Trump says, “Racism is evil”, but his most vocal attacks are on press and executive who resigned from American Manufacturing Council

Developments on Day 207 of the Trump Administration:

See also Podcast: “Trump Has Crossed a Line With Charlottesville”

UPDATE: Trump Anti-Journalist Retweet Echoes Charlottesville Train-Ramming

Tweeting as he watched Fox and Friends on Tuesday morning, Donald Trump retweeted an image of a train running over a CNN journalist —- three days after a woman was killed and wounded in a car-ramming at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Trump soon deleted the retweet but not before it was captured by other users, including academic and analyst Brian Klaas:

Trump also mistakenly circulated the message of someone who called him a “fascist”, before deleting the retweet:

Meanwhile, Mark Heyer talks about his daughter Heather, the paralegal killed in the Charlottesville car-ramming: “A strong woman that had passionate opinions about the equality of everyone, and she tried to stand up for that. With her, it wasn’t lip service. It was real.”

Trump Bows to Pressure to Denounce Racism — But Raises More Questions

After two days of pressure, Donald Trump finally criticizes the violence and behavior of white supremacists in the weekend rally in Charlottesville.

Trump delivered a statement in a hastily-arranged appearance at the White House, after 10 days of vacation at his New Jersey golf club:

Racism is evil. And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.

The blunt words were meant to stem the political unrest stirred by Trump’s refusal on Saturday to challenge the white supremacists, who marched in military uniform with assault weapons, waved Confederate flags and swastikas, and paraded with Nazi-style salutes. The President even avoided any specific criticism after a car-ramming that killed one woman and injured 19 people, instead casting blame on “many sides”.

However, Trump appeared to undo any repair with his behavior at the White House and on social media. He reportedly insisted that the statement began with self-praise of his supposed achievements with the US economy. Later, he was testy with the press: responding to a questions about why he had not been forthright on Saturday, he repeated his allegation — made to CNN’s Jim Acosta, with whom he has often fought — of “fake news”.

In contrast to his frequest Twitter posts hailing his speeches and rallies, Trump initially made no reference highlighting Monday’s statement. Instead, both before and after the White House appearance, he assailed Kenneth Frazier, the head of Merck Pharmaceuticals and one of the US’s top African-American executives, for resigning from the American Manufacturing Council.

Frazier — one of three chief executives who left the AMC on Monday — said he was departing to protest Trump’s statement on Saturday.

The President responded:

In his only Twitter reference to Charlottesville, Trump ignored the content of his statement and again swung at his supposed enemies in the press: “Made additional remarks on Charlottesville and realize once again that the #Fake News Media will never be satisfied…truly bad people!”

He concluded his Twitter evening by retweeting Jack Posobiec, an alt-right polemicist notable for his spreading of false conspiracy theories such as “PizzaGate”, in an attempt to shift attention: “39 shootings in Chicago this weekend, 9 deaths. No national media outrage. Why is that?”

White supremacist leaders also suggested that Trump was not serious about the statement. Richard Spencer shrugged:

The statement today was more “kumbaya” nonsense. He sounded like a Sunday school teacher. I don’t think that Donald Trump is a dumb person, and only a dumb person would take those lines seriously.

Meanwhile, Kevin Plank, the head of Under Armour, and Brian Krzanich of Intel joined Merck’s Frazier in expressions of concern as they resigned from the American Manufacturing Council. Plank said he would “focus on inspiring & uniting through power of sport”.

Krzanich was more direct, without naming Trump. He said he would serve in government again when “those who have stood up for equality” are honored: “I resigned because I want to make progress, while many in Washington seem more concerned with attacking anyone who disagrees with them.”

EPA to Scrap Regulation of Wastewater from Coal-Fired Plants

The Environmental Protection Agency moves ahead with plans to eliminate an Obama-era measure limiting water pollution from coal-fired power plants.

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said Monday, in a letter for a legal appeal, that he will seek to revise the 2015 guidelines mandating increased treatment for wastewater.

Responding to electric utilities who opposed the stricter standards, Pruitt — a long-time critic of EPA regulations before taking over the agency — acted in April to delay implementation of the new guidelines.

Wastewater from the coal-fired plants into rivers and lakes typically contains traces of highly toxic heavy metals including lead, arsenic, mercury, and selenium.

The EPA has asked a court to freeze the 2015 guidelines while Pruitt rewrites them. Regulation will revert to a 1982 standard when far less was known about the detrimental effects of water pollution.

Seven months into Donald Trump’s Presidency, his campaign has released the first 30-second ad for his re-election in 2020. “Enemies” include the media, Democrats, and “career politicians”:

White Supremacist Site Daily Stormer Taken Off-Line

After claims that the hacktivist collective Anonymous took over the Daily Stormer, the outlet of white supremacists,the site subsequently disappears

A group claiming to be Anonymous announced the takeover on Monday, just after the site published a character assassination of the 32-year-old paralegal, Heather Heyer, killed in a car-ramming during the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday.

The hacktivists supposedly said that they would leave the content up for 24 hours so people could see the hatred being spread by the site, but that they would then erase it.

Daily Stormer was also threatened with closure as GoDaddy said that it would end hosting in 24 hours and Google subsequently refused its services. Reports then said the site’s operators would trying to get hosting from a Russian firm.

Some observers believe that the “takeover” was staged as a dramatic cover for the more prosaic demise of the site with the withdrawal of its hosting.

Whatever the cause, the site displays a “Connection Timed Out” message this morning: “We’re having an outage. it’ll be a minute.”

Justice Department Requests 1.3 Million IP Addresses Over Anti-Trump Protests

The Justice Department has requested 1.3 million IP addresses of visitors to a website used to organize protests against Donald Trump.

Dreamhost, the web hosting provider, said it has worked with Justice for several months over the request, but believes it goes too far under the Constitution.

Justice also asked for contact information, e-mail content and photos of thousands of visitors.