IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

Team Trump offers vague rebuke to white-supremacist gathering

Asked to condemn a white-supremacist gathering, Donald Trump's statement was vague and hollow. He treated "Saturday Night Live" quite differently.
Republican president-elect Donald Trump acknowledges the crowd during his election night event in the early morning hours of Nov. 9, 2016 in New York, N.Y. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty)
Republican president-elect Donald Trump acknowledges the crowd during his election night event in the early morning hours of Nov. 9, 2016 in New York, N.Y.

"President-elect Trump has continued to denounce racism of any kind and he was elected because he will be a leader for every American. To think otherwise is a complete misrepresentation of the movement that united Americans from all backgrounds."

If you're thinking this seems like a rather vague and hollow response given the circumstances, you're not alone. Asked to condemn a specific event, led by specific extremists, who made specific remarks, Team Trump chose to denounce racism in general -- saying literally nothing about Saturday's gathering or the movement the radicals comprise.MSNBC's Benjy Sarlin asked an excellent question last night: "Set aside politics or norms. If a bunch of racists are playacting Nazism in your name, isn't the natural response to be personally furious?"One would certainly like to think so. And yet, here we are.Put it this way: Trump seems entirely comfortable blasting "Saturday Night Live" for telling jokes at his expense, and the president-elect could hardly contain his outrage at the cast of "Hamilton" for urging Mike Pence to honor American principles of inclusion.But when alt-right activists spew racist garbage and make Nazi salutes at a gathering in the nation's capital, Trump prefers to keep his concerns vague and generalized.The Washington Post's Dana Milbank added, "The scenes seemed as if from another time and another place, but in Donald Trump's America, they are here and now. And if Trump doesn't do something more forceful to disown his neo-Nazi hangers on, they will continue their brazen march into the mainstream."