Hillary Clinton’s statement in response to an outbreak of violence at Republican Party front-runner Donald Trump’s Chicago rally was aimed at encouraging political unity. But instead, many reacted to her statement with disappointment.
“The divisive rhetoric we are seeing should be of grave concern to us all,” Clinton said in the statement issued after midnight on Saturday morning. “We all have our differences, and we know many people across the country feel angry.”
“We need to address that anger together,” she added.
Clinton then evoked the massacre in Charleston, South Carolina, which left nine African American churchgoers dead. She pointed to it as an example of how the country can overcome its divisions.
“The families of those victims came together and melted hearts in the statehouse and the Confederate flag came down,” Clinton said. “That should be the model we strive for to overcome painful divisions in our country.”
Trump was never mentioned in the statement itself. And unlike some of Trump’s Republican presidential rivals, who laid the blame for inciting violence squarely on his shoulders, Clinton avoided addressing Trump’s role at all.
The decision left some puzzled.
“Problematic use of Charleston. Why is racial healing always dependent on black forgiveness?” noted Chad Williams, chair of African and Afro-American Studies at Brandeis University.
Goldie Taylor, Editor-At-Large, at the Daily Beast, also took issue with the statement.
“Refusing to directly call out Trump is a problem,” she noted.
“Clinton’s response seems more concerned about the fact that protesters fought back than with the racism and nativism of Trump’s rallies,” added Eddie S. Glaude Jr., a professor of African American Studies at Princeton University.
Clinton’s response seems more concerned about the fact that protesters fought back than with the racism and nativism of Trump’s rallies.
Clinton has in the past called out Trump directly – from the stump and online – for campaigning on what she has called “bluster and bigotry.”
In recent weeks, she has used Trump as a foil for her own message, adding a line to her stump speech that plays off of Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again.”
“We don’t need to make America great again, we need to make America whole,” Clinton said.
As recently as this week, Clinton tweeted at Donald Trump blaming him for failing to denounce violence at his rallies.
“Condoning violence against protesters and press at your rallies is the real disgrace,” she tweeted.
.@realDonaldTrump: condoning violence against protesters and press at your rallies is the real disgrace. #GOPdebate
But while Friday night’s melee in Chicago prompted some conservatives, including Trump’s rival, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, to note the well-documented history of violence at Trump’s events, Clinton stayed silent on the issue.
“Tonight the seeds of division that Donald Trump has been sowing this whole campaign finally bore fruit, and it was ugly,” Kasich said in a statement.
(c) 2016, The Washington Post · Abby Phillip
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One Response
Hilary knows how far-left rioters undermined Hubert Humphrey, and resulted in Richard Nixon becoming president. For the Democrats, they need to disassociate themselves from political violence without out alienating the rank and file Democrats.