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DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARADVERTISER.COM
Sen. Brian Schatz, shown here at an election night party in Moiliili in November, disavowed President Donald Trump on Twitter today.
U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz declared on Twitter today that “This is not my President” after Donald Trump continued to blame “both sides” for the violence that led to the death of an anti-white-supremacist protester in Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday.
Trump, in a combative news conference in New York, repeatedly noted that liberal groups were also “very violent” while counter-protesting a white supremacist and neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville. One counter-protester, 32-year-old Heather Heyer, was killed and 19 were injured when a man allegedly plowed his car into a crowd demonstrating against the far-right rally. The driver, James A. Field Jr., is a 20-year-old Nazi sympathizer from Ohio.
In Manhattan’s Trump Tower today, the president railed against the news media for not reporting that counter-protesters and the “alt-left” were also violent at the rally. “There are two sides to a story,” he said.
Schatz, a Hawaii Democrat, tweeted this morning, “As a Jew, as an American, as a human, words cannot express my disgust and disappointment. This is not my President.”
As a Jew, as an American, as a human, words cannot express my disgust and disappointment. This is not my President.
— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) August 15, 2017
He added in another tweet, “There has to be room for people of all political stripes among the coalition of the sane. We all need to take our country back together.”
There has to be room for people of all political stripes among the coalition of the sane. We all need to take our country back together.
— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) August 15, 2017
Trump’s views today echoed his initial statement Saturday after the death. His initial statement caused widespread condemnation, even among fellow Republicans, because it was seen as attempting to equivocate racists with the people who opposed them. On Monday, in an attempt to tamp down the mounting criticism, Trump denounced the KKK and neo-Nazis as “thugs” and “criminals.”
But today in New York, the president repeated his Saturday statement which he described as “excellent.”
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