On Tuesday afternoon President Trump held a news conference in New York to speak about the events that occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia recently. Despite the fact that I am not an American citizen, I have been very on top of the situation in Charlottesville, since I am an international student at Liberty University, located in Lynchburg, Virginia. So, naturally, when I saw that President Trump would be answering questions about the events that had occurred in Charlottesville the last couple of days, I made a point of watching the whole Q&A. And I will not lie, I was extremely upset and even outraged at several statements that he made. Here are the top 3.
1. "Before I make a statement, I need the facts. Unlike most politicians, I do not like to make statements without first knowing the facts."
This was President Trump's response when he was asked why he took so long to address the situation in Charlottesville, and why it had taken him even longer to condemn the white supremacist and neo-Nazis who were violently protesting that day.
Now, I would not have had any problem with this statement had it been true, but almost everyone knows that President Trump is actually known for giving his opinion in the heat of the moment, and at times making offensive and untrue remarks.
So, when the same person who claimed that Obama did not have a birth certificate, or said that Jeb Bush spoke "Mexican", says that he likes to have all of the facts before making a statement, I am not particularly inclined to believe him.
2. "If the press were not fake", "I have created millions of jobs", "Shut up Fake News", etc.
Throughout his statement President Trump called the media fake every chance that he could, even telling a CNN reporter who was trying to ask him a question "Shut up Fake News". He also steered questions that were supposed to be about the situation in Charlottesville, and turned them into opportunities to boast about his accomplishments, such as creating "soon to be millions of jobs".
The thing that irritated me about this was the fact that he was making the whole situation about him, instead on focusing on actually trying to solve the problem in Charlottesville or to at least share his opinion and give the public insight about what is going on. It seems to me that if there are people on the streets carrying the Nazi flag, and running over innocent people with a car, the priority should not be to insult the media, but rather to try and deal with the very apparent problem.
3 "You had very fine people on BOTH sides...not all of the ones protesting that night in Charlottesville were white supremacists or neo-Nazis- some of them were protesting very quietly"
This was the statement that did it for me. I was honestly shocked at this statement. Now, I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I know that no one who is willing to march and protest alongside people who are carrying a Nazi flag or KKK members is "very fine". The Nazis were the authors of one of the darkest period of history, and they committed atrocities that our minds cannot even grasp, so whether these people declared themselves as neo-Nazis or not, the simple fact that they stayed and marched, and protested, and alongside people who admire Nazis and even held high the Swastika is enough for me to know that they are not good people that are, as President Trump said later on, "innocently protesting". And while I am aware that President Trump did say that he condemned neo-Nazis and white supremacists, I in no way agree that he should have defended those who agreed to march and protest alongside people who are in favor of, and are even willing to commit themselves to, violent acts of hate.
What happened in Charlottesville is not something to be taken lightly. It is not something that can, or should be, ignored, and it is something that should never be defended. In fact, it should be strongly condemned, and in no way justified, by every single person around the world, especially by the president of the United States. Now, more than ever, it is up to us, who in one way or another call the U.S. our home, to make sure that racism and hate does not prevail. It is up to us to show the neo-Nazis, the white supremacists, and anyone else who shares their way of thinking that there is NO place in the U.S. for violence, there is NO place in the U.S. for racism, and most importantly there is NO place in the U.S. for hate.
