe Biden announcing his presidential bid that was centered around Trump’s comments.
Trump responded to the question by defending the widely denounced false equivalency he drew between white supremacists and people who were in Charlottesville protesting white supremacy.
Needless to say, the irony seemed to be completely lost on Trump's cheerleaders over on State-Run TV, a.k.a. Fox "News," who lavished praise on Dear Leader for his response to the shooting at a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, with Fox & Friends host Jedediah Bila warning against the dangers of anyone spreading anti-Semitism in the next breath.
BILA: I thought that was a great statement from the president and I think it's so important at times like this to have a unifying statement. It's sad to me that it takes moments like these to unify people on the left and the right. But when you see politicians, people in leadership positions at times like this come forward and have a statement condemning religious bigotry of any kind, condemning acts like this, it does allow the country to sort of come together for a second.
And I remember that happened on 9/11 and that has happened through tragic periods of our history when these horrific attacks happen, however big or small they may be in terms of size of scope. But I really appreciated that president, and I appreciated that he immediately paid tribute to the off-duty border patrol agent and made a point of recognizing him in that comment.
JENKINS: Yeah. It comes as no surprise to me that the border patrol agent jumped into the action because he's never not on duty. This is what border patrol agents are like. But one of the things you have to look at is the time line we've got here. Six months to the day the Tree of Life in Pennsylvania, a week after Sri Lanka. It is undeniable that places of worship and faith are under attack right now.
HEGSETH: And we're not going to do what the other networks do, which is blame people or their rhetoric for what an individual person does. At the same time, we've got to pay attention to the subtle ant antisemitism and what it does to the mindsets of people. It starts with subtle senses that Jews are a lesser people or antisemitism is okay. We got to wipe that.
BILA: And obviously making sure that's not normalized.
HEGSETH: Correct.
BILA: That no excuses are made for it, that it's not normalized, because any small act of that, that puts it out there as being normalized, that can balloon, and when you have crazy people out there, they take that and they run with it.
Trump TV could be writing headlines for The Onion, but sadly, this is where millions of Americans get their "news."
