Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson this week played down the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, calling the controversy over President Donald Trump’s response “little squabbles” that are “being blown out of proportion” and echoing the president’s equating of white nationalist hate groups with counterprotesters.
In a Facebook post after the protests in Charlottesville grew deadly on Saturday, Carson said, “Let us pray for those killed and injured during the unrest in Charlottesville today, but also for our nation as it is being severely threatened by hatred and bigotry on all sides.”
On Monday, touring communities in Louisiana ravaged by floods a year ago, he spoke at some length about the widespread criticism leveled against Trump for seeming to blame equally the white supremacists and demonstrators protesting their presence in the Virginia city.
“When he talks about the fact that hatred and bigotry and these things are unacceptable,” Carson said of Trump, “he’s talking about everybody. . . You’d think he was saying that hatred and bigotry are unacceptable except by neo-Nazis. We really have got to begin to think more logically and stop trying to stir up controversy and start concentrating on the issues that threaten us and threaten our children.”
“We the people have got to be smarter than this,” Carson, a retired neurosurgeon and the only African American Cabinet member in the Trump administration, said at a news conference at the offices of the Livingston Parish News, a community newspaper in Denham Springs, Louisiana.
He accused the media of overreacting to Trump’s comments – both his initial remarks on Saturday and his comments during a news conference on Tuesday – and said the country needs to focus on bigger problems.
“We all have to recognize that there are other things that are important here and don’t get caught up in these little squabbles and blow them out of proportion,” Carson said, “and spend all of our time talking about that.”
In his Facebook post on Saturday, Carson wrote that he was pleased that Trump “overtly disavowed any relationship with white supremacists.”
“We should all reject the forces of division on all sides of the political spectrum,” he wrote. “There are radical terrorists in the world who want to destroy us and are coming dangerously close to acquiring the means to accomplish their goals.”
On Sunday, he criticized “political pundits for arguing about whether President Trump went far enough in condemning the instigators of the violence.”
(c) 2017, The Washington Post · Lisa Rein
{Matzav.com}
Yes, we should be be more sensible about not stirring up controversy. But…
But if, whether rightfully or not, the words of The President ultimately elicit violence of any sort, he may not say them. Chachomim hizaharu bedivraychem, means that when one is in a position of authority, he must choose his words carefully, and must beware even of people who take the words out of context, and make sure that the way he speaks, and the choice of words and expressions, doesn’t leave room to cause trouble.
Trump needs a ‘Hugh’ lesson in this.
Furthermore, When Trump received the ‘thank you’ from members of the alt right, it was incumbent upon him to clarify that he didn’t mean to say anything that could deserve a ‘thank you’ from those hate groups. He is far far from careful to make himself understood as a non racist. We, the Jews, have reason to be weary and worried of this, because Trump is, advertently or inadvertently as it may be, increasing antisemitism.
it was Obama who increased anti antisemitism by supporting the anti Israel wing of the democrat party by supporting Iran and by condemning Israel at every turn
Yes true. And now it’s trump increasing antisemitism in his very own special way. Two wrongs…