Politics

Pointed Darts: Mich. Lawmakers, Including GOP, React Sharply to Trump's Defiance

August 16, 2017, 9:41 AM by  Alan Stamm

Four Republicans in Michigan's delegation on Capitol Hill join Democratic colleagues from the state in sharply denouncing the president's latest comments on weekend violence in Charlottesville, Va.

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"You can't be a 'very fine person' and be a white supremacist," tweets Rep. Paul Mitchell, using President Trump's phrase and tagging @POTUS. Mitchell, elected last November on the same day as the president, is a Republican whose district includes part of Macomb County.

He and others react to Trump's renewed claims that "there is another side" to clashes at rallies staged by white supremacists.

"You had a group on one side that was bad, and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent," he said at a fiery, 23-minute news conference at the Trump Tower lobby in Manhattan.

"There's blame on both sides. And I have no doubt about it."

He added:

"You had a group on the other side [counter-protesters] that came charging in without a permit, and they were very, very violent.  . . .

"Not all of those people were White Supremacists, by any stretch. Those people were also there because they wanted to protest the taking down of a statue, Robert E. Lee. . . . They were people protesting very quietly the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee. . .  .

"You had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists. OK? And the press has treated them absolutely unfairly. . . . There are two side to a story."

[Two-minute video is below. Full transcript is here.]

That stretch to suggest moral equivalency between extremists and counter-protesters sparks a national outcry that dominated newscasts, social media and evening talk shows.

Michigan's two Democratic senators post these responses:

On the Republican side, these Michiganians in the House distance themselves from their party's figurehead:

The Michigan delegation's first Republican to push back is Rep. Fred Upton, who tweeted Friday night as the weekend rallies began in Virginia:

Among Democrats, these criticisms of the president are posted:

Lastly, this colorfully outspoken congressional veteran from western Wayne County also chimes in Tuesday with characteristic panache:



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