With a nuanced response, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson appears to have become the latest senior functionary to distance himself from President Donald Trump’s ambiguous reaction to the racial violence in Charlottesville.
Quizzed as to whether Trump’s comments blaming both white supremacists and counter-protesters for the August 12 violence represented “American values”, Tillerson told Fox News on Sunday: “The President speaks for himself.”
A fortnight after the Charlottesville episode in which a young woman was run over by a self-professed admirer of Nazi ideology, Trump continues to face a media storm over his comments, blaming “both sides” for what happened in the famous college town in Virginia.
“I have made my own comments as to our values,” Tillerson said, stressing: “We express America’s values from the State Department — our commitment to freedom, our commitment to equal treatment of people the world over. And that message has never changed.”
Days prior to his interview, Tillerson commented at a State Department event: “We do not honour, nor do we promote or accept, hate speech in any form. Those who embrace it poison our public discourse, and they damage the very country that they claim to love.”
Tillerson’s failure to defend Trump came close on the heels of the oblique criticism mounted by the President’s economic adviser Gary Cohn, who disclosed in a newspaper interview that he felt “enormous pressure” to resign following Trump’s response to the Charlottesville violence.
“This administration can and must do better in consistently and unequivocally condemning these groups and do everything we can to heal the deep divisions that exist in our communities,” Cohn told the Financial Times.
While stating that as a patriotic American, he was reluctant to leave his post, Cohn went on to say: “But I also feel compelled to voice my distress over the events of the last two weeks... Citizens standing up for equality and freedom can never be equated with white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the KKK.”
Tillerson, when asked about a United Nations statement indirectly criticising Trump’s comments, said, “I don’t believe
anyone doubts the American people’s values” or the Government’s commitment to them.
In contrast to Tillerson and Cohn, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin came to Trump’s aid days after the Charlottesville episode, commenting that “the President in no way, shape or form believes that neo-Nazi and other hate groups who endorse violence are equivalent to groups that demonstrate in peaceful and lawful ways”.