Sidebar: TGIF 3/15/19

Yesterday's post was about hate, particularly white supremacist hate, which we tend to ignore much more than any other kind.

I wanted to point out a couple of things that are directly related both to yesterday's post, and to why this particular type of hate tends to be ignored.

First: I saw a couple of accounts (and you can watch here for yourself) about a request made by New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to president Trump. Her recounting was that Trump asked what offer of support the US could provide, and she asked him for "sympathy and love for all Muslim communities."

Below are three tweets the president sent about the white supremacist terrorist attack in Christchurch:

In between the first and second tweets about the attack, he tweeted about the "Jexodus" - a new term for me. According to Trump that's what you call it when Jews leave the Democratic Party and join the Republican Party. I'm sure he learned that on Fox News.

Other tweets and retweets yesterday, if my count is correct, included one about Google helping China but not the US; one about the Paris Accord; one about the economy; one about the weather in the Midwest: eight about the Mueller probe; and ten about immigration and his veto of the bill opposing the national emergency declaration to re-appropriate money for the border wall.

At no point did he do what Prime Minister Ardern requested. 

But wait - there's more. Or, less, really.

The president was asked yesterday, hours after the mosque attacks, two questions. First:

Do you see, today, white nationalism as a rising threat around the world? 

Here was his response:

I don't really. I think it's a small group of people that have very, very serious problems. I guess if you look at what happened in New Zealand, perhaps that's the case. I don't know enough about it yet. They're just learning about the person and the people involved. But it's certainly a terrible thing. Terrible thing. 

The second question?

...just one follow-up on New Zealand. The killer in this tragic incident wrote a manifesto apparently. Did you see that? Apparently he mentioned your name.

His response:

I did not see it. I did not see it. But I think it's a horrible event. It's a horrible thing. I was it early in the morning when I looked at what was happening in New Zealand. I just spoke, as you know, to the Prime Minister. I think it's a horrible, disgraceful thing and a horrible act. 

What's a disgraceful thing, in addition to the terrorist attack in New Zealand, as well as attacks  in America and around the world against Muslims, Sikhs, and yes, against Jews (because, as we know, when white supremacists chant, they chant against Jews), is that the American president himself speaks of "invasions" of immigrants, and tweets debunked claims about prayer rugs being found near the border, and his minions give us fake information about terrorists crossing our southern border, a claim so ridiculous that Chris Wallace called her out on it.

What's a disgraceful thing, in addition to all of that, is that the president thinks there are good people on both sides of this argument.

What's a disgraceful thing, in addition to all of that, is that the president hired not just Steve Bannon, but also Seb Gorka, to work on his campaign and/or in his administration.

A growing problem of extreme white supremacist terrorist and ideology, including a manifesto that mentions him by name? Nope, the president can't acknowledge it. He couldn't even say he was disgusted to think that his name would surface in such a horrible way as to be cited in a terrorist's manifesto.

Americans can, but the president can't.

Sympathy and love to all Muslim communities?  Nope. The president couldn't bring himself to do it.

Americans can, but the president can't.